Content warning: This story includes references to and descriptions of child sexual abuse.
Kampbell Hemeyer watched a little boy run out of the courtroom, pleading with court officers.
“I don’t want to, I don’t want to, I don’t want to go with Dad,” he cried.
The little boy’s well-worn Ninja Turtles shirt and light-up shoes were nothing like her dress pants and blazer. But when they locked eyes, Hemeyer saw herself in him. She no longer wanted to be in the courthouse. She didn’t want to face her abuser. For the first time, she turned to her mother and cried.
“My brain hadn’t fully grasped the concept of me being there quite yet,” said Hemeyer, who turned 18 not long before the trial. “I was about to face my abuser for the first time since everything happened, since before the investigation really got going. I just felt an immense feeling of how none of this is fair for children, kids who are surviving going through court.”
Hemeyer’s feelings about seeking justice are not unusual. In several cases reviewed by The Midwest Newsroom, offenders might not face legal consequences. Parents grapple with whether to report incidents, and survivors wonder if going to law enforcement with their accusations is worth it.
Hemeyer’s abuser, former volunteer gymnastics coach David Schneider, is at the South Central Correctional Facility in Licking, Missouri, where he is serving a 50-year prison sentence for four counts of child molestation and one count of attempted molestation.
The charges stem from his time as a gymnastics coach at the now-closed Kids in Motion gymnastics gym in Washington, Missouri, where he volunteered from 2011 to 2014. The gym was owned by Piper Hoemann.
The gym reopened at a new location and under a different name, Fitness Made Fun, in 2018. Its owner is Nadiana Peck, the previous owner’s daughter. Peck declined to answer questions from The Midwest Newsroom.
Hemeyer and other gymnasts accused Schneider of sexually abusing them during a stretching exercise known as “over splits,” where coaches assist gymnasts by straightening their legs and pushing down on the gymnasts’ hips to create a deeper stretch. Often, at least one leg is elevated during the over splits.
Hemeyer said she was around 10 years old when the sexual abuse began. She started at Kids in Motion when she was 8 years old and continued gymnastics until her freshman year of high school.
Schneider was safety certified by USA Gymnastics, the national governing body for the sport, and attended five clinics on upper-level spotting techniques, according to trial documents.
Schneider’s initial interview with the Washington (Missouri) Police Department about sexual abuse allegations was on Feb. 6, 2018. That same month, USA Gymnastics placed Schneider on its list of permanently banned former professional members, which means he is not eligible to coach at USAG member gyms or USAG meets.
The sanctions came a month after Larry Nassar, the disgraced former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor, was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison. Nassar pleaded guilty to seven counts of criminal sexual conduct and admitted to using his trusted position to assault and molest girls, many of them gymnasts and other athletes, under the guise of medical treatment.
When safeguards fail
Kids in Motion was affiliated and competed with USA Gymnastics until its membership ended when the gym closed. Coach or professional membership is required for participation and credentialing at USA Gymnastics-sanctioned events. Although coaches at member clubs are not required to be USA Gymnastics members, USAG member clubs are prohibited from allowing anyone on the banned list to coach in their club.
The federal Safe Sport Act of 2017 says that all adult members interacting with youth athletes are mandatory reporters. Any suspected child abuse, including sexual abuse, must be reported within 24 hours to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
During his trial, Schneider’s victims reported that for years, he repeatedly slid his hand down girls’ legs and into their shorts during these stretches. The abuse ranged from touching the inside of their shorts, over their leotards, to inside their leotards or even touching their genitals. He would say things like, “Sorry, hon,” to the girls, but make no effort to remove his fingers.
Before coaching Hemeyer and her fellow gymnasts, Schneider played a key role in establishing the swim program at the Four Rivers YMCA in Washington, Missouri, where he coached a team for over a decade. Additionally, he coached another swim team in Union, Missouri. In 2009 he served as the girls volleyball and soccer coach at Crosspoint Christian School in Villa Ridge, Missouri.
Delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and legal proceedings pushed the start of his trial to March 29, 2022. Two days later the Franklin County jury convicted Schneider on four counts of child molestation, and one count of attempted molestation.
Hemeyer was among those who testified against Schneider.
“Going on stand was hard,” Hemeyer said. “You’re being asked really, really tough questions and being asked by the defense about things that are supposed to trip you up, and you feel like you’re being victimized all over again.”
Silence or justice?
Danielle Schmidt placed her daughter in gymnastics at Kids in Motion when the child was 5 years old. Schmidt was a coach at the gym and even worked alongside Schneider on occasion. One day after practice, when her daughter was 8 years old, she told her mom she didn’t like it when coach Dave put her in the over splits. Schmidt asked why, and her daughter responded, “He touches me down there.”
The Midwest Newsroom is not using the daughter’s name because she is a sexual abuse survivor who does not want to be identified.
“She was absolutely devastated, mortified and angry with me because she did not understand why I had to tell on her,” Schmidt said. “Her biggest fear was that Dave was going to find out that she told on him. It wasn’t that he touched her, it was that he was going to be mad at her because she told on him.”
Schmidt called the owner of the gym, Hoemann, whose husband worked as a state trooper. She said Hoemann had Schmidt’s daughter show her exactly how Schneider was touching her.
Hoemann told Schmidt that her husband — the state trooper — said it wouldn’t be worth pursuing because the court would rule in favor of the coach, Schmidt said. The Midwest Newsroom could not reach Hoemann for comment.
A 2014 National Institute of Justice study of child sexual abuse investigations found anywhere from 22% to 47% of cases are declined by prosecutors. Further, the researchers found over 90% of cases involving allegations of sexual abuse of a minor did not continue to trial after details were analyzed by the prosecution. Some recent research has shown that while a small proportion of cases result in criminal charges, once charges are lodged, cases are actually much less likely to end in a dismissal.
Schneider has appealed his conviction. Bryan Mathews is the prosecutor currently assigned to the case.
“The difficulty in these cases is they happen behind closed doors or they’re one-on-one crimes, typically,” Mathews said. “It’s very, very seldom that we have a case where there is an eyewitness who can speak to the actual criminal acts that took place outside of these children.”
Like many parents, Schmidt wanted to protect her child from the ordeal of a trial, and from having to face her abuser.
“I had to decide whether I was going to put my 8-year-old on the stand all by herself against Dave,” Schmidt said. “The more I thought about it, the more I realized putting her, at 8 years old, on trial is probably going to be more emotionally devastating than the act itself.”
'No zones' and caution
Two weeks after Schmidt discussed her concerns with Hoemann, Hoemann sent a memo to the Kids in Motion staff titled “Molestation Policy.” The memo, reviewed by The Midwest Newsroom, listed positions to avoid, specifically that girls are not to be taken to do the over-splits stretch in a one-on-one setting.
Hoemann wrote in her memo to staff: “This gym has been subject to complaints and concerns with direct violations mandated or suggested in our policy. I admonish everyone to take these new policies very seriously. Accusations, whether true or false, can tear apart families, destroy reputations, and tear apart this program which we have tried so hard to build. The following revisions are put into my own words, so they can be better understood. Please understand these policies are for your own safety.”
The memo goes on to list “No zones” where gymnasts are to not be touched. It continued, “Male coaches be EXTREMELY cautious.”
Under Missouri law, Hoemann should have reported the abuse to police immediately after Schmidt told her what had happened to her daughter. Hoemann pleaded guilty in 2019 for misdemeanor failure to report child abuse.
“Because of your failure to report, (Schneider) was allowed to continue working with little kids,” Franklin County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Michael Hayes asked Hoemann during the trial. “Yes,” Hoemann responded.
'Not set up for children'
Ella Kroeter was 2 years old when she took her first “mommy and me” gymnastics class. She loved gymnastics. She was around 6 when Schneider became one of her coaches at Kids in Motion in 2012.
She said Schneider repeatedly put his hands up her shorts and touched her crotch area when she was a third-grader. She remembers telling one of the older girls, Hoemann’s daughter Gabrella, about the abuse.
“She (Gabrella) threatened me that if I ever said that again, I would be kicked off the team and out of the gym,” Ella said. “Gymnastics was everything to me, so I didn’t say anything else about it.”
On a December morning in 2017, as a news story aired on the family television about the Marshall Faulk sexual harassment case, Ella walked into the room and said, “It was like when coach Dave got fired for sticking his hands up our shorts doing the splits.”
The Marshall Faulk case involved Jami Cantor, a former NFL employee, filing a wrongful termination lawsuit claiming the former NFL star and other players had sexually harassed her.
This was the first that Jennifer Kroeter, Ella’s mother, had heard about Schneider sexually abusing her daughter.
Ella went to school that day, but her parents stayed home from work to discuss the next steps to take. They called Hoemann and set up a meeting with her to discuss the abuse. Hoemann wouldn’t meet them inside the gym, Kroeter said. Instead, the meeting took place by storage units in the parking lot.
Standing in the cold that day, Ella (by that time, around age 12) told Hoemann her story. According to Jennifer Kroeter, Hoemann asked a few questions and told the family she would get back to them in a week.
“I didn’t have the guts to go to the police that night,” Jennifer Kroeter said. “I was too worried about how it was going to affect her. Once we did, and I saw how it played out, it wasn’t pretty.”
A week passed, and the family heard nothing from Hoemann, Kroeter said.
Christmas of 2018 came and went. Ella returned to school from break, and while her parents were mulling over what to do, she went to the school counselor, Shelly Struckhoff. Ella told Struckhoff everything that happened, and as a mandated reporter, Struckhoff contacted police.
“It was like a huge relief, because we just didn’t know what to do,” Jennifer Kroeter said. “We were just like, ‘Oh my God, why didn’t we just do this two weeks ago?’ We were agonizing, asking ourselves, ‘Do we want to put our daughter through this?’”
Jennifer and her husband, Matt Kroeter, both teachers and mandated reporters, have encountered children sharing confessions they were required to report. Jennifer Kroeter has witnessed firsthand how these experiences often fail to deliver the outcomes the children and their loved ones hoped for.
“The system is not set up to cater to the victims. It’s set up for the defendants. And there were times when I felt like we were the ones doing something wrong."Jennifer Kroeter, parent
The couple grappled with exposing Ella to the extreme stress of a trial, possibly for nothing.
City of Washington detective Lt. Steve Sitzes was a co-investigator on the case. He said children who testify about abuse face a lot of struggles long after their cases are over. They are often labeled as victims, a title that stays with them throughout high school and even college.
Survivors in the Larry Nassar case have spoken about the relationship they have with the word “victim.” This label was used to define them during the case, and sticks with many of them today.
“You never want to tell a parent that they’re wrong for not letting their child testify,” Sitzes said. "In a small town like this, everybody knows everybody else’s business. Parents have to ask themselves, ‘Do you want that known?’”
In cases with no physical evidence, juries rely on victim statements to come to a verdict. In the case against Schneider, each girl gave nearly identical testimony. Court records show girls from different classes and ages, many who didn’t know each other, all described the abuse in the same way.
“After going through the trial, I am thankful that I didn’t do it when (my daughter) was 8,” Danielle Schmidt said. “He would have walked free if she was by herself. He would have gotten away with it. So in the end, it was a blessing that I waited and that the numbers had stacked up once the girls were aware and together.”
A team, again
Although the trial came years after the abuse, testifying brought up emotions and memories that took the girls right back to when they were in the gym with Schneider.
“I just felt an immense, intense feeling of how none of this is fair for children,” Hemeyer said. “You don’t really know what to expect and you don’t know how hard it’s going to be, going in this room with these officials who are in these robes and look scary, facing really sad situations in your life. And it just felt so unfair to me and to all the girls who were affected by him.”
The trial was a heavy time for all parties involved, but alongside the Schmidt family fighting for justice for their daughter, they were grieving the death of their 12-year-old son. Schmidt and other parents had to take the stand.
“I knew in the back of my mind that they were going to put me on the stand and rip me apart. I was emotionally vulnerable. I was mentally vulnerable. I was grieving and I knew I was going to be the one that they were going to try and mentally manipulate to win the case. I was terrified,” Schmidt said.
Sitzes said that ultimately, it was the girls’ testimony that led to Schneider’s conviction. In addition to telling their stories, the girls had to demonstrate what the abuse looked like on dolls.
"It took a lot of courage to get up there and tell your story in front of a courtroom full of people. It really did."Lt. Steve Sitzes, City of Washington detective
Today, the gymnasts who testified still experience psychological effects from the sexual abuse they experienced as children.
“It created trust issues with some of my male coaches, all males, really,” Ella Kroeter said.
An excerpt from Kampbell Hemeyer’s victim statement shows just how deeply Schneider’s abuse affected her.
“I look back at my naive self and I am filled with pity for that little girl. I was roughly 10 years old at the time, and ever since then, my view of physical touch, intimacy, and self-worth is different, wounded if you will, by Dave Schneider’s actions. My view on the world has been altered, and my life has never been the same.”
“It’s like there’s a part of me that’s dead inside despite my efforts in ignoring it and convincing myself that I am stronger than my past. A part of me that Coach Dave killed. The part that should embrace the affection shown by loved ones feels damaged; instead of feeling the love they have for me, I feel nervous and anxious at their initial touch.”
Hemeyer said despite these life-altering events, the survivors want to inspire others to get justice from their own abusers.
“Try not to be scared and be a voice for other victims,” Ella said. “Get your voice out there; speaking about it helped lift a weight off my shoulders.”
Hemeyer brought up a quote to finish her victim statement: “Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.”
If you need help or support:
There are many resources available for survivors of sexual abuse, harassment, assault or domestic violence. Here are two national resources:
- RAINN, or the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network, hotline: Call 800-656-4673.
- The National Domestic Violence Crisis hotline: Use the website or call 800-799-7233.
The Midwest Newsroom is an investigative and enterprise journalism collaboration that includes Iowa Public Radio, KCUR, Nebraska Public Media, St. Louis Public Radio and NPR.
There are many ways you can contact us with story ideas and leads, and you can find that information here.
The Midwest Newsroom is a partner of The Trust Project. We invite you to review our ethics and practices here.
METHODS
To tell this story, reporter Gabrielle Lindemann viewed publicly available documents regarding the David Schnieder case including court opinions, police records and trial transcriptions. She interviewed survivors of sexual abuse and parents of survivors for over a dozen hours. She spoke with experts regarding child sexual abuse and youth sports. This story draws on interviews and documents collected for over two years.
REFERENCES
“Former gymnastics coach David Schneider sentenced to 50 years in state prison for child molestation” (The Missourian | June 1, 2022)
“Permanently Ineligible and Ineligible Members and Participants” (USA Gymnastics | continuously updated)
Larry Nassar sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for decades of sexual abuse
(CNN | Jan. 24, 2018)
Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017
(Congress.Gov | March 6, 2017)
National Criminal Justice Reference Survey
(NJRS | March 2019)
Marshall Faulk case
(New York Times | Dec. 12, 2017)
David Schneider Case Header
(Casenet | Updated continuously)
Trial documents: Trial transcription, Schneider appeal opinion, memo from Kids in Motion, official charging documents
TYPE OF ARTICLE
News: Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources
