The bizarre case began on Dec. 28, when Esposito tearfully told police that Katie had vanished from a video arcade where he had taken her on an outing. That afternoon a message was left on Katie’s godmother’s answering machine, with Katie screaming, “I’ve been kidnapped by a man with a knife and oh, my God, here he comes!” Police determined that Katie’s voice had been recorded earlier, and the mystery only deepened as they learned more about Katie’s home life, which seemed almost as heartbreaking as her prison.
Katie had spent most of her 10 years shuttling between her poor, unemployed mother, Marilyn Beers, and her godmother, Linda Inghilleri. Neighbors said Katie spent long hours on the street running errands for Inghilleri, who is in a wheelchair. The Beers’s home was reportedly filthy; Katie didn’t know her father. She was frequently absent from school, and neighbors called her the “roach girl.” Child-welfare workers already had a thick file on Katie last fall when Inghilleri’s husband was arrested on charges of sexually abusing her. He pleaded not guilty, claiming that Marilyn Beers invented the charge while battling Linda for Katie’s custody.
As more sordid details emerged, police increasingly suspected Esposito-especially after learning that he had pleaded guilty to false imprisonment of a boy in 1978. Katie’s 16-year-old brother, John, told police Esposito had sexually abused him years ago. (He denies it.) Esposito did befriend many children over the years and advertised his services as a “big brother,” though the Big Brother organization had rejected him. The 43-year-old contractor who never married also had a child’s paradise behind his Bay Shore home, with a pool, a deck and a basketball court, where kids often played.
Apparently Esposito grew weary of the constant police surveillance. Last week he called attorneys, then told authorities he knew where Katie was. Police were stunned as he led them through the labyrinth concealing Katie’s prison, rolling back first a built-in cabinet, then a rug, a layer of linoleum and a 200-pound concrete slab to reveal a narrow shaft leading seven feet down. Through a crawl space and more doors was a small room where Katie was held in a tiny loft suspended from the ceiling, with only a TV and a red-stained mattress. Police said she was in “Surprisingly good spirits” when they found her; Esposito had brought her food and sometimes let her use an unconnected toilet. Katie had watched over closed-circuit TV as police searched the house on New Year’s Eve, but no one could hear her, police said. Full details were not yet revealed, but Varrone said Esposito had shoved Katie, screaming, into the dungeon after she rejected his advances: “It’s my belief that at many times the girl was absolutely horrified.”
Esposito, who was held on $500,000 bond, pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping. His lawyers said he maintained that Katie had gone into the cell willingly to hide from her family. He also denied taking other kids there, but police planned to compare the confiscated photos with those of other missing children. Dogs sniffed and bulldozers stood ready to demolish the house if necessary. Katie was temporarily placed in a foster home; her mother was seeking to regain custody, and offers of toys, money and adoption poured in from around the country. Psychologists said it might be years before Katie recovered from her ordeal. But then she’s already had 10 years’ experience as a survivor.
