What
became an expansive investigation into decades of child rape began last
year when a man moving into a Pennsylvania mobile home found lurid
descriptions of sexual abuse scrawled on a piece of forgotten plywood.
The
authorities in Bucks County said on Monday that investigators tied the
plywood to a handyman who had helped renovate the home, and later
discovered evidence suggesting many more young victims stretching back
about 40 years. The handyman, William C. Thomas, 58, was charged with 13
counts of various sex crimes; prosecutors said more counts were
possible.