What to Know
Many fans were totally shocked to find out that both Joseph Duggar and his soft spoken wife, Kendra, had been arrested last week, and it turns out that they’re not the only ones. According to the couple’s neighbors, who spoke to People this week, nobody saw this coming — especially when it comes to Kendra, who turned herself in at the Washington County jail on Friday afternoon.
Joseph and Kendra were arrested for charges stemming from separate incidents last week.
On March 18, Joseph was arrested after he was accused of molesting a 9-year-old girl while on a family vacation in Florida in 2020, at which point he was charged with “lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim less than 12 years.” He is still being held by Washington County in his home state of Arkansas as he awaits extradition to Bay County in Florida.
Two days later, on March 20, Joseph was hit with more charges totally separate from the incident in Florida, and his wife, Kendra, is now facing identical ones: four counts of endangering the welfare of a minor in the second degree and four counts of false imprisonment in the second degree. Earlier this week, an insider told People that these charges were related to locks being kept on the exterior of doors in the couple’s home.
Neighbors are “shocked” as they watch this play out.
Since Joseph and Kendra seemed to be a pretty unassuming couple, neighbors are really thrown for a loop that they’re both at the center of a scandal as serious as this one.
One of their neighbors, whose name is Karen, told People, “They seemed nice. I’m shocked over what I heard about him. It is very sad.”
Another neighbor, Courtney McKinney, told the outlet that she was already familiar with Kendra and Joseph from the Duggars’ TLC reality shows, which made it even more surprising to find out what was allegedly going on in their family.
“I remember watching the show and thinking what a godly family. Now I go, ‘you don’t know what is going on in people’s lives,'” she said, adding, “The wife being arrested is pretty shocking to me.”
For now, it seems like the Duggars are looking out for Kendra.
After spending just a couple of hours at the jail after turning herself in on Friday, Kendra was released on bail, with her mother-in-law, Michelle Duggar, picking her up. There’s no word on whether or not Kendra’s parents, Paul and Christina Caldwell, are helping her during this time, though they do live locally in Arkansas (and reportedly had a falling out with the Duggars years ago).
Kendra shares four young children with Joseph, though it’s not clear if the kids are remaining with their mother or are staying elsewhere as their parents’ cases progress.
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