Misty wrote her memoir to raise awareness about child abuse and sexual assault cover up among the Amish and other strict religious groups. Misty Griffin is the author of her best selling memoir Tears of the Silenced.

If you have read Scared Selfless, A Child Called It, The Sound of Gravel, or Etched In Sand, then Tears of the Silenced is a must read.

Today, I am a nursing student working towards my master's degree and a child abuse awareness activist. To all abuse survivors out there, please be encouraged, the cycle of abuse can be broken. After reporting the bishop I left the Amish and found myself plummeted into the strange modern world with only a second-grade education and no ID or social security card. After I was assaulted by the bishop I knew I had to get help and one freezing morning in early March I made a dash for a tiny police station in rural Minnesota. As Misty recalls, 'Amish sexual abusers are only shunned by the church for six weeks, a punishment that never seems to work. A few years later, Misty was sexually assaulted by the bishop. Going to the police was severely frowned upon. Misty was devastated to once again find herself in a world of fear, animal cruelty and sexual abuse. They also knew that no rescue would ever come because only a couple of people even knew they existed and did not know them well enough to care.Īmish Sexual abuse: When Misty reached her teens, her parents feared she and her sister would escape and took them to an Amish community where they were adopted and became baptized members. Their step-father kept a loaded rifle by the door at all times to make sure the young girls were too terrified to try to escape. Misty and her sister were kept as slaves on a mountain ranch where they were subjected to almost complete isolation, sexual abuse and extreme physical violence. Misty Griffin's story ─ Surviving child abuse, parental betrayal, sexual assault, and Amish cruelty.Ī true crime memoir: When Misty was six years old her family started to live and dress like the Amish.

Tears of the Silenced by Misty Griffin