The "eerie" house that Josh Duggar is currently staying in while awaiting his child pornography trial has left community members feeling uneasy.
The former reality TV star was sentenced to confinement with the Reber family, who are said to be family friends, earlier this year. He has since been living with them in the hills of Washington County, Ark., where there are just 1,071 citizens, and the atmosphere engulfing the home is oppressive, an eyewitness told Fox News.
"The area where the home is located is indeed desolate," the source said. "Very few cars passed through the neighborhood on Sunday."
People feel "uneasy" walking past the "hidden" home, where there was no activity and "tightly covered" windows with blinds, on Father's Day. This made it "more eerie on what was otherwise a beautiful, sunny Sunday in the Ozarks."
"I feel that before Josh's scandal the property was better taken care of than it is now," the onlooker added. "But I understand that a 24/7 babysitter of an adult probably doesn't have the time to keep a very manicured lawn."
The source described the property as "oppressive" with a certain "heaviness" that could be sensed when walking past it.
"The area is very isolated so it's obvious Josh doesn't have access to a lot of people," the witness said.
Duggar was arrested and charged in April. Prosecutors said he downloaded and possessed child pornography, some of which depicts the sexual abuse of children under the age of 12, in May 2019. Duggar pleaded not guilty and was granted release by a federal judge during a detention hearing held over Zoom, according to NBC.
U.S. District Judge Christy Comstock ordered that Duggar be banned from speaking to his children without his wife's supervision. He was also forbidden from using electronic devices and instructed to live in a residence that does not have any children.
"It’s not the average defendant who can operate in the black web and partition their computer and bypass sophisticated monitoring devices," U.S. District Judge Christy Comstock said to Duggar. "The evidence that the court has heard today is significant, and frankly, the victims of your crime — if you committed it — concern the court."
A trial date was scheduled for July 6 but Duggar's attorneys recently requested that it be delayed until February 2022. The request has yet to be approved or denied.
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Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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