At least nine male members of the colony sprayed a veterinary sedative through window screens to render whole households unconscious.
The series of mystery attacks were thus initially attributed to Satan, demons, or phantoms; a popular name for the crimes is ghost rapes of Bolivia.
A culture of modesty, privacy and/or secrecy initially prevented victims from communicating about their experiences, even amongst household members and families.
[2] The men arrested,[clarification needed] with their ages in 2009:[5] The veterinarian who supplied the anesthetic gas, Peter Wiebe Wall, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
[4] The "ghost rapes of Bolivia" may be part of a larger pattern of systemic sexual and incestual abuse within the Mennonite Old Colonies.