The Boy in the Box | Paul Martin Andrews

In 1973, a boy spent 8 days in a box in the woods after being kidnapped by a serial rapist.

Paul Martin Andrews was just 13 years old when he had the misfortune of meeting 33-year-old Richard Alvin “PeeWee” Ausley. On January 11th of 1973, Martin was walking to a convenience store in Portsmouth, Virginia, when Ausley stopped him. The older man pulled up to Martin in a blue Ford van. He offered the child cash if he could help him move some furniture and some groceries at his brother’s deer box. Martin agreed and got into the van. Ausley introduced himself as PeeWee to the boy.

Little did Martin know, he would not be going to anyone’s home. Instead, Ausley drove down a dirt road close to a swamp called Dismal Swamp. The road that the abductor had intended to take was chained off. They abandoned the van and began a short trek into the woods.

Ausley led Martin to a deer box that was built underground. He claimed this was so his brother could hide while hunting for deer. The box was about 4 feet high, 4 feet wide, and 8 feet long, and made of plywood. Martin followed Ausley into the box to help him lift out supplies.

Once inside the box, Ausley threatened Martin with a 12-inch knife, telling him he had been kidnapped. He then made Martin strip completely and lie on his stomach. He covered the boy in Vaseline and sexually assaulted him. Martin would later say that he was sexually assaulted four times that first day.

This continued for eight days. Ausley, also, beat Martin causing two black eyes, a broken nose, and a broken tooth. When Ausley would leave, he would tie Martin up to make sure he could not run away. He tied his feet and tied his hands behind his back with wire.

To try to protect himself, Martin did engage in conversation with Ausley. He hoped that talking with the man would prevent him from continuing to sexually assault him. Unfortunately, his efforts did not help. Martin was quoted to say, “I was afraid he was going to kill me. You just never know what was going to set him off.”

Ausley did occasionally let Martin out of the underground box. He was allowed out to cook some food and sometimes had campfires and explored the woods. Ausley would threaten the child, though. He had threatened him not to run away and told the child that he would hang him from a tree with a chain and beat him.

Days later, two rabbit hunters heard Martin’s screams and found the box. The hunters could hear his screams from their truck. They jumped out and ran to the box. Thankfully, Ausley was away from the box at the time. The hunters called the police and a rescue squad came out to free the boy. Once out of the box, Martin was taken straight to Obici Memorial Hospital where his mother worked as a nurse. Martin had been in the deer box for eight days.

Martin would go on to identify his abuser in a line-up. It would turn out that this had not been Ausley’s first crime. Ausley was scheduled to appear in court on the day that he had kidnapped Paul Martin Andrews. He was being charged with sodomy involving a 14-year-old boy. He was on parole for abducting and sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy in 1961. He had already served 10 years for that offense. He had, also, committed two other offenses before 1961.

Ausley would be found guilty of abduction and sodom. He was sentenced to nearly 48 years in prison. He tried to play the victim, claiming Martin wanted to be with him. He went so far as to say, “My life is over. Marty saw to that. I will be his victim for the rest of my life or his.”

In 2002, he was up for mandatory parole. Ausley had claimed that his “past is the past and that’s where it’s going to stay.” His argument would not be enough to get him out. Martin Andrews went public with his story to make sure his attacker did not get released. Martin stated, “This man is a monster. He preys on children. This is someone who raped and kidnapped and beat a child who’s 13-years-old and buried him in the ground and left him there to die….”

Martin’s story would lead to Gary Founds coming forward to share his own. In 1972, he had been sexually assaulted by Ausley when he was just 14 years old. Founds saw Martin on the news supporting a new law, the Civil Commitment of Sexually Violent Predators Act, that would allow for violent, predatory sex offenders who were found to still be a danger to be committed to an institution following their imprisonment. He said he thought it was too late to come forward, but there is no statute of limitations in Virginia for Ausley’s crimes. After pleading no contest, Ausley would have an additional 5 years added to his sentence for his crimes against Founds.

In January of 2004, Ausley was found dead in his prison cell. His cellmate had strangled him to death after he had warned prison officials not to place him in a cell with a child molester. Dewey Keith Venable, Ausley’s cellmate, had been molested as a child, himself.

Paul Martin Andrew’s recovery from the abuse Ausley had inflicted on him was not an easy one. His parents sent him to counseling. He would briefly be sent to a psychiatric hospital. Martin would tell his doctor that he was afraid to be left alone with any man, his father included. Martin was aware that his fear was irrational. He did slowly begin to heal and moved away from the area after high school. He would go on to become an advocate for rape survivors and sexual predator laws, like the one from the early 2000s.

Years later, while looking at a photo rescuers had taken of him in the box, he would say “That picture tells a lot about what I had been through. The blackened eyes, and broken nose … he stole my youth and soul. He stole my innocence. He stole a lot from me … damage done to my soul emptiness in my eyes … the boy that came home was not the boy who left that day.”