DELAWARE, Ohio - A former Delaware County resident who fled to Germany rather than face rape charges was sentenced yesterday to up to 95 years in prison. Frank Hertel Sr., 51, already is serving a 20-year sentence in Arizona on similar charges. He will begin serving the Ohio sentence of 19 to 95 years while he serves his time in Arizona.

DELAWARE, Ohio � For years, Heather Orr�s dad sexually abused her, telling her he was �teaching her� how to express love. For years, in both Delaware County and Arizona, her family tried to keep her quiet.

By the time Arizona authorities put her father, Frank K.C. Hertel on trial, Orr was 18 and struggling to deal with abuse that started when she was 3.

But before the trial began, Hertel vanished.

For the next nine years, he and his wife � Orr�s mother, Judy Hertel � lived a secret life in Germany, using his brother�s identity to take out loans from the German government to run a bar and grill. They kept their son � Heather�s brother � from talking to her.

And during that time, she lived in fear.

She married, but had trouble trusting her husband. She went to therapy. She had children, but wouldn�t let her husband bathe their infant daughter or change her diapers.

Hertel, Orr said yesterday in Delaware County Common Pleas Court, �robbed me of feeling safe in this world.�

Then one day in 2009, she typed Hertel�s name into a Google search. An article about his father, who shares the same first and last name, came up. Her grandfather had been arrested at Heathrow Airport in London, charged with avoiding than $1.2 million in taxes owed the Canadian government.

A few people had commented at the bottom of the story about the Hertel family, and Orr thought they might know where her dad had been hiding. She sent a few emails, and replies flooded back.

Some of the commenters knew her dad. Orr found a link to the bar and grill, and contact information for its owners. Then, someone sent her a photograph of the restaurant. Her brother was standing out front.

Orr was elated.

�It was exhilarating,� she said yesterday, after a court hearing that saw Hertel sentenced to serve between 19 and 95 years in prison for assaulting her in Ohio.

Hertel extradited back to the United States and in 2012 he was convicted in Arizona and sentenced to 20 years for child molestation.

Yesterday, Orr, now 31, faced him again in Ohio.

Flanked on one side by her husband and on the other by the friend she first told about the abuse back in the 8th grade, Orr stared straight ahead as Hertel, 51, told Judge Everett Krueger how sorry he was for the abuse.

�It�s not the life that I wanted my daughter to have,� Hertel said through sobs. �I wanted her life to be perfect.�

Delaware County Prosecutor Carol O�Brien said she did not believe Hertel�s apologies. Hertel is appealing his conviction and sentence in Arizona, and O�Brien said she expects he will appeal in Ohio, too.

Hertel pleaded guilty on Monday to three counts of rape and two counts of gross sexual imposition, saying then that he was pleading to give his daughter closure.

O�Brien said if he really wanted closure for Orr, he would not continue his appeals.

Krueger sentenced Hertel to between 19 and 95 years, and said the time Hertel serves in Arizona will apply to that sentence. That means Hertel could be released from prison in Ohio after he serves his 20 years in Arizona. The Ohio Parole Board will decide whether to release him, O�Brien said.

Orr, who agreed to having her name published, detailed in court yesterday what the assaults had done to her. She fights depression, and struggles to trust men. She has no relationship with her mother, who sided with Hertel.

She has been vocal about her experiences, and is writing a book about her life. Other victims of sexual abuse have contacted her to tell her their stories.

Orr said she fights every day to be happy.

�I have lost my entire family,� Orr said. �I often wonder, if I hadn�t found him, what would have happened.�

larenschield@dispatch.com

@larenschield