By CLAIRE OSBORN
Austin American-Statesman
July 29, 1997

A 34-year-old man was indicted this month on charges he sexually assaulted two boys and committed indecency with a third boy while he was an employee at a youth camp outside Kerrville .

Mark Daniel Shellenberger was a house parent at the Hill Country Youth Ranch when he allegedly committed the offenses from 1992 to 1995, said Donnie Coleman, Kerr County assistant district attorney.

The ranch has a contract with the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services to provide facilities for boys and girls who have been removed from their families, Coleman said.

Shellenberger, who worked at the youth facility for four or five years until he was terminated from his position in 1995, was a house parent in a boys cabin called ``Sam's Cabin'' when the assaults allegedly happened, authorities said.

Coleman said Shellenberger was fired for ``improper contact with a child.''

All three of the victims were younger than 13, Coleman said.

Shellenberger is accused of sexually assaulting two of the boys several times, Coleman said.

``We have no idea of how many children he may have had inappropriate contact with, because the boys are all over the state now,'' Coleman said.

Investigators found out about the alleged assaults at the beginning of March after someone who knew Shellenberger reported hearing him talk about what he had done with the boys at the ranch, Coleman said.

He is being held in the Collin County Jail north of Dallas on a separate charge of possession of child pornography.