Food given to Idaho children; standoff continues

Aerial photos around the McGuckin family home

SANDPOINT, Idaho (CNN) -- Sheriff's deputies Friday delivered food and water to the five remaining children holed up in a rural Idaho home with guns and vicious dogs.

The children are refusing to talk to deputies, even after a sixth sibling turned himself in a day earlier, said Bonner County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Robert Rahn.

Rahn said deputies are "trying several things" to end the four-day stalemate, but he would not comment further on their strategy.

Rahn said the mother, JoAnn McGuckin, 45, who remains in jail on $100,000 bond on a charge of felonious injury to children, was still "not cooperative" and would not be brought to the home to try to talk to the children.

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A bail reduction hearing for the mother was postponed after a storm knocked out power to the court.

Rahn said 15-year-old Benjamin -- who left the homestead Thursday and was now in protective custody -- was cooperating with authorities. He is assisting them with the types of weapons the children might have and other conditions inside the home, said Rahn.

Benjamin was one of six children originally thought to be holed up in the family's home near Garfield Bay in a standoff that began Tuesday with the arrest of their mother. The father, Michael McGuckin, died about two weeks ago after being bed-ridden for several years with multiple sclerosis, Rahn said.

Peaceful resolution sought

The mother's attorney, Bryce Powell, said he and his client were working with authorities on ways to resolve the standoff peacefully.

"It's a very volatile situation. We're trying to handle it the best we can," he said.

Powell said the mother and children have gone through an excruciating ordeal since their father died. He said the family is "extremely poor," and that the mother had trouble getting Social Security payments in recent weeks. Powell also said the family’s water well broke and they couldn't afford to get it fixed.

"They had no money and were doing what they could to survive," he said.

Five children are still believed to be in the home: Kathryn, 16, Mary, 13, James, 11, Frederick, 9, and Jane, 8. It was not clear when Benjamin left the house. He approached a neighbor's house Thursday and they then contacted authorities.

The children released as many as 27 dogs on sheriff's deputies when they tried to take them into protective custody Tuesday after the mother's arrest. Neighbors said the children were afraid their family would be split up if they gave themselves up to police.

Edgar Steele, who claims to be the McGuckin family attorney, said Benjamin had "been walking around in the woods for two days."

Mother's attorney warns militias off

In Washington, the FBI said bureau hostage negotiators and behavioral science specialists have offered to help Bonner County authorities deal with the standoff. But it said it does not have any personnel at the scene and does not expect to become involved beyond offering advice.

Federal involvement could be a point of contention. Steele said the standoff has attracted the attention of anti-government groups, and Internet reports say some members of such groups are moving into northern Idaho in response to the standoff.

"Now some of these people, I've seen some of the Internet reports, seem to think somehow that this is another Ruby Ridge in the making," Steele said.

Powell, the mother's attorney, said intervention by militia groups would not help the situation.

Ruby Ridge was the 1992 shootout in Idaho in which the wife and son of white separatist Randy Weaver were killed during a standoff with federal agents.

Conditions at the McGuckin homestead have been a point of contention. It was initially described as having no water or electricity. The sheriff's office has since said it believes the home has some sort of running water and that electricity had been run to the house at some point in recent years.