This Little Girl Died Just Hours Before She Was to Testify Against Her Rapist, Still No One Charged in Her Death

It has been over a month since little 10-year-old Corinne Gump died in a Youngstown, Ohiohouse fire just hours before she was set to testify against her rapist.

Still, no arrests have been made.

Corinne had been living with her grandparents, Bill and Judy Schmidt, at the time of the fatal fire after her mother, Lynn Schmidt, had abandoned the little girl there and decided to move back in with Corinne’s alleged rapist, Robert Seman.

On the night before the trial of Seman for raping the grade schooler, Lynn remained at Seman’s home. Corinne stayed with her grandparents.

By early morning, little Corinne and the Schmidts were dead.

Without Corinne’s testimony the rape trial against Seman set to begin that day was also up in the air.

In the meantime, Seman showed up to court as expected  for the trial with burns hidden with makeup. The burns would later be revealed when he showered in jail.

Seman’s bail was immediately revoked by the judge as soon as he heard what happened to Corinne. Despite community speculation Lynn was involved and she was found at Seman’s home the next day, Corinne’s mom was not arrested.

Since then, Seman, has also faced additional charges for trying to bribe a witness - his own ex-wife – into saying Corinne was lying and the abuse did not take place.

Police also have searched Gump’s home and placed into evidence those strange burns Gump was found to have on his body when he showered in jail days after the fire.

Yet, still there are no charges filed directly relating to Corinne’s or her grandparent’s death.

Arson investigators have said these things take time and results from evidence they sent to the lab are due back in a week or so.

Corrine’s stepmother Lisa Cappitti doesn’t doubt the authorities in Youngstown are doing their job. Like the rest of Corinne’s family and the people of Youngstown, they just want justice for the little girl.

“It consumes your whole mind. You want justice for her,” Cappitti said.“Definitely we want justice for her and we want to keep her name out there. We want to push as many issues for sexual abuse for any child that is going through this because you have to speak out, you have to tell somebody, and Corrine was very brave.”

Photo Credit: Screenshot/Corinne Gump, Screenshot/Lynn Schmidt, File Photo/Robert Seman