KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — Air Force officials refused to say this week whether they believe there are more victims of convicted child rapist Staff Sgt. Joshua Adam Smith, saying that information could not be disclosed because the case is still open.

If the Air Force Office of Special Investigations "or anyone suspects there are more victims, that information would be part of the ongoing investigation process and not releasable until the case is officially closed," Linda Card, an AFOSI spokeswoman at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, said in a written response to Stars and Stripes.

Air Force officials at Ramstein, citing "the ongoing investigation," also would not say whether they notified the community after discovering Smith was a child predator in an effort to find potential victims.

No more alleged victims have come forward to Family Advocacy at Ramstein, a social worker there said Wednesday.

"We were poised for that, if anyone did have these concerns," said Capt. Erika Best, Family Advocacy officer. Once the news broke, the office expected people would call "concerned that he had interaction with their children," she said, "but we haven't gotten any."

Smith, 27, was sentenced to life in prison without parole at a court-martial at Ramstein Air Base on Friday. He pleaded guilty to 18 federal criminal counts, including multiple specifications of raping and molesting three girls, two of them preschool age. He trolled for his victims online and duped parents in the Kaiserslautern military community into hiring him by providing fake references and using an alias to promote himself as a trustworthy baby sitter, according to court testimony.

Smith was arrested April 30 after one of his victims, a 7-year-old girl whom Smith had baby-sat four times, told her parents about Smith, about two weeks after he last cared for her in early April.

The other victims were 3 and 4 years old, but information about how investigators identified them has not been made public.

The parents of Smith's victims don't have inside knowledge of the OSI investigation.

"I don't know if there are more victims," said the 7-year-old's mother in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes. "Although I suspect there must be."

Investigators, she said, didn't tell her much.

"I have unanswered questions that I think they could answer," she said. "Maybe they can't [tell me]."

The mother of the 3-year-old victim also suspects that there are more victims. "He was highly into pornography and taking pictures, and I know he had other pictures besides" the three victims, she said in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes.

During Smith's court-martial, military prosecutors revealed there is an investigation in Michigan looking into allegations that Smith raped one of his family members when he was 17, before he entered the Air Force.

Prosecutors also said during the trial that investigators were unable to open multiple encrypted media devices belonging to Smith.

Card would not say whether any charges were pending against Smith based on OSI's investigation. But OSI would have investigated Smith's previous Air Force assignments, she said.

"They would have checked anywhere he's been," she said.

Before he arrived at Ramstein in December 2007, Smith's assignments included Incirlik Air Base in Turkey and Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

Social workers are available to offer counseling and intervention for families who do call, Best said.

Family Advocacy offered free counseling to the victims and their families in the Smith case, she said. The sessions were confidential and not notated in medical records.

They also brought an Air Force pediatrician from the States specializing in child abuse to meet with the families and to train base child care workers on possible indicators of sexual abuse.

The doctor told families how to identify signs in their children that could indicate they need more help, Best said.

A child having trouble sleeping, clinging to a parent more or withdrawing would be normal responses to a stressful situation, Best said. But if that behavior continued for more than a month, he or she could be displaying a post-traumatic stress response.

The mother of the 7-year-old said her family asked for help. Then, they were sent to Family Advocacy and her daughter went to an on-base psychologist. Now that they are living in Idaho, "we are on our own," she said.

Best said it's possible the youngest victims may not have any memory of what happened.

"They don't necessarily understand that it's wrong. They don't have the words to describe it. They don't put those same kind of labels on it," she said.

The 7-year-old did.

"She just said that she saw his ‘privates,'" said the mother. "And so I had asked if she walked in on him in the bathroom, giving him the benefit of the doubt. She said ‘No, it was on the couch, it was in mom's bed.' My husband and I just looked at each other in horror and then went to the police."

svanj@estripes.osd.mil