Melissa Gilbert Makes Major Decision as Husband Timothy Busfield Surrenders
Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert made a major move as her husband Timothy Busfield surrendered to law enforcement.
She deleted her Instagram account. On January 13, as the search intensified for Busfield, the actress's Instagram page read, "Profile isn't available."
According to NBC News, authorities were initially not able to find Busfield since he was accused of child sex abuse in New Mexico, and Albuquerque police issued a warrant for his arrest. However, TMZ reported on January 13 that Busfield has now surrendered to law enforcement.
Timothy Busfield Adamantly Denied the Accusations
Busfield denied the allegations to TMZ, which obtained video of him shortly before he was arrested at his lawyer's office.
He promised to "confront these lies," adding, "I did not do anything to those little boys," TMZ reported. According to TMZ, Busfield has been accused of sexually abusing two child actors on The Cleaning Lady, which he directed in New Mexico in 2022. It starred actress Elodie Yung. They were ages 7 and 8, and "their parents reported the alleged crimes to the Albuquerque police two years later, leading to a criminal investigation," TMZ reported.
Busfield has acted in a number of high-profile movies and television shows, including Field of Dreams and The West Wing.
(Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)
Busfield's lawyer told TMZ that Warner Bros. had conducted its own investigation and "concluded the evidence did not support the allegations."
According to NBC News, Busfield told investigators that "another actor on the show told him the mother of the boys was upset with Busfield when the children weren’t brought back for the final season of the show," but that actor would not speak with investigators. The alleged abuse covers a two-year span from 2022 to 2024, according to NBC.
Melissa Gilbert Met Timothy Busfield in a Bar & Immediately Felt It Was 'Right & Inevitable'
Gilbert met Busfield at a bar in 2012, and he was initially drawn by her smile, People reported.
“It sounds cliché to say it, but it really was like getting hit with a thunderbolt,” Gilbert told People in 2024. “It just seemed right and inevitable. The next morning when I woke up, my first thought was, ‘I'm going to marry him,’ and then my next thought was, ‘You're a crazy person.' ”
"Across the board, we were just equals in everything," Busfield told People.
According to People, they were both married twice before. She had two children, and he had three kids.
The couple settled down in "a rustic cabin on 14 acres in the Catskill Mountains of New York," People reported, quoting Gilbert as saying, "This is what I've always wanted."
"This is one of those places that most people would say, 'Are you nuts?' if you expressed interest in buying it," Gilbert said. "But Tim and I are the best kind of nuts. We're hopeful visionaries. We knew this house would shelter us well and serve us well."