LAVONIA, Georgia (CNN) -- Sonya Savage's back door opens to a cozy wooden porch that serves as a shelter for her 9-year-old son's bicycles and spare parts.



Residents of Beaver Creek in Lavonia, Georgia, say they had no idea a neighbor was holding his family captive.



A 30-foot tract of red clay and splotchy crab grass separates her mobile home from the home of Raymond Daniel Thurmond, a residence so rank and squalid that it forced a seasoned police investigator to vomit upon entering. Another officer donned a gas mask just to walk inside.



Savage and her neighbors say they had no clue that Thurmond, 36, had a wife, let alone four kids; they were also oblivious that Thurmond may have held the five hostage in the three-bedroom mobile home for three years.



"My son, he's a little bicycle mechanic. He's always in the backyard, and he don't recall ever seeing nobody over here," said Savage, 29, who also has a 4-year-old daughter. "Usually I've got a yard full of kids, but I've never seen any of those kids come out and play."



Savage recalls speaking to Thurmond once, after someone stole one of her son's bike tires. Thurmond kindly told Savage he hadn't seen anything suspicious.



"He was nice, polite, seemed like a normal guy," she said.  Watch a walk-through of the filth »



Alma Medina, the property manager for the 100-unit Beaver Creek mobile home park, lives three doors from what is now a crime scene. She remembers Thurmond was a polite fellow. He always called her "Miss Alma" when he dropped by the office to explain that his rent was late, a routine occurrence that eventually led Medina's maintenance man to a foul discovery.



She occasionally saw Thurmond mingling with other tenants, but she never saw his family. The only indication that one existed, Medina said, was that he and his wife both signed a lease August 22, 2005, and noted on their application that they had three sons and a daughter.



"I never saw them outside, never," she said.  See what the trailer looked like »



Lavonia, a city of about 2,000 on Interstate 85, about five miles from South Carolina and the sprawling Lake Hartwell, is not the best place to keep secrets. The locals know each other, if only by face, and the police chief personally directs school traffic and walks the entire town daily to check on local businesses. The self-professed "big-time small town" has its share of crime, but hasn't seen a murder in six years.



Lt. Missy Collins, the investigator who had Thurmond arrested Tuesday after a two-week investigation, said her husband used to work with Thurmond at a pump-manufacturing facility in nearby Toccoa.



Chief Bruce Carlisle remembers seeing the burly 6-foot-4 Thurmond around town, at hardware and grocery stores. He generally wore shorts, work boots and a tank top or sleeveless shirt. Carlisle and Thurmond weren't acquainted, but the chief heard he was always cordial.



"You never saw anybody with him," the chief said.



Authorities never had a problem with Thurmond until August 4, when Collins received a call from a women's shelter.



"They said they had a mother and four kids, and apparently they'd been kept at home, and there was some abuse allegations and the dad wouldn't let them leave," Collins said.



Collins interviewed the women and children, who all gave the same story: Thurmond had forced the wife, three sons (9, 13 and 14 years old) and his 12-year-old daughter to remain inside.



Police are still investigating how. Medina on Wednesday provided CNN a tour of the trailer that revealed a hasp, used to secure a door with a padlock, that had been fastened to the mobile home's back door. Holes on the inside of the front door and on one of the children's bedroom doors indicate hasps had been placed there
Who said they never saw Daniel Thurmond's wife or kids? Where did this happen? Who or whom did the neightbours say they never saw In which small town did Thurmond and his wife live
Savage and her neighbors Beaver Creek in Lavonia, Georgia, had no clue that Thurmond, 36, had a wife, let alone four kids; Beaver Creek in Lavonia, Georgia,
question: Who said they never saw Daniel Thurmond's wife or kids?, answer: Savage and her neighbors | question: Where did this happen?, answer: Beaver Creek in Lavonia, Georgia, | question: Who or whom did the neightbours say they never saw, answer: had no clue that Thurmond, 36, had a wife, let alone four kids; | question: In which small town did Thurmond and his wife live, answer: Beaver Creek in Lavonia, Georgia,