I've witnessed and have been a victim of abuse as a child in a cult. I recently got a police report on a death of a child within this cult I had been in. The cult leader's family said this kid, age 16, had accidentally killed himself in an attempt to get a high off of self induced asfixiation. They told us he had a music tape in his house that he had been playing that related to a girl he had a crush on and that he was trying to get an arousal from the asfixiation. They said that he was found slumped in a chair in his garage with a wire around his neck. When they told us about this I had a horrific feeling of doom that he probably tryed to kill himself from all the abuse he was getting. I know of abuse because we were all recieving it.

Recently my sister decided to look into the matter even though it had been many years since this happened. The actual police report stated that he had been found by his mother hanging from the garage door bracket with a clothes line around his neck and a small step ladder next to him. He had committed suicide by hanging. The mother cut him loose with a kitchen knife and he fell to the floor receiving a head injury. He was dead when paramedics got to the scene. In his pocket was found a report card folded up with a D+ and D- on it. I feel he was in fear of the consequences of what would happen to him when the cult leader saw his report card. He never got a break from her abuse because he lived right next door to her. He was only 16.

He was indirectly murdered as far as I'm concerned. After his death we heard that he was made to run home nacked as a punishment, had to wear a diaper to school under his clothing, had to shave his hair off because he liked the Singer Billy Idol and his spiky hair. He slept under the pine trees near their house sometimes to just get away. This cult leader always had a way of grilling everyone, getting is our face and saying any horrific thing she desired to get her sick points across.

According to the police there is nothing criminal that can be charged in the death by suicide. Why would the cult family lie about it if they didn't know what they were already putting that boy through. This country gives these cult leaders a safe haven to thrive in and conduct their abuse. This country ties the hands of law enforcement and doesn't provide any laws to support justice for those children who are victims of these sosiopathic predaters.

Freedom fighter

A very sad story. Thanks for sharing it.

What's the name of the cult?

Hi freedom fighter:

Sorry you lived through that. Thank you for sharing. They are important stories.

Good for you -- thinking this through!

There were plenty such suicides by adults & teens in my cult too.

Years after leaving my group I'd realized that psychosis and suicide are not so common in the general population. sigh.
When mentioning something of our childhood to my brother recently, he responded "Toni, I try really hard not to remember."

Like your group, everyone excused the causalities as resulting from the victim's weakness, not from group dynamics & cognitive dissonance.... blah blah.

t

Blah Blah. That's how I feel too. A circle of the same info of these sick cults destroying peoples lives in the same way. The problem with me however is that I can't forget about it or change the subject or pretend it never happened because I owe it to the boy who hung himself and my family and myself to hear the truth. I can't walk another step on this planet under a veil of denial. There isn't a day that goes by that I'm not somehow affected by what had happened to me. I'm going to spread the truth and educate people. I'm not sure how day to day I will accomplish that but I will live in a manner that promotes freedom.

This cult didn't have a particular name. It was a furniture manufacturing business and cleverly disguised within it's guts was a cult. A few families were fooled by this one dictator of a woman. She's evil to the core. Crate Prospects was the name of the company. It's no longer in business but she still has my brothers fooled. So many lies. It makes me ill what she has done.

FF

Some day I would like to write a book about my story. I have three sisters and a mom who all have their own experiences within this cult. It would be interesting to weave all of our experiences together in one book.

I saw a documentary show on TV one day about Jim Jones. His son was getting interviewed and he was recounting his experience and what he thought and felt about what had happened to all those people. It was late at night and at that moment in time I was fixated on the show and what this man was saying. I realized I had a deep connection-something so in common with this man. There was an overwhelming depth and understanding that I saw in him. I recognized it in myself and my experience. It was an eye opener. I wished I could have met this person and talked with him. I felt an empathy, a familularity. It's been a while since I saw that show but it made me realize I wasn't alone.

Cults create suicide in one form or another. Whether physically or mentally cult leaders snuff the souls from people. I think it's one of the saddest things that is happening amoung all the free people and being unnoticed. Especially the children who don't have a chance to see freedom. So lied to. One of the sons of our cult leader ran free when he was 18. He never returned. The cult leader always used that as leverage against us saying we had to be fully in the spirit to bring her son home. It was always our fault if something went wrong. It was always to her credit if something went right. The beautiful thing now is that we are free and the cult leaders son is communicating with us. We live a parallel life in that we are discovering that we have the same feelings of doom and irrational fear. It is left overs from abuse that is difficult to shed. The only thing to do is chase freedom and grab onto it with a vengence. I'm going to be a Police Officer. If law enforcement accepts me I know there is an angel looking out for me. I hope there is enough wise souls that won't judge me in my new choice of a career. That is my fear. Will they think I'm tainted or screwed up in the mind because of the stigma of cults? I was only 11 when my family was taken over by her "new way in the spirit".

FF

I had some horrible child abuse in the cult I was in too...And I still feel it now...but no one can seem to pin any thing on him