by Ray Black
Bible teachings and study groups were held regularly at the Lundgren house and soon many of his friends and family moved away from the RLDS and into his arms.
Even though as a boy, Jeffrey had been quite a loner, over the years he had learnt how to come across as confident and this side of his personality was what shone at this time of his life. He had a real way with people and it did not take long for his followers to become convinced that he had uncovered the true meaning of the Scriptures. The strange effect that he had started to have on people even caused some followers to donate money for the upkeep of his family – did this start Jeffrey Lundgren’s brain ticking with ideas, or did he think it was God’s way of saying thank you?
The sums of money that Lundgren was receiving were helpful but modest, and it wouldn’t be long before greed would start to take over.
Lundgren soon declared that God had spoken to him and told his followers that they needed to move to Kirtland, Ohio to start a revolution. He told his congregation that they were going to do good deeds such as feed the hungry and help the poor, much in the way that Christ had done over 1,500 years previously, and very true to the ideologies of the RLDS. Such positive statements enthralled his followers and they wanted to find out more.
So, in mid August, 1984, the Lundgren family and a handful of followers arrived at the Chapin Forest Country Park, a few miles from the Kirtland Temple.
The Kirtland Temple was built by Joseph Smith Junior, the 1830 founder of the Latter Day Saints in Western New York. The temple started to be built in 1833 after Smith apparently received a revelation from God telling him that a place of worship was to be constructed in Kirtland and it has become a source of history and divinity ever since.
It was in Chapin Forest that Lundgren declared his revelations to his flock, funnily enough they were much like Joseph Smith Junior’s revelations, and described how they would have to use the original RLDS temple for a while. Both Alice and Jeffrey managed to get jobs as temple guides, due to their extensive knowledge of the faith. The job gave them a small salary and also free lodgings and meals. This was a perfect set up for the vision that was starting to grow within Lundgren’s head as he knew he would be able to use his position to subconsciously pass his views onto the temple visitors, and maybe even sway some more recruits.
THE MAKING OF A LEADER
Slowly, the greed that was growing inside Lundgren started to take over, and he began pilfering from the donations that the church received and from the earnings of the visitor centre, that both he and Alice had easy access to. Nobody suspected that such a religiously moral man would do such a thing, that he got away with daylight robbery. In fact, people were starting to see Lundgren as the opposite to a petty criminal and more like a saint.
Jeffrey restarted his home seminars and bible groups in Kirtland and his group of followers grew quickly. He mesmerised people with his endless knowledge of the Scriptures and his promises of kindness yet to come. In 1984 one of Jeffrey’s old navy friends, Kevin Currie, was visiting Kirtland Temple and was surprised to find Lundgren there working as a guide. Currie was bewitched by Lundgren’s wisdom and aura that he immediately relocated to Kirtland and moved in with Lundgren’s ever increasing flock, Currie even surrendered his monthly earnings to the Lundgrens cause. More and more people would re-think their lives after going on one of Jeffrey’s temple tours, many saw him as a prophet and believed that to get close to God they would have to be close to Lundgren.
Dennis and Tonya Patrick had known Alice and Jeffrey from their days at University and had moved to Kirtland, from Independence with their daughter Molly. Like all the others before them they were so taken aback by Lundgren’s teachings that they thought that there was no alternative, even though they did not like the way in which he treated his children – the abuse was continuing – they looked past it, and selfishly thought of themselves.
Throughout the year Lundgren’s teachings became more and more extreme and rigid, violence started coming into play, but like many extreme religious groups, balanced thinking gets replaced with abiding by the prophet’s rules. Lundgren was by this point seen as the next step from Joseph Smith Junior, and in Mormon terms, you couldn’t get much higher on Earth therefore his instructions even surpassed the importance of the Scriptures.
By the end of 1986 Lundgren started claiming to his flock that he had received prophecies from God regarding the end of the world. The prophecy, Lundgren claimed, stated that Jesus would return to Earth and destroy everything except those righteous few who were within the Kirtland Temple. He gave his followers two dates on which this would happen, but each time the date came and went with no avail. So Jeffrey quickly changed his prediction. He stated that his group should take hold of the Kirtland Temple on May 3, 1988, conveniently enough this date was also Lundgren’s birthday.
It was around this time that member Kevin Currie decided enough was enough and left the group as he could no longer handle the teachings of Lundgren. The rest of the congregation started to prepare for the day of the siege. Lundgren ordered his flock to wear military style uniforms, they had to march everywhere and were trained, just as Jeffrey had been by his own father, to load, unload and fire guns proficiently. They regularly practised combat tactics and watched violent Vietnam style war films in order to psyche themselves up for the main event. Lundgren had them believe that they were the good people of the world fighting a true and just cause of worldly evil.
In 1987 a family that Lundgren had known from his religious seminars in Independence, the Averys, moved to Kirtland in order to join the Lundgren cause. Jeffrey had never liked the family but upon their arrival in Kirtland he could not do enough for them, he knew too well that they had collateral from the sale of their house and once he had convinced them that he would care for them like he would his own family, they donated $10,000 of their savings to him. They were convinced that it would make them better off in the future as surely giving up such a huge amount of money to such a saintly person would make them slightly more god-like themselves?
Lundgren had become so obsessed with his personal plight that it was not surprising when officials from the RLDS started to question his practices and went as far as to annul all the religious titles that he held. This angered Lundgren and he immediately cancelled his membership of the church, left his job, and moved into a large farmhouse property that would soon house both his family and many of his followers. They settled on their 15-acre farm and prepared for the day that they would meet God, which in turn would be their final day on planet Earth.
At the beginning of September, Kevin Currie the member who had left, decided he had made the wrong decision and reinstated himself as a member of Lundgren’s clan. Currie had felt extreme guilt after leaving the first time and decided to return and this time not listen to the part of his consciousness that was questioning Lundgren’s authenticity.
Throughout the latter part of 1987, Lundgren managed to stock pile a vast amount of ammunition and weaponry which his eldest son, Damon, was in charge of. Jeffrey Lundgren’s children had been part of their father’s ever growing strangeness since birth, they did not know a different life, to them their father spoke the truth and it was the only one they knew.
At the beginning of 1988 Kevin Currie once again left the group, this time for good, as he could not get certain quirks of Lundgren’s out of his head. All Currie had wanted was to be a godly righteous man, but as Lundgren’s teachings went on he became more and more disillusioned by them and his mind had stayed strong enough to break out while he still could. Currie wanted to make a clean break, but Lundgren’s strange ways kept playing on his mind, so much so that he filed a report to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI just presumed that it was a hoax, and if not a hoax a minor problem that could be sorted by the local authorities so they passed the information onto Kirtland police department. The police chief immediately started investigating Lundgren and his group as he had a feeling that it was much more than a
hoax.
Lundgren had no idea that an investigation had started on him, but he was extremely angry that Currie had walked out for a second time, this anger was to build when a lady by the name of Shar Lea Olsen also decided to leave. Shar had joined the group in 1987 after she had spent the weekend in Kirtland visiting a couple of friends who were already solid group members. She had been extremely impressed by Lundgren and had wanted to learn more. But by the time Shar left she had a rather different view of Lundgren and his enlightenments. She had wanted to leave for many months before she finally did so but had become so scared for her life that it took her time to build up the courage to make the final break.
THE SHOWN GOES ON
Jeffrey Lundgren may have lost two of his followers but he still had many more who were willing to do anything for him and follow his every instruction. By the autumn of 1988 Lundgren was holding lengthy scripture lectures that would last well into the night, he got into the habit of wearing military combat gear during his lectures and kept a loaded gun at his side. His scripture lectures became more and more violent and he translated the meanings for his own purpose. Anything he didn’t like about his flock he would bring to their attention in the following lecture and say that the Scripture stated that it was a sin.
The main promise that kept his flock so obeying was that Lundgren had sworn that they would get to see God. Over the months Lundgren started to analyse this promise and decided that God would be so angry with the sins of man when he returned to Earth that the Kirtland group would be at his mercy. This did not bode well, so to rectify this Lundgren amended his divine forecast. He told his followers that he had had another vision which told him that he needed to sacrifice the Avery family in order to save the rest of them. Lundgren demonstrated this by claiming that Dennis Avery was dismissive and did not listen to his teachings, Cheryl Avery was too obstinate to be virtuous and their children were uncontrollable. All these signs, Lundgren told his flock, showed that they were sinners who should be sacrificed for the good of the rest of them. Lundgren’s flock did not question his statements, in fact now Lundgren had mentioned it, they too could see what sinners the Averys were – sinners who deserved to be punished. In Lundgren’s warped mind, killing the Averys in the name of God was the only sensible thing to do.
SACRIFICE
By the beginning of April 1989, a plan for the demise of the Averys started to come together. Lundgren instructed that a pit should be dug in one of the farm’s outbuildings which would conceal the bodies. Lundgren told his flock that it was imperative that the murders happen and once they had they would all abandon the farmhouse and reform at a new venue. At the same time he informed the Averys to pack up their belongings and told them that they were all going on a pilgrimage.
A motel room was booked for the Averys and all their belongings were brought from their rented accommodation to the farm house. They suspected nothing, Lundgren had so many rules and regulations that anything was possible.
On April 17, 1989 the group prepared for what would be their final meal together. After dinner the Averys’ fate became real. Once Dennis Avery seemed to be deep in concentration in whatever he was doing, Lundgren gathered five of his right hand men in his bedroom. He produced a pistol from his belt and asked for a show of hands to confirm that the men were all in allegiance with him, and they were. So the plan, that unbeknown to the Averys had been discussed over the previous few weeks started to be put into action. They had decided that the best way to do it would be to lead the family one by one into the barn and kill them separately, and this is what they did.
First to meet their fate was Dennis Avery. Ron Luff, who was seen by Lundgren as one of his most righteous brothers, someone who never questioned his teachings, walked out of the barn and back into the house. He went over to Dennis and asked for his assistance in the barn to help with packing the equipment for the subsequent pilgrimage that they were about to embark on. Dennis, of course agreed, and why wouldn’t he? He followed Ron into the barn where they were met by Richard Brand, Danny Kraft, Greg Winship, Jeffrey’s son Damon and of course Jeffrey himself. As soon as Dennis got close to his comrades his was shot at by a stun gun. The desired effect of this was to silence him but the stun wasn’t strong enough and instead he cried out in pain and then in mercy as it was now obvious to him that the end of his life was close.
The five men grabbed Dennis, bound his arms and gagged his mouth with duct tape, and threw him into the ready made grave. Greg, who was now outside, was given the signal to start the chain saw in order to muffle the sound of things to come, whilst Jeffrey took aim. Two shots were fired straight into Dennis’s back and the chain saw stopped. The men stood in silence and one by one filed into the area of the barn where Dennis’s body now lay in a blood stained crumpled heap, and took stock of the gruesome murder they had all been involved in. A few contemplative moments later Ron left the barn and made his way back up to the barn to collect the second victim.
Cheryl Avery, Dennis’s wife, was pottering around when Ron reached her, completely oblivious to the fact that Dennis was lying dead in a shallow grave a few metres from where she was standing.
Ron told Cheryl that Dennis needed her help in the barn packing their bags, again it was an extremely normal request, so she immediately accompanied Ron back to the barn. As they entered, Cheryl was met with the stun gun which for the second time did not have desired effect, she was in pain but still totally conscious and aware. Unlike her husband, Cheryl did not scream or beg for her life, she just slid down onto her knees whilst she was bound with the tape. Ron and Richard dragged her over to the pit where her husband lay and threw her in, at the same time Greg started the chain saw. Ron and Richard then stepped out of the room and Jeffrey prepared to take a second life. He fired three shots, two hit Cheryl on the right side of her chest and the other hit her in the stomach. Like her husband she was dead in an instant.
After this murder, there was no time to stand around looking at the aftermath, as Jeffrey was worried that the shots may have been heard, so he ordered the men to check the area. Everything was done in the style of a commando operation; quickly and quietly. Once the men were sure that they had not been heard, Jeffrey instructed Ron to go back to the house for a third time to get the first of the Avery children.
The three daughters had been sitting in the living room playing computer games and discussing the next day’s trip, a couple of the females who were part of the plan were with them in order to make sure they didn’t stray. Ron entered the living room and asked Tina Avery to accompany him. The 15-year-old followed Ron into the barn and stood completely still, in complete shock and confusion as the men bound her. A few minutes later and she was lying in a pit with her dead mother and father. Jeffrey Don Lundgren, still completely calm and in control pulled the trigger for a sixth time and the bullet shaved past the top of Tina’s skull. She attempted a muffled scream of pain but moments later she was shot again, this time the bullet went directly into her skull. Tina Avery had met the same fate as her parents, callously murdered in cold blood.
The men were now possessed, no human remorse was apparent on that day, whether or not guilt was being felt inside may never be known. Lundgren and his flock continued with their task. Next on the hit list was 13-year-old Rebecca Avery. Ron re-entered the living room and asked Rebecca and her younger sister Karen if they wanted to see the horses. Ron said that they could only go one at a time so as not to scare them. Karen waited with the women as her older sister was escorted by Ron back to the barn.
Once in the barn the men pretended they were playing a game and picked her up and bound her. They lowered her into the blood-spattered pit and she was placed on top of her dead mother. For the fourth time that evening Greg powered up the chain-saw, the routine was well rehearsed now, it was automatic. Jeffrey fired the gun and the bullet pierced her thigh. A second shot was fired which hit Rebecca in the chest. She was left spluttering for her life. Jeffrey never fired a compassiona
te shot to put her out of the pain she was in so Rebecca Avery was left to die a slow, painful and lonely death.
So with four out of five sacrifices complete, Ron went back to the house for the last surviving member of the Avery family. Six-year-old Karen Avery was so excited about seeing the horses that she jumped up onto Ron’s back and was given a piggy back ride to her fate. The same routine took place and after Jeffrey Lundgren had fired two shots their mission was complete. All five members of the Avery family were now lying in a heap in the make-shift grave. Lundgren ordered a couple of the men to smother the bodies with a lime solution and then cover them with dirt. Afterwards, bin bags were placed on top of them and the job was complete. The men made their way back to the farm house.
Whilst the murders had taken place, Alice Lundgren had left the compound with the younger children. After confirming that the job had been done she returned. Soon after, Alice went with son Damon and husband Jeffrey to the motel where some of the Avery belongings had been stashed, and removed them. Upon their return Jeffrey called the rest of the group into the classroom for a late night prayer meeting. There was silence throughout the class and it is reported that Richard Brand was the only one brave enough to speak. He believed that no one deserved to die in the way that the Averys just had. Lundgren was quick to give an explanation for the events stating that it was God’s will that it had happened.
After what must have been quite a disturbed night’s sleep, the group prepared for their departure from the farmhouse. Lundgren ordered them to split up into smaller groups, leave at intervals, and meet up in Pennsylvania for further instructions.
The group did this, they were extremely fearful of their leader now, but also of their fellow members, no one knew who could be trusted, therefore any angst was not relayed to the others. Lundgren finally found a well-hidden campsite in West Virginia that they were ordered to make base for the next few weeks, he loved the new power he now had over his flock and adored being feared. He often boasted to members of the group who had not witnessed the massacre, about the events of that horrid night; Lundgren was indestructible.
