US attorney announces indictments against 'prophet,' wife for alleged sex trafficking, forced labor in alleged church scheme



A New Jersey couple is facing federal charges over jaw-dropping accusations of sex trafficking, forced labor, and exploiting vulnerable church members under the guise of divine will.

Treva Edwards, 60, and Christine Edwards, 63, were arrested May 7. The couple were indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit forced labor. Treva Edwards also was hit with charges of forced labor and sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion.

Treva Edwards reportedly subjected one alleged female victim to repeated physical and sexual assaults and impregnated her, after which he ordered her to get an abortion, according to the indictment.

The United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey said in a statement that the husband and wife were the "founders and pastors of a church they named 'Jesus Is Lord by the Holy Ghost,' which they operated out of a multi-unit apartment building in Orange, New Jersey, and where they conspired to coax and coerce vulnerable victims to work with no pay."

Alina Habba, interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey — previously an attorney for President Donald Trump — delivered a stern warning to those contemplating committing human trafficking crimes.

"These charges are an example of my office's tireless commitment to combatting human trafficking in our community," Habba proclaimed. "If you engage in human trafficking, we will find you, and we will prosecute you. We are committed to working alongside our partners to ensure that those who target the most vulnerable are brought to justice."

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Between 2011 and 2020, the suspects allegedly preyed on individuals struggling with financial issues, personal problems, or poor family relationships. The couple allegedly urged these individuals to join the church to find salvation.

According to the 10-page indictment, "Treva Edwards allegedly told Victim 1, Victim 2, and others that he was a prophet who could communicate directly with God. According to the indictment, he told members that 'disobeying him would result in spiritual retribution from God, as well as physical, emotional, and financial harm.'"

The suspects allegedly manipulated church members into carrying out grueling labor by telling them that the work was to be done to serve God.

The defendants reportedly compelled the church members to sign contracts to guarantee they would do the assigned work. Christine Edwards reportedly procured the labor contracts through her employment at a New Jersey property management company.

RELATED: 8 arrested on rape, sex trafficking charges in case of 14-year-old girl suffering '25 days of hell'

Some of the labor forced on the church members included "cleaning and gutting commercial and residential properties, shoveling snow, removing bulk trash, moving furniture, cleaning raw sewage, and exterminating rodent infestations," the indictment states.

The couple allegedly threatened the church members that if they failed to do the work, they would "lose favor with God."

Authorities said the couple monitored church members and even regulated when they ate and slept. The pastor and his wife allegedly instructed some members that they were prohibited from leaving the church property, and some were convinced to not talk to non-members because they were allegedly "evil" or "possessed by the devil."

The couple reportedly kept any money the church members earned.

Treva Edwards reportedly discouraged some of the alleged victims from seeking medical treatment and instead told them God would heal them as long as they were in "good standing" with the church.

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According to the indictment, Christine Edwards told members of the Jesus Is Lord by the Holy Ghost church that a "successful labor job was evidence of God's will."

The United States Attorney's Office stated, "Treva Edwards spread fear among the victims through verbal and emotional abuse and threats of reputational harm, homelessness, hunger, spiritual retribution, punishments, and more hard labor to gain their obedience and compel them to perform unpaid labor."

Treva Edwards reportedly subjected one alleged female victim to repeated physical and sexual assaults and impregnated her, after which he ordered her to get an abortion, according to the indictment.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said, "The Department of Justice will not tolerate the exploitation of vulnerable individuals under the guise of faith. These charges reflect our unwavering focus on protecting victims and prosecuting those who commit such heinous crimes.”

U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images

Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel of Homeland Security Investigations Newark Division said, "Treva and Christine Edwards turned a source of hope into a tool of fear by allegedly exploiting religious faith to manipulate victims and expose them to sexual violence and forced labor conditions."

Blaze News reached out to the U.S. Attorney's Office for comment on the disturbing case but did not receive an immediate response.

As Blaze News exclusively reported earlier this month, the nonprofit organization Safe House Project launched an innovative anti-trafficking app to empower users to safely, anonymously, and effectively report instances of suspected human trafficking.

BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey interviewed a former witch who got wrapped up in the dark world of sex cults.

Jac Marino Chen told Stuckey on the "Relatable" podcast that she got involved with cults that practiced "sex magic."

“It was there that Jesus Christ met me in that darkness and saved me,” she told Stuckey.

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Zizians: The vegan trans cult behind a Border Patrol agent’s murder?



The world of transgender news has taken an even darker turn than drag queen story hours, as a radical trans vegan activist cult led by Jack LaSota has been launched into the national spotlight after the killing of a Border Patrol agent in Vermont.

LaSota, who goes by the nickname “Ziz,” identifies as a trans woman, goes by female pronouns, and created the group — which he aptly named the Zizians — of vegan activists.

The Border Patrol agent, David Maland, was reportedly killed in a shoot-out with cult members Teresa Youngblut and Felix “Ophelia” Bauckholt on January 20. Federal prosecutors said in court records that the guns used in the shoot-out are also connected to a person of interest in a double homicide in Pennsylvania.

The murders are reportedly part of a web of violence allegedly tied to the Zizians. Law enforcement officials are now investigating six deaths linked to associates of LaSota.

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LaSota has also apparently been forcing members of his group to become transgender themselves.

And according to Dar Dixon, an actor with some “cult expertise,” this group has all the major markings of a cult.

“You’ve got transgender human beings, you’re dealing with sexuality, you’re dealing with sexual identity, and you’re dealing with sex. You do all those things, you’ve already got someone, as they say, ‘by the tight and curlies,'" Dixon said in an interview with Fox.

“This is nuts,” Dave Landau of “Normal World” comments.

However, it gets even stranger, as LaSota reportedly faked his own death in 2022.

That September, a brief obituary was published in LaSota’s hometown paper, the Daily News-Miner, in Fairbanks, Alaska. The obituary claimed LaSota was killed in a “boating accident” on August 19, 2022.

"Loving adventure, friends and family, music, blueberries, biking, computer games and animals, you are missed," the obituary said. LaSota was then found alive and well.

All the hosts of “Normal World” are, to say the least, shocked — though they do find the entire situation a little funny.

“You have to be trans, you have to be vegan, and we also murder people,” Angela jokes.

“If you’re not okay with murdering people, problematic, and you have to go,” 1/4 Black Garrett adds.

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Cause of death revealed for 2 moms found in freezer in cow pasture; 5 members of 'God's Misfits' group charged with murder



Two Kansas mothers were found dead inside a chest freezer in a cow pasture in rural Oklahoma in April.

Veronica Butler, 27, and Jilian Kelley, 39, went on a road trip to Oklahoma earlier this year. However, they went missing March 30 after driving to the Oklahoma panhandle to pick up Butler's children — ages 6 and 8. They didn't make it that far.

The group's initial plan was to 'throw an anvil through Butler's windshield while driving, making it look like an accident because anvils regularly fall off work vehicles.'

Authorities found their car abandoned near the Oklahoma-Kansas border.

Law enforcement suspected foul play after allegedly finding "evidence of a severe injury" and several puddles of blood near the abandoned vehicle in the desolate Oklahoma panhandle.

On April 13, investigators discovered Butler and Kelley's remains inside a chest freezer that had been buried in a cow pasture, according to affidavits. The freezer reportedly was inside a hole filled with dirt and concrete.

The Daily Mail reported that the mothers were found dead in "pools of blood" inside the freezer.

Investigators discovered that the farming property had ties to the grandmother of one of the women's children, court documents say.

The property owner told authorities that 43-year-old Tad Bert Cullum — who reportedly rented time on the cow pasture for cattle grazing — asked him on March 28 "if he could cut a tree down, remove a stump, [and] bury some concrete" in an area below the dam where a concrete pile had been sitting above ground. The property owner said Cullum completed the project in the next day or two.

Cullum was the boyfriend of 54-year-old Tifany Adams — the paternal grandmother of Butler's children.

Court records revealed that Adams' son — Wrangler Rickman — had been in a custody battle with Butler over their children. The couple also allegedly were going through a divorce. At the time, Rickman reportedly was in an Oklahoma rehabilitation center.

The Daily Mail reported that Butler had court-mandated, supervised visits every Saturday with her children, and Kelley was one of four people listed to supervise the visits.

The outlet added that Butler filed a petition in court March 20 that would grant her more time with her children, with her goal being receiving full custody.

“Adams hated and despised Butler and wanted her dead,” court documents said.

In April, Callum, Adams, 31-year-old Paul Grice, 44-year-old Cora Twombly, and 50-year-old Cole Twombly were arrested in connection with the deaths of the two mothers.

All five suspects are facing two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree.

The filing said Adams allegedly purchased three burner phones, stun devices, yellow straps found around the freezer, and the pants that Cullum wore and buried with the victims.

CNN reported that Cora Twombly told her 16-year-old daughter that she was going on a “mission" with Cole Twombly, the girl's stepfather. The teen said her mother and stepfather told her they would "not have to worry about [Butler] again," according to Fox News.

The group's initial plan was to "throw an anvil through Butler's windshield while driving, making it look like an accident because anvils regularly fall off work vehicles," Cora Twombly allegedly told her daughter.

'God’s Misfits is about spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, not about hate and murder.'

Citing court documents, KSNT-TV reported that the Twomblys "served as lookouts on the day of the murder."

Court documents accuse Grice of stabbing Butler to death while Cullum allegedly killed Kelley — the wife of a pastor.

Grice severely cut his hand in the process of killing Butler, the documents state.

Grice reportedly tossed a stun device and the murder weapon into the grave, along with the clothing he was wearing when he killed Butler. Investigators said the clothing recovered from the grave contained DNA evidence from Grice and Butler.

A preliminary autopsy report was released this week that revealed the cause of death of the two mothers.

The report from the Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Butler and Kelley were killed from multiple sharp-force trauma, which could be caused by a knife, glass, or anything with a cutting edge.

The Oklahoma Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is expected to release the full report on Nov. 15.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation said the five suspects were members of a group called God’s Misfits — reportedly a self-proclaimed anti-government group with a religious affiliation.

In April, the supposed founder of God's Misfits distanced himself from the suspects.

“Someway, people think they are part of us. Nothing could be more wrong,” the founder posted on Facebook. “God’s Misfits is about spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, not about hate and murder.”

The preliminary hearings are scheduled to begin Dec. 17.

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‘Death over deprogramming’: The ‘Black Girl Tragic’ cult seeks to DESTROY America



Nearly 100 years ago, the Ku Klux Klan stormed Jason Whitlock’s great-grandfather’s home in Kentucky.

They dragged his grandfather from his home, beat him, and carried him to a lynching tree. His grandmother witnessed the entire assault. However, unbeknownst to his attackers, Whitlock’s grandfather was a Freemason, and made a hand signal that could only be understood by a fellow Mason.

One of the Klansmen recognized the hand gesture and objected to his killing. His life was spared, and he fled with his family to Indianapolis.

While his grandmother was understandably scared of white people for decades following, she was able to see past it and embrace Jesus Christ.

“It’s a reminder of the way things were. The way black women used to represent themselves and define their identity by their faith rather than their politics,” Whitlock recalls.

Now, black women are no longer following Jesus Christ but what Whitlock calls the “Black Girl Tragic religion.”

He believes women like Sheryl Swoopes, who is constantly hating on Caitlin Clark for being a white star in a league and sport dominated by black lesbians — embody this cult-like religion to a T.

“It’s a cult that rejects Jesus and will choose death over deprogramming,” Whitlock says. “They would rather die than surrender the power that they have acquired through this ‘Black Girl Tragic’ religion.”

One of the main points those who preach this religion continuously make is that they alone are victims who require everyone else to lift them up — while tearing those people down.

Former President Donald Trump was ambushed by one of these cult members as he was explaining what policy changes he had made as president that helped the black community.

“Mr. President, I would love if you could answer the question on your rhetoric and why you believe that black people can trust you with another four years?” A reporter asked, interrupting him.

Trump then called himself the best president since Abraham Lincoln for black people and called her out for being 35 minutes late.

“That’s dragon energy, and that’s where we’re all going to have to get comfortable when you get hit with the idiocy, the disrespect, the hostility from these cult members,” Whitlock says. “That woman is a lunatic.”

“If we’re not willing to stand up to them, the entire American society and culture will further lean into their cult-like mentality and worldview,” he continues, adding, “It’s a cult. They’d rather die than be deprogrammed. They’re destroying this country.”


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Cult leader arrested for allegedly administering dangerous mercury elixirs to 'manipulate' followers at sprawling compound



An alleged cult leader has been arrested after being accused of administering dangerous mercury elixirs to "manipulate the will of his followers" on his sprawling compound in Spain.

José Manuel Cánovas, 50, was arrested on Wednesday by Spain's National Police at his 24-acre compound in the Spanish town of Murcia. Cánovas faces charges of crimes against public health, moral integrity, and unlawful association.

Cánovas allegedly supplied his followers with a dangerous concoction containing "purified mercury." The reported cult leader gave his followers the toxic elixir of poisonous metal in an attempt to garner control over them, according the National Police.

"Using different techniques of coercive manipulation, including the administering of psychoactive substances dangerous to health, he sought to manipulate the will of his followers to gain power over them and for financial gain," Spain’s National Police said in a statement.

Some of his followers allegedly started suffering from symptoms of mercury poisoning – including feeling weak and experiencing memory issues and difficulties in speaking, hearing, or seeing.

"According to investigators, the sect followers who helped Mr[.] Cánovas in his work were affected by various symptoms, apparently caused by the neurotoxic effect of exposure to mercury," the Telegraph reported. "The police also noted that the detainee had no safe disposal method for the chemicals he used and was washing substances containing mercury into the site’s septic tank."

During the raid at the compound, law enforcement allegedly discovered cinnabar or mercury sulfide – the chief ore mineral of mercury. Investigators also found nearly 400 pounds of mercury.

The compound had several cave dwellings, warehouses, bunkers, temples, and a secret laboratory. Video taken by the National Police force shows hidden doors at the compound.

Police said many women in the reported cult had cut ties with their families. Some of the followers engaged in lengthy vows of silence. Authorities did not specify how many followers were in the purported cult.

Cánovas was the leader of a so-called Buddhist sect and head of the Mahasandhi Foundation. The spiritual organization allegedly had a goal of constructing the "biggest Buddha statue in Europe." Membership to the foundation reportedly costs more than $2,000 a year.

Cánovas reportedly traveled to India to learn from Buddhist lamas.

The alleged cult leader called himself Total Transcendence.

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Rape cover-ups, missing people, and forced abortions: The dark truth of Scientology



For those who don’t know what exactly Scientology is, you’re not alone. When you break it down, you’ll find that it’s an incredibly complex system. Part religion, part business, part cult, Scientology was invented by a man named L. Ron Hubbard in 1954.

The origins of the religious movement are quite shady as well. Before the Church of Scientology was founded, Hubbard first developed a set of therapeutic principles he called Dianetics, but the organization he created to promote these ideas went bankrupt. Many believe that Hubbard then founded the Church of Scientology as a way to recharacterize Dianetics as a religion in order to avoid paying taxes. From the get-go, Scientology was intended to be a lucrative endeavor.

But where there is worship of money, there, too, you find darkness and depravity. Allie Beth Stuckey invites Jeremiah Roberts and Andrew Soncrant, hosts of the podcast "Cultish," to the show to “peel back the layers” of Scientology and evaluate what’s really going on beneath the surface.

“Around 1967 after L. Ron Hubbard had established the Church of Scientology, the IRS … revoked its tax-exempt status” after it became clear that Hubbard “wanted to utilize a religion as a way to obtain wealth.”

This sparked a cycle of revenge that involved “5,000 members of the Church of Scientology … actively involved on multiple different fronts in the government, not just the Internal Revenue Service ... trying to obtain documents, trying to forge documents” in order to “get their tax-exempt status back.”

“It’s a pretty wild story of infiltration,” says Roberts.

To hear the bizarre story of how a cult amalgamated with the federal government and resulted in kidnappings, forced abortions, and rape cover-ups, among other horrors, watch the video below.


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'Sadism, pure and simple': Sex cult dad who groomed and abused daughter's college friends sentenced to 60 years in prison for sex trafficking



A man convicted of sex-trafficking and abusing his daughter's college friends has been sentenced to 60 years in prison.

Lawrence Ray, 63, was convicted in April of 15 counts — including racketeering, sex trafficking, assault, forced labor, extortion, money laundering, and tax fraud. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman sentenced Ray to 60 years in prison.

Liman said Ray was an "evil genius" who used "psychological terror and manipulation" to coerce college students into doing activities "for his profit and sadistic pleasure."

"His crimes are particularly heinous," Liman said. "After gaining control of their minds and bodies, he extorted them to do his bidding. They had to keep paying him. They had to remain his slaves."

Liman added, "He sought to take any light from his victims' lives. It was sadism, pure and simple."

Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, which prosecuted the case, said in a statement, "Larry Ray is a monster. For years, he inflicted brutal and lifelong harm on innocent victims. Students who had their lives ahead of them. He groomed them and abused them into submission for his own gain. Through physical and psychological abuse, he took control over his victims’ minds and bodies and then extracted millions of dollars from them. The sentence imposed today will ensure that Ray will never harm victims again."

In the autumn of 2010, Ray moved into his daughter's dorm at Sarah Lawrence College — a small liberal arts school in Bronxville, New York. Ray had just finished a prison stint for a securities fraud conviction.

His daughter, Talia Ray, introduced him to her college friends.

To manipulate the college students, Ray presented himself as a father figure. The father from Piscataway, New Jersey, learned "intimate details about their private lives, vulnerabilities, and mental health struggles under the pretense of helping them," according to the indictment.

Ray, also known as "Lawrence Grecco," would tell the college students that he worked in U.S. intelligence and had ties to powerful individuals such as former Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev, ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and ex-New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik.

In the summer of 2011, some of the college students moved in with Ray at his Upper East Side, one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan.

Suddenly, Ray took a dark turn and accused his new roommates of attempting to poison him or damaging his property. He would demand the students pay him or face repercussions. Ray is accused of running a cult that forced the students to be subservient to him in physical and sexual ways.

He allegedly forced some of the young people to do physical labor at the North Carolina home of his stepfather in 2013.

Claudia Drury, one of Ray's victims, revealed some of the "unremitting sadistic torture" she endured. Drury accused Ray of forcing her into prostitution for four years and then extorting her. Ray reportedly took more than $2 million of her sex work earnings.

Drury said during the trial through a representative, "Larry forced me to abject desperation."

Drury said Ray "stripped me naked, bound me to a chair, and suffocated me with a plastic bag over and over again until I begged for my life."

She continued, "The experience that I had while being sex trafficked haunt me today. I feel profoundly violated in a way that I cannot fully communicate."

Daniel Levin, another victim, said Ray hit him in the ribs with a sledgehammer, pulled his tongue with pliers, squeezed his testicles with a garrote, and forced a sex toy in his mouth, according to Law & Crime.

Santos Rosario claimed that Ray held a knife to his genitals. Rosario testified that he "contemplated suicide daily" after Ray "physically abused, degraded, and blackmailed" him.

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'Smallville' actress says she got involved with NXIVM sex cult to revive her Hollywood career, friends say she was 'brainwashed'



A former "Smallville" actress claimed that she got involved with the NXIVM sex cult to revive her Hollywood career.

Actress Allison Mack divulged her intentions for joining the NXIVM sex cult and pleaded innocence. She also spoke about going to the NXIVM headquarters in Albany, New York. Mack believed that NXIVM co-founder Keith Raniere could revive her Hollywood career.

"I moved to Albany to fill that emptiness and find the soul of myself again, if that makes sense, as it had fizzled," Mack said, according to Page Six. "I asked Keith if he would help me become a great actress again because I felt like I was a fraud."

The “Honey We Shrunk Ourselves” actress told journalist Vanessa Grigoriadis in 2017, "I just was like walking with myself, and I was going like, 'Am I crazy? Am I one of these awful people that you read about that does horrible things and thinks that she’s doing things for God?' I had a lot of conversations with myself like that."

The interview resurfaced this week on Gabriel Sherman's podcast, "Infamous: Inside America’s Biggest Scandals."

"Ultimately, I just sat down, and I like looked at my life, and I looked at my relationships, and I looked at all of the things I had written, journals that I had kept — things that I had done over the last few years. And it was so consistently good," Mack noted.

Mack refuted the sex crime accusations against her, "I'm not recruiting young, nubile women to be his sex slaves. You know, it's 'The Crucible,' it's the McCarthy trials, it's just like, throwing accusations and spreading like wildfire."

Mack confessed that friends advised her to leave NXIVM because they viewed it as a cult. Mack, 49, said her friends told her that she was "brainwashed" and "sick."

Raniere co-founded NXIVM in 1998 as an alleged self-improvement group.

According to Forbes in 2003, "Some 3,700 people have flocked to Raniere, and Executive Success Programs, the business he created in 1998. Prompted by a potent word-of-mouth network, they include Sheila Johnson, co-founder of Black Entertainment Television; Antonia C. Novello, a former U.S. surgeon general; Stephen Cooper, acting chief executive of Enron; the Seagram fortune's Edgar Bronfman Sr. and two of his daughters; and Ana Cristina Fox, daughter of the Mexican president."

The Daily Beast reported in 2018, "Raniere also allegedly created DOS, a secretive sex cult operating in New York, Canada, and Mexico. The acronym stands for 'Dominus Obsequious Sororium' which, according to one DOS member, translates to 'master over slave women,' according to court documents. DOS operates as a pyramid with levels of slaves headed by masters. The 'slaves' are expected to recruit slaves of their own, thus becoming masters themselves."

Mack wrote in 2021, "It is now of paramount importance to me to say, from the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry. I threw myself into the teachings of Keith Raniere with everything I had. I believed, whole-heartedly, that his mentorship was leading me to a better, more enlightened version of myself. I devoted my loyalty, my resources, and, ultimately, my life to him. This was the biggest mistake and greatest regret of my life."

"I am sorry to those of you that I brought into Nxivm," she continued. "I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man. I am sorry that I encouraged you to use your resources to participate in something that was ultimately so ugly."

"I do not take lightly the responsibility I have in the lives of those I love and I feel a heavy weight of guilt for having misused your trust, leading you down a negative path," Mack added. "I am sorry to those of you whom I spoke to in a harsh or hurtful way. At the time, I believed I was helping. I believed in tough love and thought it was the path to personal empowerment. I was so confused. I never want to be someone who is considered mean, but those aspects of my humanity have been revealed in all of this; it has been devastating to reconcile."

Mack was arrested in April 2018 on charges of sex trafficking and forced labor. In a plea deal, she pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and racketeering in March 2019. Mack was sentenced to three years in prison and hit with a $20,000 fine.

'Satanic' man involved in 'cult activity' killed Texas woman as part of 'human sacrifice,' cut off her toes, fingers, and ears: Police



Three people have been arrested in connection with the gruesome murder of a Texas woman. Police say the woman was killed as part of a "human sacrifice," and she had her toes, fingers, and ears cut off by a "Satanic" man involved in "cult activity."

Last Sunday, police with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office made a welfare check on a 36-year-old woman in Joaquin, Texas. Around 4 p.m., officers discovered the dead body of Sarah Hopson in the bedroom. Police said she had been brutally murdered and mutilated.

Hobson allegedly suffered from large wounds to the right side of her head and forehead. Hopson's toes, fingers, and ears had reportedly been cut off. A deputy discovered a clear freezer bag of the woman's body parts between Hopson's legs, according to the affidavit.

Deputies noticed that the bedroom smelled of fresh paint, and the walls appeared to have been recently painted.

"Multiple cans of paint were found inside the room as well as 'several' Dollar General bags filled with an assortment of cleaning supplies, the affidavit reportedly said," Law & Crime reported. "A tool that indicates the presence of blood spatter even after it has been wiped away with household cleaning supplies reportedly showed large amounts of blood on the bedroom walls and spotting on the bedroom dresser."

The walls reportedly appeared to have "wiping marks," possibly signaling that someone cleaned the walls.

Law enforcement also found a razor knife, several wrenches on a chest of drawers, paint brushes, paint cans, and cleaning supplies at the crime scene, according to the affidavit. Investigators also discovered a pair of jeans with the Texas identification card belonging to Ethan Kyle Myers in the pocket, police documents said.

Police tracked down Myers and searched his car. Inside they found a shovel, plastic bags, a gallon of gasoline, a hammer, a tire tool, and a large rock in a trash bag smelling like gasoline, the affidavit stated.

Investigators noted that the tip of the rock matched Hopson's head wounds, police said.

On Thursday, police arrested Myers while he was allegedly hiding in the woods.

On the day police found Hopson dead, Allen Price and Teresa Louviere visited the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office to inform authorities that "Ethan Myers had done something to Sarah Hopson," the affidavit said. They claimed that Myers had been "acting strange," and noticed him fleeing Hopson's home with blood on him. Myers allegedly lived with the duo.

Price allegedly told police that Myers, 26, was involved in "cult activity."

Investigators questioned Myers' mother, who said her son "hears voices and is satanic," according to the affidavit. She reportedly also told police that Myers wanted to "sacrifice her."

Myers was charged with Hopson's murder and evading arrest. He is being held at the Shelby County Jail on a $1.25 million bond.

Price and Louviere were arrested and charged with tampering and fabricating physical evidence with intent to impair a human corpse. They are being held on a $250,000 bond.

The Plague You Should Be Freaking Out About Is Government Abuse Of Power

Two years on, the crackdown on legitimate civil protests showcases what western governments will do to suppress critics of their Covid police state.