by Pete Earley
“What are you going to tell everyone?” Alice asked.
“I will tell my people that from time to time, prophets take a rest,” Jeffrey said. “A prophet needs someplace to go where he doesn’t have to deal with everyone’s problems. I’ll tell them that one reason why Christ had to leave his disciples was so they could bear witness to Him and now it is time for them to bear witness for me.”
“How about Kathy?” Alice asked.
Jeffrey didn’t answer so Alice pressed him. “I will not abandon what God has given me,” Jeffrey replied. But, he said, God had shown him a vision about Kathy. “Jeffrey told me that God had told him that Kathy was going to die before the mountain of the Lord was raised,” Alice recalled. “He told me that she wasn’t going to make it. It was just going to be the two of us and our children.”
Chief Yarborough wasn’t the only person curious in late 1989 about the whereabouts of Dennis and Cheryl Avery. Dennis’s brother, Tim, also wanted to know where they were. Tim had gotten married and he and his bride, Lisa, had sent Dennis and Cheryl a wedding invitation. Tim thought they’d come or at least send a card, but they had done neither. He thought it was strange that no one had heard from Dennis and Cheryl since April. Tim had called Cheryl’s mother, Donna Bailey, and asked if she had heard from them. She hadn’t. It was as if they had disappeared.
Through their contacts at church, Tim and Lisa had managed to piece together stories about Jeffrey. They knew that he’d declared himself a prophet and had taken his band to West Virginia. At first, Tim and Lisa didn’t believe that Dennis and Cheryl had actually gone with Jeffrey. “They weren’t the kind who would want to live in the wilderness,” Lisa recalled. “Cheryl had a frog phobia.” But Tim had pointed out that his brother and Cheryl weren’t the sort who usually joined cults either. Anything seemed possible.
At one point, Tim and Lisa discussed driving to West Virginia to check on Dennis and Cheryl, but they decided against it after they learned that Danny Kraft’s father had gone into Jeffrey’s camp during the summer and had been unsuccessful at convincing Danny to leave. “We felt Dennis and Cheryl were old enough to run their own lives,” Tim said. “What were we going to tell them? That they couldn’t stay?”
Shortly before Thanksgiving, however, Lisa had a strange experience. “I was praying, asking God to protect them and the children,” she recalled, “and I suddenly felt that God was telling me that it was okay, that Dennis and Cheryl and the children were okay, and I didn’t need to be praying for them anymore.”
That struck Lisa as odd. “I asked myself, ‘Why wouldn’t I need to be praying for Dennis’s family? Why would God tell me that they were okay?,’ and then it hit me. Maybe they’re dead. Maybe that is why they are safe now—because they are with God.”
Lisa didn’t share her thoughts with Tim. She didn’t want to alarm him. But she asked God in a prayer if Dennis and Cheryl and the children were with Him in paradise. Is that why she didn’t need to worry about them anymore?
When Lisa Avery finished praying, she felt certain that God had given her an answer. And she was even more disturbed than before about her in-laws.
Jeffrey had told all of his followers that they would never be able to make it on their own if they quit the group. About a week after Debbie left, she telephoned Jeffrey at Macks Creek.
“Can I come back?” she asked.
Debbie had visited with her children in Independence and also talked to a few friends. But she had spent most of her time searching for Greg. His parents wouldn’t tell her where he was hiding. Now she was desperate. “I didn’t have anyone else to turn to but the group,” she said. “I didn’t care if Jeffrey killed me. I just didn’t want to be alone.”
A friend drove her to Rick Luffs barn the day before Thanksgiving. Everyone was happy to see her, particularly Sharon. Debbie was still the group’s nurse and Sharon had discovered that she was pregnant. She was going to have Richard’s baby. Debbie had never seen a more forsaken lot. “All of us had staked our lives on Jeffrey. We had believed he was a prophet and now we were all beginning to realize that we had been deceived,” she recalled. “It was a gloomy Thanksgiving.”
Jeffrey had promised to spend Thanksgiving Day with Alice. Donna and Ralph were going to their son’s house for dinner. Alice told Jeffrey to bring the kids around two o’clock. She got dressed and fixed a big dinner, but Jeffrey didn’t arrive until nearly eight. He and Kathy had been quarreling, he said. Things at the barn were not going well.
“It’s almost time for us to go to California,” he told her.
Four days after Thanksgiving, Rick Luff and his father knocked on the door of the trailer where Jeffrey and Kathy were living. Rick had discovered that Jeffrey had two wives. He didn’t believe in polygamy. He told Jeffrey to get off his property. The others in the barn were told that they were no longer welcome either if they were sticking with Jeffrey. Otherwise, they could stay until they found somewhere else to go.
Jeffrey and Kathy packed their belongings and then Jeffrey went to talk to his followers. He told them that they should each find somewhere to live during the winter. He was going away for a while, but he would contact them and tell them where to send him money. In the spring, they would get together. By then he would have new revelations and they would return to the wilderness and work on opening the third seal in Revelation.
With no show of emotion, Jeffrey got into the truck with Kathy and his children and drove away. He had decided to take Kathy to live with one of her girlfriends. He and the children would return to Macks Creek. As soon as Alice’s brother sold the ATV, generator, and camping equipment, he would be ready to leave Missouri.
Debbie was astounded when Jeffrey left. She looked around. Dennis, Tonya, Keith, Ron, Susie, Sharon, and Danny were all standing in the chilly outdoors with absolutely no idea of what they should do next. Debbie had given up her career as a nurse, sold her house, and cut herself off from her children all because she had believed in Jeffrey. Sharon was pregnant and was now without a husband. Keith had lost his wife and his four sons no longer had their mother. Danny had given up a promising career in art. Dennis had almost been killed in the wilderness and there was no guarantee that his marriage to Tonya would survive. Tonya had been “claimed” by Jeffrey and then kicked out of Jeffrey’s tent. Jeffrey had tried to drive a wedge between Susie and Ron in the wilderness. Greg and Richard were in hiding somewhere. All of the women had been humiliated by Jeffrey during his so-called “intercession” dances. Worst of all, he had killed Dennis, Cheryl, Trina, Becky, and Karen Avery and dragged the group into those murders. They had either participated or kept quiet about it afterward. And now Jeffrey was simply driving away.
“I realized at that moment that Jeffrey hadn’t only killed five people,” Debbie said later, “he had really destroyed all of us too. Our lives were ruined because of this man.”
As Jeffrey’s truck turned onto the road and left Rick Luffs property, Debbie quietly swore.
“Jeff,” she whispered, “you can rot in hell.”
Chapter 50
WITHIN twenty-four hours, everyone but Ron and Susie moved away from the barn. Dennis and Tonya called Tonya’s parents in Independence and went to live with them. Dennis also called a friend in Higginsville, a tiny town north of Warrensburg, who agreed to take in Danny. Debbie moved into a friend’s apartment in Independence. She took Sharon along because she didn’t have anywhere else to go. Keith Johnson and his four sons went to his parents’ farm southwest of Warrensburg. Greg and Richard were still in hiding somewhere in Independence.
It took Rick Luff two days of nonstop counseling, but he finally convinced Ron that Jeffrey really wasn’t a prophet. Ron still believed in the pattern, but he decided that Jeffrey had misused it for his own personal gain. Ron called Jeffrey at Macks Creek and told him that he was quitting the group. Jeffrey didn’t argue. “The scriptures had told me that I would be betrayed,” he said later.
As soon as Debbie learn
ed that Ron and Susie had quit the group, she telephoned Dennis and Tonya.
“Ron and Susie are out,” she announced. “Ron even told Jeff.”
“And they’re still alive?” Dennis asked.
“I’m quitting too,” Debbie said.
Dennis telephoned Ron and asked if he’d really quit. They spoke for nearly an hour and when they finished, Dennis asked Tonya what she thought they should do. Tonya hadn’t believed in Jeffrey for a long time. “Let’s quit,” she said. Dennis agreed. He telephoned Debbie. “We’re out too,” he said.
Debbie began working on Sharon and by nightfall had convinced her that Jeffrey was a fraud. Ron, meanwhile, telephoned Keith and told him that everyone was dropping out.
By December 6, a Wednesday, Kathy and Danny Kraft were the only two group members still loyal to Jeffrey. Everyone figured Kathy was a lost cause, but Ron and Dennis decided to visit Danny personally the following day.
That night, Keith telephoned Jeffrey and threatened to turn him in to the police for murdering the Averys unless he ended his relationship with Kathy by nine o’clock the next morning. “I told him to be a little rough on Kathy, to tell her that he never loved her and had only used her,” said Keith, “because I wanted her back and I wanted her to know exactly what he was.”
Jeffrey sounded nervous as they talked. “Now, Keith,” he said, “there are other people to consider in this. Everyone has something to lose if you go to the police.”
“Do as I say,” Keith replied, “because I’m mad enough to do it.”
Keith said he had written a letter about the murders and had given it to his attorney in a sealed envelope. If anything happened to him, the attorney was to open the letter and notify the police.
“Okay,” said Jeffrey. “I’ll tell her. I’ll send Kathy back to you but I need another day.”
“Just tell her,” said Keith, “to come home.”
As soon as they finished talking, Jeffrey telephoned Kathy in Odessa and told her about Keith’s threat. The next morning, Jeffrey announced to Alice that he needed to run some errands. He drove to Odessa, picked up Kathy, and took her to a motel in a suburb of Kansas City where he was certain that Keith couldn’t find her. They spent the day together and then Jeffrey drove to Higginsville to talk with Danny. He arrived shortly before Dennis and Ron were scheduled to meet him. Jeffrey realized that he was going to need someone to support him in California and Danny was the only wage earner they had left. “Danny’s artistic skills were such that I knew he could find a job anywhere we went.” As always, Jeffrey used his scriptures to convince Danny that God wanted him to go with the “God of the whole Earth” to a city by an ocean. Danny packed his bags and went with Jeffrey to Macks Creek. “We missed saving Danny by only a few hours,” Dennis said later. “If we’d only got to him, I think we could have gotten him out.”
The next morning, a Friday, Ralph and Donna Keehler left their house early for Independence where Ralph was scheduled for a routine checkup at a VA hospital. As soon as the Keehlers’ car drove away from the house, Jeffrey and Alice packed up their belongings. Jeffrey no longer felt safe in Macks Creek. He figured that by this time, Keith would realize that Jeffrey was calling his bluff. Alice left her mother a note. “We may never see each other again,” she wrote. “I’m sorry things turned out this way.”
Jeffrey couldn’t leave for California for at least one more day. Charles Keehler had found a buyer willing to pay $6,000 for the ATV and electric generator, but he wouldn’t have the cash until sometime Saturday. Jeffrey drove to Osage Beach and checked his family and Danny into a motel there. Alice would later recall that it was one of the same motels that Jeffrey had stayed in ten years earlier when he had his first sexual affair with his fellow hospital worker.
On Saturday morning, Jeffrey met Charles and collected $5,400 of the $6,000. Charles kept $600 as a commission. Still worried that Keith might be hunting him, Jeffrey returned to Osage Beach and told everyone that they were moving to a different motel, this time in Springfield. On Sunday morning, December 10, Jeffrey informed Alice that he had to run a few more errands. He drove to Kansas City by himself, met with Kathy and gave her some of the cash. They agreed that she would stay behind in the Kansas City motel until Jeffrey sent for her. Somehow, he would force Alice to accept Kathy as a fellow wife.
Jeffrey was nervous when he returned to Springfield that night. “Whenever Jeffrey is under extreme pressure, he absolutely and totally engulfs himself in his sexual fantasies and shuts out the real world,” said Alice. “It’s how he copes.” Jeffrey asked Alice to take him shopping. They bought a bra, panties, nylons, a dress, and low-heeled women’s shoes, Alice said. Back at the motel, Alice gave Jeffrey his bath, shaved all of the hair off his body except for his head and put curlers in his shoulder-length hair. She spent nearly an hour applying makeup to his face. When she was finished, Jeffrey dressed in the women’s clothing and they drove to a grocery store.
“He had me walk with him up and down the aisle, but he was afraid to go through the checkout stand.” Instead, Jeffrey hurried out to the truck and when Alice joined him, he hiked up his skirt and ordered her to perform oral sex, Alice said later.
On that same Sunday night, Jeffrey’s ex-followers were meeting in the apartment where Debbie and Sharon were staying. By this time, Debbie had found Greg, and he and Richard were at the meeting. Greg had told Debbie that he cared about her as a friend, but he no longer considered them married. Richard had not been as cordial to Sharon.
During the meeting, everyone looked to Ron for guidance. He began by talking about how Jeffrey had duped them, but the conversation quickly turned to the murder of the Averys and their culpability. Everyone was optimistic at first. After all, it was Jeffrey who had done the actual shooting. None of the women had been in the barn. Tonya hadn’t even been at the farm during the killing; neither had Dennis or Keith. The only thing that those two men had done was help dig the pit in the barn and they could claim that Jeffrey had told them it was a baptismal font. They could claim that they really didn’t know what Jeffrey had planned. Greg, Richard, and Ron were going to have a tougher time since they had participated in the murders, the group decided. But all they had done was follow Jeffrey’s orders. In fact, just before the men had gone into the barn, Jeffrey had called them into his bedroom at the farmhouse and shown them the .45-caliber pistol that he was going to use. He had asked them one by one if they were “in or out.” That questioning could be interpreted as a death threat if the right spin was put on the story.
The longer the group talked about it, the better their rationalizations sounded. But when Keith suggested that they all march down to the police station and report Jeffrey, the room suddenly fell silent. Reality hit. Dennis, Cheryl, Trina, Becky, and Karen had been dumped into a pit and murdered. No one had stopped Jeffrey. No one had gone to the police before or afterward. Most of them had lied to the FBI on April 18 when questioned at the farm. Clearly, Jeffrey wasn’t going to be the only person prosecuted. Some of them were going to be punished.
Why not lie? someone suggested. If they all stuck together, they could blame Jeffrey, Alice, Damon, and Danny. It would be their word against the others’. Dennis and Keith opposed that idea. Why should they commit perjury when they clearly weren’t in as much trouble as everyone else? Self-preservation had kicked in.
About halfway through the meeting, Keith told everyone that he had already given a letter to his lawyers that described the killings. “Everyone told Keith that he had to get that letter back,” Debbie said later. What if Keith was killed in a car accident driving home that night? The police would inadvertently find out about the Averys.
“We have to do something,” Keith said, “or else Jeffrey is just going to go down the road and do this all over again.”
Debbie finally made a plea. “I need some time with my children,” she said. “I want a couple of months with my kids in case we all go to jail.” All of the others except for Keith openl
y agreed. Keith didn’t say another word. “It was clear that they didn’t want to go to the police, but I wasn’t going to promise that,” said Keith. Not hearing any objection, Ron made it official. No one would go to the police without first alerting the group, he said. That way, they could get their stories straight, hire attorneys, and cut some sort of deal so the blame would be put where it belonged—on Jeffrey and Alice.
On Monday morning, Jeffrey, Alice, their children, and Danny began their four-day drive to California in the Nissan truck. Jeffrey had decided to go to San Diego because that is where he had been stationed while in the navy and he was familiar with the city. As they drove, Jeffrey asked Alice to read him the entire book of Isaiah. He was looking for clues, he explained. He wanted to know what God desired from the “God of the whole earth.”
Jeffrey and the others arrived in San Diego on December 14, according to the registration card at the Traveler Motel Suites, an eighty-five-room motel located five miles from downtown San Diego. Alice had used their actual names on the card. Their room contained a bedroom, kitchenette, and living room with foldout sofa-bed. During the ride west, Alice had asked Jeffrey where Kathy was. He’d lied and told her that she had returned to Iowa. The morning after Jeffrey and the others arrived at the motel, he urged Alice, Damon, and Danny to take the children outside to play. He needed to be alone to study his scriptures, he said. Alice suspected that Jeffrey was trying to get rid of her so she waited outside the motel room for five minutes and then flung open the door.
“Jeff was sitting naked on the bed masturbating while talking on the phone. I knew it was her. He was talking to the bitch.”
Jeffrey slammed down the receiver and accused Alice of being rebellious. She started screaming. He pushed her into the bathroom and slammed the door. He refused to let her out for three hours.