Prophet of Death_The Mormon Blood Atonement Killings

by Pete Earley

  By midnight, all of the various officials who would play some role in the case had been notified. The county coroner drove to the barn to look at the grave. It was beginning to fill with water. While digging, the firefighters had accidentally cut through a drain. The coroner and Yarborough agreed that it would be better to resume the exhumation in the morning, after Dunlap arrived. That way there wouldn’t be any more mishaps.

  It was well after 2:00 A.M. when Yarborough walked over to his car. Before getting inside, he looked around. No one was watching him. He turned and vomited into the grass.

  “I wanted to retire right then,” he later said, “because I knew what we were going to find in the morning.”

  Lieutenant Dunlap and Rick Kent, a supervisor at the Lake County Regional Forensic Laboratory, took control of the site on January 4. Dunlap arrived just in time. Some of the volunteer firemen had returned to the barn with a hose that they wanted to use to drain the water from the grave. Dunlap ordered the men to bail out the hole with buckets. Each was then dumped through a sieve to check for evidence, such as bullets. Once the water was cleared, Dunlap and Kent began using hand trowels to remove the clay from around the hip of the partially uncovered corpse. Every scoop of clay was put into a bucket and carried outside to the sieve. The clay was so thick that the firemen had to use water to break it apart.

  Because the body in the pit was badly decomposed, it was impossible to tell at first if it was Dennis Avery, although it seemed to be a man because of its size. As Dunlap and Kent continued to unearth it, they found another body at the feet of the first. It was Cheryl. When they started to unearth the head, both men grimaced. Gray duct tape was wrapped around the face, like a mummy.

  As the two men continued digging, Steven LaTourette stood away from the grave next to the barn door where he leaned against an old washer and dryer. The thirty-five-year-old prosecutor had intentionally chosen to stand in a spot that prevented him from seeing directly into the grave. He felt that it was important for him to be present during the exhumation, but LaTourette had a daughter the same age as six-year-old Karen Avery and he was having trouble watching the grisly proceedings. An aide made trips back and forth from the grave to LaTourette, filling him in on what was happening.

  “They found the first two bodies rather quickly and then there was quite a bit of time before they found the third,” LaTourette said later. “You could feel the deflation in the room among the people working when the third one was found. All of us had hoped that the Avery girls weren’t in the pit. That just the parents were buried there.”

  The third body was clearly a child, resting on her mother’s corpse. It would later be identified as Becky. As they began uncovering it, they found a fourth body, smaller still, with its head touching the hips of Becky’s corpse. It would later be determined through dental records that this fourth body was Karen Avery. Because of the location of Karen’s body, Dunlap and Kent decided to remove the remains of the thirty-six-pound girl first. Her body was held together mostly by her blue jacket and jeans. Water had again seeped into the pit, turning the clay into a thick muck. It was bitter cold in the barn. A light rain was falling outside. The stench remained almost unbearable. Dunlap and Kent were becoming exhausted. As they gently began lifting the small corpse, the mud and air made a sucking noise and created a vacuum that pulled on the remains. From a distance, LaTourette and Yarborough watched as Kent and Dunlap finally freed Karen’s tiny remains from the pit. As they lifted the body from the mud, the girl’s left foot fell off.

  “When I saw that little girl’s foot fall off,” LaTourette said later, “I began to feel nothing but pure, unadulterated hate for Jeffrey Lundgren.”

  To prevent the other bodies from breaking apart, Dunlap suggested that each one be wrapped in a sheet before it was lifted from the grave. He and Kent could then lift the sheets, rather than touching the delicate corpses. Becky’s body and the remains of Cheryl and Dennis were removed in sheets and loaded into body bags.

  Fatigued, Dunlap climbed out of the muck and turned his digging trowel over to Deputy Ronald Walters. A few minutes later, the fifth body was found, curled in a fetal position. This child, identified later as Trina, had been a few steps away from the others, facing her father’s corpse. After Kent and Walters gingerly cleared away the mud from Trina, they gently lifted the corpse so that they could slip a sheet under it. As Walters raised Trina’s head, the girl’s scalp and braided hair came loose in his hand.

  At a news conference held after all of the bodies had been taken away by ambulances, LaTourette became so emotional that he abandoned the traditional “they are innocent until proven guilty” role that legal protocol demanded. Instead, the prosecutor angrily denounced Jeffrey and his followers. “These people are . . . the cruelest, most inhumane people this county has ever seen,” he said. “They’re going to die in the electric chair for these crimes.”

  It was well after midnight when Chief Yarborough finally got home that night. Gail was already in bed asleep. Yarbotough took a shower, tucked his clothes in the washing machine, and crawled in beside her. As he lay there, he could still smell the stench from the barn, and despite his best efforts to block it out of his mind, all he could visualize was Karen being lifted from the grave and seeing her foot fall off. Finally, exhaustion brought sleep, but he was jarred awake minutes later. His entire body had started shaking. “It was that damn smell,” he said later. “I just couldn’t stop smelling it.” The image of Karen returned and within seconds, his mind’s eye called up the sight of Walters holding a young girl’s ponytail and scalp in his hand.

  Yarborough felt ill. He got up and walked through his dark house into the living room, where he found a tin of Copenhagen. Tucking tobacco between his lip and front teeth, he stepped over to the front picture window in his home. It had gotten even colder outside and the drop in temperature had changed that day’s gloomy drizzle into a light snow that drifted down, reflected in the moonlight. As he peered outside at the pristine beauty, he shook his head. Things like this weren’t supposed to happen in Kirtland.

  Yarborough thought about Jeffrey. He was out there somewhere. Maybe he was awake, staring outside. Yarborough wondered: What sort of man can put three children into a pit and kill each one? What sort of man can then claim that God told him to do it? And what sort of people could follow such a cold-blooded killer? Only two days earlier, Yarborough had confronted Dennis Patrick. From all appearances, he seemed like a decent guy, not someone who would knowingly participate in such a crime. Why had he followed Jeffrey?

  As he stood there alone in the darkness, Yarborough felt a sudden urge. There was something that he needed to do, a promise that needed to be uttered. It didn’t matter that he was alone. Someone had to say it. Someone had to react to the insanity of that day, to Jeffrey’s cruelty. Someone had to react to the stench of death. Someone had to care enough to not be able to sleep. God was a witness, maybe Karen was too, and maybe Yarborough was just talking to himself. Later, he wouldn’t be certain why he had felt the need to speak. It didn’t matter. He just did. Someone had to.

  “He’ll pay.” Yarborough said. Jeffrey Lundgren was going to pay for what he had done.

  Chapter 52

  “DAD! Mom!” Danny Kraft yelled, bursting into the motel bedroom that Jeffrey and Alice shared. “The barn is on television!”

  Both of them scrambled out into the living room of their motel suite. On the screen, the bodies of the Avery family were shown being carried by ambulance attendants from the barn. An old photograph of Jeffrey appeared, followed by a film clip of LaTourette promising that Jeffrey and his followers were going to “fry.” It was 11:30 P.M. in San Diego on January 4.

  “Get the stuff packed!” Jeffrey told Danny. Turning to Alice, he announced, “Let’s go!”

  Alice and her children hurried out to the truck. Jeffrey told Danny that he’d come back for him later. With their four children in the back of the Nissan, Jeffrey pulled out of the motel pa
rking lot as Alice looked up and down the street, half expecting a squad of police cars.

  Jeffrey drove to National City, another suburb of San Diego, and cruised a strip of cheaper hotels. He was looking for one that wasn’t part of a national chain. He was afraid that the police might have sent his photograph and description to the better-known motels.

  “There’s one,” Alice said, as they approached the Santa Fe Motel. Fearing that he might be recognized, he sent Alice to register. “Use fake names,” he warned.

  Alice was nervous. She had chosen the name Anna for herself and planned to use James for Jeffrey. But as she filled out the registration, she couldn’t think of an appropriate last name so she simply wrote: Anna James, and handed the clerk a fifty-dollar bill. He took the card without examining it and handed her the key to Room 29.

  As soon as everyone was in the room, Jeffrey said he was going back to get Danny. “Don’t wait for me,” he told her. Alice suddenly felt angry. She suspected that Jeffrey was going to warn Kathy. She was certain that he had brought her to San Diego by bus and was hiding her somewhere. But as Jeffrey started toward the door, Alice called out and then ran up to him. She kissed him and they hugged. She was scared, really scared.

  Jeffrey found Danny waiting in the room. Together, they drove to a nearby motel where Kathy was living. Jeffrey told Danny that he wanted him to stay with Kathy. He’d figure out some way for them to get out of town. It was after 2:30 A.M. when Jeffrey returned to the Santa Fe Motel. Alice didn’t ask where Danny was. She didn’t want to know. She was too preoccupied even to question Jeff about Kathy. Alice had been watching Cable News Network. “It’s been on every hour,” she told Jeffrey. “The prosecutor says we’re all going to fry.” Jeffrey tried to calm her, but Alice was too frightened.

  “I want you to kill the children and me,” she announced. She began to cry. “Do it now, while they are asleep, but kill me first.” Jeffrey looked at Alice. More than anyone, he knew that she had a habit of being melodramatic. But she was serious this time.

  “She really wanted to die and she wanted me to kill the children.”

  “Jeffrey was aghast,” Alice said later. “He told me that he couldn’t harm his own children. I said, ‘Okay, let’s call my mom, she’ll come get them, but then I want you to kill me.’ I just wanted to get it over with.’’

  Jeffrey agreed that they needed to call Donna Keehler about the children. As far as killing Alice, that was something that he would have to consult God about, he said. The next day, Jeffrey and Damon walked to a pay phone. Damon dialed the number and asked for Donna. That had been Jeffrey’s idea. He thought the police might recognize his voice, but not Damon’s. As soon as Donna answered, Jeffrey got on the phone.

  “Can you come get the kids?” he asked.

  Donna was furious, but she didn’t want Jeffrey to hang up.

  “Of course I’ll come,” she said. “Where are you?”

  “I can’t say, just start driving west; call us at nine o’clock and we’ll give you more directions,” Jeffrey said. He gave her the number of a pay phone to call.

  Donna was incredulous. How could she simply start driving west? she asked. But Jeffrey was afraid to stay on the line any longer. Even Donna was worried that it could be tapped.

  As soon as she put down the phone, Donna grabbed a telephone directory. Jeffrey had given her a number with a 619 area code. According to the directory, 619 was in southern California. Donna knew Jeffrey was hiding in San Diego. It made sense that he would run to a city where he’d lived before. As she was closing the directory, the phone rang a second time. It was Jeffrey. He had given her the number of a pay phone that didn’t accept incoming calls. He told her another number with a 619 prefix and reminded her to telephone him the next evening at nine o’clock based on Kansas City time.

  Donna called her sister and brother-in-law. She didn’t want to drive to California alone and she knew that Ralph couldn’t make the trip. They agreed to go along. The next morning was a Saturday, January 6. As soon as Donna pulled out of her driveway, a car carrying BATF agents slipped in front of her, another car pulled up behind. The agents told Donna that they knew all about her conversation with Jeffrey. Worried about the fate of her grandchildren, Donna agreed to cooperate. She was, in fact, a bit relieved. “I wanted to get those kids out of there safely in case Jeffrey began shooting. They were what was most on my mind. Jeffrey had gone too far and I wasn’t certain that Alice could be helped either.”

  The BATF had already traced both of the numbers that Jeffrey had given Donna. One was a pay phone outside a 7-Eleven store; the second was at a restaurant not far from the Santa Fe Motel. With her federal-agent escort, Donna drove southwest toward Springfield and then on to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Just before 9:00 P.M., she stopped in Oklahoma City at a restaurant and dialed the number that Jeffrey had given her. Damon answered and told his grandmother that she should keep driving west and call him on Sunday at noon Kansas City time for new instructions.

  Agents from the San Diego BATF office had staked out the telephone and they watched as Damon completed the call. A plain-clothes agent followed Damon as he walked back to the Santa Fe Motel, but the agent didn’t see which room he went into. The stakeout was moved from the phone booth to the motel.

  Inside Room 29, Alice was becoming more and more depressed. Caleb had started to cry. Kristen was sucking her thumb. Jason refused to speak to anyone. Damon was trying to comfort them but wasn’t having much luck. Jeffrey had left the motel earlier that day and driven over to see Danny and Kathy. They were frightened too. Jeffrey had taken his family’s laundry to Danny and told him to get it washed and dried. He had left Danny the Nissan truck so that he could bring the clean clothes back to the Santa Fe Motel when he finished. On his way to the Laundromat, Danny had taken Jeffrey back to his motel.

  Damon told Jeffrey that Donna was in Oklahoma City and that everything was going as planned. Later that night, after Alice was certain that everyone was asleep, she asked Jeffrey if he had talked to God and learned whether it was okay for Jeffrey to kill her.

  “The Lord says it’s okay for you to die,” he told her. But Jeffrey said that God expected Alice to take her own life and that He wanted her to wait until after the children were gone before she did it. Jeffrey figured the FBI would tail Donna to San Diego, but he told Alice that he had come up with a way to deliver the kids to her mother without being arrested. They would put them on a bus and then direct Donna to the next stop on the line. Once they said good-bye to their children, Jeffrey and Alice would come back to the motel and he would stay with her while she took an overdose of pills. Jeffrey had already sent Damon to buy two bottles of Excedrin P.M., two six-packs of beer and a bottle of Jack Daniel’s whiskey. That would be sufficient to kill her, he said. Jeffrey still hadn’t told Alice about Kathy. After he was freed of his children and Alice committed suicide, Jeffrey and Kathy would find somewhere to hide and he would start finding a new group of followers.

  Alice decided to write a letter for her mother. “I told her not to question anything that she had done. I told her that I knew when I married Jeff that he was different from anyone I had ever met. I told her that I had already talked to Krissy about menstruation. I told her things about each of the children.”

  When Alice finished the letter, Jeffrey told her that he wanted to make love. Alice agreed. What began as a tender session soon turned violent, Alice later claimed. “I was on the bed with my head laying on the side and Jeffrey was thrusting himself into my mouth and he began doing it so hard that it began to hurt and I couldn’t breathe,” she said. “I began to gag and I began to vomit but he was so caught up in it that he refused to stop until he was finished.

  “I went into the bathroom and threw up and I climbed in the shower and Jeff came in and got into the shower and I said, ‘Jeff, why do you have to do that? Why do you always have to hurt me? And he said, ‘Because it felt so good.’

  “He began to cry and he cried and cried
and cried and begged me to forgive him. He told me that he loved me and there was no one in the world that he loved as much as me and he was sorry. I held him in my arms and told him that it was okay. When we went to bed, he curled up next to me and said, ‘Mommy I’m afraid.’ I said, ‘It’s okay. It’s okay.’ And we went to sleep.”

  A few minutes before ten o’clock, which would have been noon in Kansas City, Donna stopped outside Holbrook, Arizona, and called the pay phone in San Diego. She told Damon that she’d be in San Diego late that night. Damon told her to call that same number at midnight. Jeffrey had decided to send the children to her by putting them in a taxi, Damon said. Donna told him that everything was still okay.

  BATF Agent Van Haelst watched Damon as he talked to his grandmother. Van Haelst had flown to California to supervise the arrest and he was sitting in an unmarked car across the street. Damon seemed nonchalant when he left the phone and started walking toward the motel. He didn’t pay any attention to a woman who was jogging through the motel parking lot. She was an undercover agent, and when she saw Damon enter Room 29, she stepped into a telephone booth on the sidewalk directly in front of the motel and dialed a number that connected her with Van Haelst.

  “He went into room twenty-nine,” she said.