Great Among Nations Follower Reportedly Abducted : Kidnap or Rescue From a Cult? Police Wonder, Again

Even as a member of a religious group in Coronado prepares to testify that she was kidnaped and falsely imprisoned by her family and deprogrammers, authorities are wondering if they have yet another in a string of similar cases on their hands.

If so--and the answer may unfold today--there is some disagreement among them about how to handle it.

San Diego police say they are investigating the reported kidnaping of Dina Geerling, 37, a longtime member of a group called Great Among the Nations who was reported abducted Thursday in the parking lot of her San Diego workplace. Witnesses told police they saw four men force Geerling into a brown Chevrolet sedan that then sped out of a parking lot in the 8300 block of Vickers Street.

18th Case in 5 Years

Hers was the 10th abduction--or rescue, or kidnaping, depending on various points of view--in five years involving members of the group, which, up until Thursday, had 17 close-knit members. The group calls itself a fundamental Christian Bible study and evangelism ministry, while critics characterize it as a cult whose members finance what they say is the lavish life style of the group’s leader, Benjamin Altschul.

Police Detective David Morris, who investigated three abductions of members when the group was in Tierrasanta, said he received a phone call Wednesday from “someone who is close” to Geerling’s family, reporting that the woman would be released today unharmed.

Morris said he considers the six days Geerling was held in custody, by unknown people at an unknown location, an apparent attempt to deprogram her.

Whether the abductors will be arrested on suspicion of kidnaping and false imprisonment or allowed to go free because they rescued her from the group will be determined after he talks to Geerling, Morris said.

“If she wants to prosecute, I’ll arrest the people on the spot,” Morris said. “I’m treating this like a regular kidnaping. But I need cooperative witnesses. If she says she was rescued, and she is thankful, are we going to go to court on that? It’s not a kidnaping if they are rescuing her. It all depends on what she says. . . . “

Carefully Defined

But both the district attorney’s office and the leader of Great Among the Nations say they believe a crime was committed, even if Geerling doesn’t want to press charges.

Gary Rempel, a deputy district attorney who is prosecuting the parents, sister and two other men on charges of kidnaping and falsely imprisoning group member Ginger Brown last year, said the law carefully defines when a person can be abducted from others and not face prosecution.

The criteria are met, Rempel said, if the person is taken away from a dangerous situation and promptly turned over to authorities for his own safety and well-being.

“If (the abductors) were truly concerned about her, I’m sure they would have delivered her forthwith to the police or the FBI,” Rempel said. “We would have heard that she was safe with police. But, with this newest case, when you get into the fifth or sixth day, you have to wonder if she is being deprogrammed or whether they are trying to brainwash her.”

‘Family Member to Us, Too’

Altschul said he was relieved Tuesday with word that Geerling would be released unharmed, but distressed that police hadn’t pursued the case with greater vigor.

“We never kidnaped her into Great Among the Nations. She is a family member to us, too,” he said. “If Dina decides after this kidnaping to do something different with her life, that is her First Amendment right, and I respect that.

“Will she still associate herself with our ministry? I won’t know until I ask her. But I would be flabbergasted and very shocked if she will not go on doing what she did before with us, because she very much liked it.”

Rempel, the prosecutor, said he was surprised by Geerling’s abduction, especially given the district attorney’s decision to prosecute Brown’s parents, sister and two men allegedly involved in her kidnaping and false imprisonment. All five face felony criminal charges when their preliminary hearing begins May 8 in Vista Municipal Court.

Morris said he had no leads on the case until he received a call Wednesday from someone “close to the family who said she is OK and that they haven’t been beating her and that they’ll meet with me tomorrow.”

“There’s no doubt in anybody’s mind that she is OK,” Morris said, although he added that he wasn’t allowed to talk to Geerling or any of her relatives. “I was told everyone is in seclusion. I don’t even know what city they’re in.”