Charges Not Expected in Abduction of Sect Follower

Based on a telephone conversation, the San Diego Police Department believes that a 37-year-old member of the religious group Great Among the Nations does not intend to file charges against her parents or the four men who abducted her last week, an investigator in the case said Thursday.

Lt. Jim Clain said police Detective David Morris spoke with Dina Geerlings on Thursday morning but authorities do not know Geerlings’ whereabouts, nor have they spoken with her in person.

Clain said that Geerlings’ parents have told Morris she has been “successfully deprogrammed.”

Geerlings was abducted from a parking lot in the 8300 block of Vickers Street in Kearny Mesa on April 20, near a bookstore where she was employed. The men reportedly shoved her into a car after an altercation between the abductors and three women who are members of Great Among the Nations.

Geerlings a Longtime Member

The 17-member group claims to be a fundamental Bible study and evangelism ministry, although its critics say it is a cult. Geerlings is a longtime member of the organization, which now has headquarters in Coronado. She is the 10th member of the group to have been taken from it over the past five years.

“David is confident that Geerlings is the one he talked to, and she says she doesn’t want to prosecute,” Clain said. “To some extent, this concerns us. It would be much nicer if we could talk to her face to face, so that we’d know everything was on the up and up. I wish we knew more.

“If she doesn’t want to prosecute, I guess we’ll have to wait--wait and see if there are further developments. We have no way of knowing if she was making these statements to us (while under duress). She says she’s not being held against her will, but we really don’t know. At this time, we’ll have to be satisfied with the telephone account.”

Does Not Know Whereabouts

Benjamin Altschul, the founder and pastor of the controversial group, said he does not know Geerlings’ whereabouts or how to reach her on the telephone.

“Her parents are coming down personally to speak to the police, but they will not tell the police where she is,” Altschul said. “They’re telling the police that she’s seeking rehabilitation and that she’s OK. I believe the police need to see her and want to see her. I find it curious that they aren’t being allowed to see her.”

In a related case, the district attorney’s office is prosecuting family members and two deprogrammers who are alleged to have kidnaped and falsely imprisoned last year Ginger Brown, who was released after four days and returned to the group.