Cultist Linked to Deaths Seized Near San Diego

The leader of a religious cult and two members of his family were arrested in a motel here Sunday in the ritualistic slayings of an Ohio family of five, authorities said.

Jeffrey D. Lundgren, a 39-year-old defrocked minister of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was arrested by agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and local police when he left his second-story room at the Santa Fe Motel and walked toward a public telephone, bureau Special Agent Andrew Vita said.

In the motel, about six miles south of downtown San Diego, agents arrested Lundgren’s wife, Alice, his 19-year-old son, Damon P. Lundgren, and took temporary custody of three of the couple’s minor children.

A search of the motel room found four guns--an AR-15 assault rifle, a .45-caliber pistol, two .44-caliber revolvers--as well as 1,000 rounds of ammunition, nine knives, gas masks, canteens and “survivalist-type gear,” Vita said.

Jeffrey Lundgren’s alleged victims died from .45-caliber bullet wounds. The weapon was never recovered, authorities said.

Investigators also said they found a flag that depicted an eagle and a symbol that resembled a “perversion” of the Star of David. A user’s manual for a machine gun was in the room, but no such weapon was found.

“They had camping gear, web gear that the military would wear--things that can sustain you up in the mountains,” Vita said.

The agent added that the motel room search had led officials to seek a second search warrant for another location in the San Diego area. He would not specify where.

After Sunday’s arrests, federal agents said that of the 13 cult members indicted for the murders of Dennis and Cheryl Avery and their three young daughters, two remain at large. They said, however, that there is no indication that the fugitives, Kathryn Renee Johnson, 36, and Daniel David Kraft, 25, are in the San Diego area.

The bodies of the Averys--Dennis, 49, his wife Cheryl, 42, and their daughters, Trina, 13, Rebecca, 9, and Karen, 5--were found last week buried in a barn near Kirtland, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb. The faces, hands and feet of all five were bound with duct tape and each had been shot at least twice.

Followed Lundgren

The Averys were identified as one-time followers of Lundgren, who had declared himself the “prophet” of his own religion after his break with the church.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer quoted an unidentified police source as saying investigators believe the Averys were killed in a sacrifice performed so the rest of Lundgren’s group could travel to the wilderness, where they would be cleansed and could search for a golden sword.

Investigators said the killings took place during a one-hour period sometime between April 16 and 18 on a farm occupied by the 29-member cult, which lived communally.

The murders were not discovered, however, until an informant mentioned them on New Year’s Eve, officials said.

Since Friday, when seven members of Lundgren’s cult were arrested in Kansas City, Mo., law enforcement officials in nine states have been searching for Lundgren and his family.

On Sunday, an official release from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said the nationwide manhunt had involved “countless leads throughout the United States.”

Stephen E. Higgins, the bureau’s director, said in the statement that interviews with law enforcement officials, church members, citizens, public transportation officials and others, along with “numerous covert surveillances and wide-range intelligence gathering,” had contributed to the arrest of Lundgren.

Lundgren, his wife and son were led from the National City Police Department to cars waiting to take them to the Federal Building in downtown San Diego, where they will be jailed pending a court appearance today.

Jeffrey Lundgren, with shoulder-length hair and a light beard, shook his head several times when reporters shouted questions at him. All three suspects were barefoot and wearing prison jumpsuits. They stared straight ahead as they were placed in separate police cars.

Vita said federal investigators had received a tip that the family was heading for San Diego, and had been attempting to track the family ever since.

Authorities were led to the motel by telephone calls made from a pay phone to another location they had under surveillance, Steven C. LaTourette, a Lake County, Ohio, prosecutor, told a news conference in Painesville, Ohio, on Sunday.

Vita said the Lundgrens’ whereabouts were confirmed Saturday.

The agent said the Lundgrens “don’t have family here that we know. But we know (Jeffrey) spent some time in the Navy in San Diego, 15 or 17 years ago. He may have some contacts here.

“He traveled from Ohio to here,” Vita added. “You can’t go much farther, unless he’s a good swimmer.”

Joy Liu, the motel manager, said Alice Lundgren had checked the family in Wednesday night. She used the name Anna James and said she was from nearby Chula Vista and was looking for shelter to escape beatings by her husband.

Steve Liu, the manager’s son, said the Lundgrens had paid the $37.80 nightly room bill through Tuesday.

He said the Lundgrens did not appear to have a car and that several adults seemed to come and go from the small room. But Liu said he never dealt face-to-face with Lundgren.

“I didn’t even see him. He took out the trash a couple of times,” he said. “There was nothing really unusual.”

Concern for Children

When Lundgren left the motel room alone Sunday morning, 10 federal agents and five plainclothes officers from the National City Police Department moved swiftly to arrest him without resistance, Vita said.

Investigators said they had been cautious about approaching the room because Lundgren’s children could be in danger. But Lundgren had given them the break they needed.

Larry Cornelison, resident agent in charge at the Santa Ana Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms office, said: “If Lundgren had not come out, we probably would have not forced entry because of the kids in there.”

“He was the person we wanted,” Vita said. “But our main concern was the children. Once he was in custody the threat to the children was lessened.”

Vita said he hoped to return the Lundgrens’ minor children--ages 10, 9, and 15--to other family members as soon as possible.

According to officials at the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Lundgren left the church in 1988 after he was defrocked for setting up his own secret religion.

Followers of Lundgren turned all their money over to him and were not allowed to associate with anyone outside the cult, church officials said.

They called Lundgren “very persuasive . . . with an innate ability to perceive a person’s vulnerability or need . . . and to utilize that need for other purposes.”

The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is not related to the larger Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints headquartered in Salt Lake City, although both groups base their beliefs on the Book of Mormon and the Bible.

Neighbors who lived near the cult’s farm in Kirtland said the group left hurriedly in mid-April, leaving behind chickens and rabbits. Authorities said the cult members became nomadic, traveling first to West Virginia, then to southwestern Missouri, then to the suburbs of Kansas City and Independence, Mo.

The group broke up last month, reportedly because of allegations of sexual improprieties.

Some information in this story came from Times wire service reports.