A Real Estate Jewel With and Eerie Cast
Before it became the elegant coffin of an apocalyptic cult, the $1.6-million estate at the end of the Colina Norte cul-de-sac was simply prime Southern California property: three acres on a hilltop. Seven bedrooms, 7 1/2 baths, an elevator. Outside a pool, tennis court, even a putting green.
The glossy pages of a real estate bible annointed the residence, with its sweeping ocean and canyon views, one of San Diego’s dream homes.
But for real estate agents, showing the luxury home at the top of the long, winding driveway was a challenge.
First, there was Brother Logan, a lanky leader of the commune that rented the sprawling Spanish-style home for $10,000 a month. Tall and quietly intense, he routinely restricted access to the property to a four-hour period, one day a week, and reminded one agent of the amiably spooky butler Lurch from television’s “The Addams Family.”
Then there was the 9,200-square-foot home’s austere interior. The bedrooms, with metal-frame bunk beds and desktop computers, looked as if they belonged in dormitories. The living room was virtually devoid of furnishings, except a large-screen television with jumbo speakers. And on the fireplace mantel was a stark, framed drawing of an extraterrestrial. Underneath the rendering was the caption: “A member of the next level.”
One real estate agent said the place reminded her of a spaceship.
In fact, Brother Logan and others would tell agents, it was their “ship.” The group saw it as nothing more than a way station on their journey back to a distant star that was their “home,” the agents said Thursday.
To get to their celestial home, their literature said, adherents had to be willing to leave behind their “human body.”
“An E.T. you must become before you die to go to heaven,” announced an eerie page from their World Wide Web site last September. “This entering into their glorified or heavenly body takes place aboard a next level space craft above the Earth’s surface.”
However prophetic their story of “space travel” seems now, it barely drew notice in the affluent enclave of Rancho Santa Fe. Home to a reported 5% of the nation’s millionaires, according to local real estate agents, it is an address coveted for its privacy as much as its rustic beauty, a place where residents are accustomed to the occasional well-heeled eccentric.
It was this combination of isolation, respectful neighborly distance and stunning natural beauty that made the trilevel home the perfect setting for a seemingly gentle clan to quietly prepare their macabre departure from Earth.
Six months ago, real estate agent Marvin Caldwell and a partner, who declined to be identified, first met Brother Logan and about a dozen others from his group. The occasion was a yard sale outside a similar hilltop estate the group was then renting, not far from the one where 39 bodies were discovered Wednesday.
“He said they were selling the stuff because they were planning on moving,” Caldwell said. “He said they were preparing to take a long journey.”
Several times, Caldwell’s partner recalled, the group members slipped up when they described their plan. “They said they were planning on moving to another ship. They would slip sometimes and catch themselves and say ‘home,’ ” the partner said.
That previous residence, which went for about $7,000 a month, was apparently one of several the group had rented in the San Diego area over the last several years, the agents said they were told by Brother Logan. Others were in the nearby Fairbanks Ranch and the Poway/Rancho Bernardo vicinity.
“A lot of times, they lived in properties that were up for sale so they could rent month-to-month,” Caldwell recalled. “They didn’t want to get tied up in a lease.”
The Colina Norte estate was such a place.
On the market for almost a year, it became home to Brother Logan and the group last October, though they apparently were still paying rent at the other home while they sold off most of its contents, including brand new television sets and furniture.
Perched atop one of the highest lots in Rancho Santa Fe, boasting majestic views in an area famous for its winding canyons lined with coastal live oaks, the Colina Norte property went begging for suitors and never received an offer, agents said.
Scott Warren of Dyson & Dyson Real Estate Associates said that before he showed the property two weeks ago to a wealthy Southern California couple, he had been warned by a listing agent that the tenants were “a little strange.”
“That can mean anything in Rancho Santa Fe,” he said. “There are a lot of people with a lot of money, and they can be a little eccentric, or decorate things a little differently.”
He and the couple were greeted at the door by a “Brother-something,” a gray-haired man described as about 6-foot-5, very calm and serene, who wore jeans and a T-shirt and had an almost military bearing. Like the rest of the men and women they would meet, he had very short hair.
“He was definitely in charge,” Warren said. “He was very cordial, but very intimidating. He had a heavy presence.”
The leader asked them to take off their shoes and don surgical booties. The request was not unusual, Warren said, because homeowners sometimes ask buyers to remove their shoes to protect their Oriental rugs and parquet floors. But this time the reason was different, he said.
“He asked us to take off our shoes because they were a religious group and shoes were contaminating,” Warren said.
He led them into a large living room with a 60-inch TV screen and “a lot of computer monitors and sound equipment.” Then he took them up to an exercise room on another level that had a ballet barre and mirrors. This room had a score of computers and people quietly typing away. “They were working like little worker bees,” Warren recalled.
The bedrooms too had computers.
“It was definitely weird,” said Warren. “But I’ve been in real estate for 20 years, and you see a lot of weird stuff.”
When authorities arrived at the home Wednesday afternoon, they found bodies in seven of its rooms. Lying serenely on comforters covering neatly made beds, the dead were several to a room except in the master bedroom where there was only the body of a 66-year-old white male.
The rooms where the bodies were found all had stacks of videos and vases with fresh cut flowers. Officials said that in one big room the group had set up a sort of shrine where two people, presumably the group’s leaders, could address the others.
Three weeks before the grim discovery, real estate agent Caldwell and his partner had visited the property with two different groups of prospective buyers. As always, they were met by Brother Logan who allowed them inside, this time without an appointment.
And as always, Caldwell and his partner said, the group worked away on computers as visitors toured the home, which included what the agents described as a vast library of books.
“Every morning, Brother Logan told us, they got up at 4 a.m., got their telescope and looked at their home star in the northeast sky,” Caldwell said. “To him, it was not a spiritual experience. He was looking at his home.”
When she heard about the deaths of those she had seen only weeks ago, Caldwell’s partner said, her first reaction was not so much shock but grief.
“I felt sad. I cried when I heard,” she said. “I suddenly realized what they were referring to as their journey.”
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Inside the Mansion
Thirty-nine bodies were found in a rented Rancho Santa Fe mansion. Officials say the people were members of a cult and apparently committed suicide by consuming a mixture containing a lethal drug.
The People
Women: 21
Men: 18
Ages: 20 to 72
Members of the Heaven’s Gate group had outlined their philosophy on a Web site.
*
The Property
Owner: Sam Koutchesfahani
Purchased: May, 1994, for $1.3 million
Rented to: “Brother Logan,” $10,000/month
Size: 7 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms; 9,200 square feet on three acres of land
Asking price: On market at $1.6 million
*
Where Bodies Were Found
A systematic plan for the mass suicide was apparently carried out in waves. Although exact locations of bodies has not been released, many of the bodies were found in bedrooms with bunk beds.
*
Common Characteristics
The bodies shared these traits:
Closed-cropped hair
Black shoes, black pants
Lying on back
Most had upper bodies draped in purple cloth
Packed suitcase at foot of bed
Carrying $5 bills or quarters
Some had eyeglasses at side
Identification packet in pocket
*
The Death Plan
The San Diego County coroner said the group carried out the plan over three days:
Group 1: A group of 15 people killed themselves. The second group cleaned up afterward.
Group 2: Fifteen more people committed suicide. The third group cleaned up afterward.
Group 3: Seven people killed themselves. The remaining two removed plastic bags from the seven and then killed themselves.
*
Lethal Mixture
Investigators found the fatal recipe in most victims’ pockets.
Take pudding or applesauce and mix with phenobarbital, drink it down with alcohol, lie back and relax.
Plastic bags on heads may have been used to hasten death.
Sources: San Diego County Sheriff’s Dept. and Coroner, Times reports
