Ownership Rights Dispute Delays Auction of Cultists’ Belongings

A planned public auction of the belongings of the Heaven’s Gate cult won’t happen until ownership rights have been settled, officials said.

The San Diego County public administrator’s office was declared the permanent administrator of the estates of all 39 deceased members of the cult last week, but a group called the Telah Foundation claims that it has ownership rights to their belongings.

The foundation reportedly had a business relationship with members of Heaven’s Gate.

The belongings include computers, bunk beds, white plastic patio chairs and various art objects featuring space aliens.

The Probate Court said it needed more time to decide whether the Telah Foundation’s claim has merit. A June 25 hearing was set.

The dispute effectively blocks the public administrator’s office from selling items from the estates until the ownership issue is resolved.

The county can’t pay off any of the cult’s debts or sell its members’ property until then. Also, the families of 36 cult members who have asked to be reimbursed for a total of $125,817 in burial costs cannot be paid yet.

Members killed themselves in March 1997 with barbiturates and vodka, saying they believed that their souls would be taken to the “next level” on a spaceship trailing the comet Hale-Bopp.