WEBVTT - S3:EP 7 - Manhunt 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:08.320 And I was like trying to grab these books out 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:10.399 of her hand because I didn't want her to get 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:12.520 rid of them. I didn't want her to burn them. 0:00:12.840 --> 0:00:14.760 And I was like please, no, please, no, please no, 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:18.279 and she's like, yes, this is what we're going to do. 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:24.239 Then she took them from me, she took them out 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.000 of my hands, and then she threw them all in 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:32.599 the woodstove. So she closed the door and that was that. 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:35.760 Couldn't retrieve them. They were on fire. 0:00:43.120 --> 0:00:45.920 Christa Lester Pitch peered over a man's shoulder to see 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:48.760 the computer screen. There was a news report on it, 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:52.120 and there was Jess, Jess with her red hair, wearing 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:54.920 a bright red coat and black gloves. She was saying 0:00:54.920 --> 0:00:57.600 something to a man with a microphone, but Krista couldn't 0:00:57.640 --> 0:00:58.360 hear what she said. 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:00.760 It was kind of real, honestly. 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:04.479 Christa was the girl whose mom once burned her books 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:08.120 to cast away Devil Spirits. She was in her twenties, 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:11.600 now standing in a house in spoke Anne, Washington, where 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:16.040 Victor's followers had relocated. She lived there with other River 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:21.200 Road members, all clustered around the screen. Victor's right hand woman, 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:25.399 Jan had warned Christa this news story was coming, but 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:27.440 she wouldn't give her details about what was in it. 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:34.639 She just told her none of it's true. Jan's husband 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:37.840 had his headphones plugged into a computer, so the mouths 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:40.800 on the screen moved, but no sound came out. 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:44.679 And then immediately I went into my room. 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:48.040 She pulled out a tablet she kept hidden there against 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:50.960 the rules, her secret window to the outside world. 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:54.120 Plugged in my headphones and watched it myself. 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:01.440 The tall man with a microphone was Tom Lyden, an 0:02:01.440 --> 0:02:05.440 investigative journalist who'd reached out to Lindsay and Jess. Jess 0:02:05.480 --> 0:02:07.840 led the reporter to the grounds of the shepherd's camp, 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:11.720 where they had all once lived. Large pine trees looked 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:17.680 black against the snow. Lindsay and Jess talked openly about 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:20.560 what had happened to them as maidens, about the sexual 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:23.240 abuse they had experienced when their parents gave them away 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:28.000 to Victor. Jess explained she had never gotten the talk 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:31.480 about sex, but that she knew something was wrong. She 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:34.960 looked straight to the camera and said, my young impressions 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:37.240 of him was he was a scary person because he 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:41.680 yelled a lot, and I was afraid of him when 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:44.080 I said to my parents, this man that you support, 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:48.600 Victor Bernard, raped your daughter. My mom said, the blood 0:02:48.600 --> 0:02:58.480 of the lamp covers it all. Jesus Christ forgives. 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:08.960 And I was really, really sad. I didn't know Lindsay 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:11.799 very well, but I knew Jess. I knew Jess very 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:16.359 very well. She was like a sister to me. Watching 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:23.720 Lindsay's story and watching Jess around my hometown and showing 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:28.240 the Shepherd's camp and seeing the places that I grew up. 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:32.440 At the time, the band aid was starting to get 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:37.760 ripped off for me, like my childhood was suddenly tarnished, 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:42.240 and that's a hard thing to bounce back from. 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:42.480 You know. 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:51.360 It was shocking, but I wasn't surprised. I grew up 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:54.440 in this church. I knew how Victor behaved with young women, 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:57.440 and I knew how they behaved with him. I always 0:03:57.480 --> 0:04:00.839 thought it was weird, so old. 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:06.119 And Krista knew how he behaved with her. She thought 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:09.120 about encounters she'd had with Victor, like when she was 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:11.640 fifteen and he slapped her butt when she walked by, 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:15.160 or another time when she and some girls and their 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:17.760 moms had invited Victor on a picnic. 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:21.799 And one of the moms thought, what a good idea 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:29.159 would be if after lunch the moms leave and we 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:33.520 stay and we lay on blankets with Victor under the trees. 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:36.880 And I did not like that idea. I thought it 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:42.240 was weird. I was just like laying there, not touching anything. 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:48.480 I was not enjoying myself whatsoever. And the other two 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:51.479 girls were like cuddled up next to Victor, and it 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:54.920 was like, what are we even doing? 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.559 Started raining, so Krista got to leave, but she always 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:05.560 wondered what would have happened if the rain hadn't come. 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:11.800 And so, you know, it's not hard for me to 0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:17.800 believe that he went much further with some girls, and 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:21.720 that type of stuff was normal. It was so normal. 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:26.200 We weren't all raped, but we were all. I can 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:29.839 honestly say, beyond all shadow of doubt, that every last 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.280 one of us young girls in that church was in 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:36.080 some type of situation like that at least one time 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:37.479 in our childhood. 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:43.479 But the people around Christa had just one reaction to 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:44.240 the news story. 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:48.080 Everybody around me was saying, it's all lies, even the maiden, 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:52.200 it's all lies. It's all lies. It's all lies. And 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:58.360 I was like but it makes sense though. These girls 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:01.680 they had every thing to lose and they lost it. 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:07.200 They lost the respect of their peers, they lost their families, 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:15.800 and they still came out and told their stories. I 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:20.320 was just like, there's no possible way that they're lying. 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:30.040 These girls had been raped. It was definitely a marked 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:35.800 moment in my life watching these girls. These women, they 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:41.200 did something so strong, and I knew in my soul 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:47.320 that they were telling the truth. What's crazy, this is 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:52.800 really crazy, is Victor had already taken off to Brazil. 0:06:54.760 --> 0:07:24.040 Victor was on the run. 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:17.200 From a cocoa punch and iHeart podcasts This is the 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:20.400 Turning River Road, I'm Erica Lance. 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:34.360 And I'm Alan Lance Lesser Part seven Manhunt. While Krista 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.520 lived in the tightly sealed River Road community in Washington, 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:40.080 Lindsay was on the other side of the country with 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:43.920 a lot more freedom. Lindsay didn't live with her parents anymore, 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:46.400 and by now she'd been out of the cult for years. 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:51.920 Then she learned she was pregnant. It wasn't something she 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:55.160 planned for. The father was a friend and didn't really 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:58.520 want to be involved. If Lindsay was going to have 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:01.360 this baby, it be up to her to raise it 0:08:01.400 --> 0:08:01.960 on her own. 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:05.880 And I was in no position to have a kid, 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:09.600 you know, like I was dealing with so much my 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:14.080 own uncle and Bethesda and my cousin at that point, 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:17.559 like did not support me having my daughter and wanted 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:20.080 me to give her up for adoption and took me 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:23.280 to an adoption agency. And I remember like sitting in 0:08:23.280 --> 0:08:27.360 the office and looking at these books. Couples made books 0:08:27.600 --> 0:08:31.040 of their travels and adventures and their families and what 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.760 they did, how they would raise kids. And I just 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:39.080 keep thinking, my parents gave me up the firstborn. I 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:43.480 could never give my firstborn up. I remember it was 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:45.480 seven weeks and four days when I went to the 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:48.040 clinic and confirmed the pregnancy, and it was just this tiny, 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:54.080 tiny little seed on the screen, and I knew. I 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:58.120 was like, I'm gonna keep you and I want to 0:08:58.160 --> 0:08:58.720 be your mommy. 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:02.920 She was pregnant. When the story broke, she watched herself 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:03.520 on the screen. 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:07.880 It didn't feel real because we'd waited for two years 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:10.720 for anything to happen, and then now everything was blowing 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:13.600 up and it almost seemed like a train that had 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:17.520 gone off its tracks. It was just rolling full speed ahead, 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:21.240 and it was like, Okay, people are hearing this, people 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:24.679 are believing me. Finally, you know, like something is going 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:25.480 to come out of this. 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:31.320 Before the story was on TV, Lindsay and Jess's case 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:36.160 set for two years, seemingly without any decision or movement 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:40.600 or updates. But after the news things started to change. 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:44.920 More media wanted to interview Lindsay, and the US Marshals 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:45.880 wanted to meet with her. 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:48.720 They wanted to meet me and give them, like all 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:51.920 the information I had about Brazil, all the places I 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:55.400 had visited, and I was like, okay, like we are 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:56.360 going somewhere now. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.199 We went back out to Minnesota for the meeting. Jess 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:07.040 was there too. Lindsay hadn't seen her for seven years. 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:10.800 They'd both been interviewed for the news report, but they 0:10:10.840 --> 0:10:14.400 hadn't actually seen each other in person, not since Lindsay 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:18.240 was a Maideness as long red hair was now cropped 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:20.280 to a pixie and bleached blonde. 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:25.880 And of course our clothes were different because we made 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:29.080 most of our clothes. But I still remember like she 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:33.000 had that great smile that I loved so much, and 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:36.199 I remember thinking how good it was to see her smile. 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:41.240 I remember just hugging each other and crying. We just 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:49.720 hugged and cried. She seemed more free and more expressive 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:54.640 from what I had remembered living in the coult and 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:58.040 having to not really be our true selves. 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:03.720 Jess lived in Wisconsin now in a small town called 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.800 River Falls, built around a trickling waterfall. She worked at 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:14.040 a liquor store and had a partner named Mike. Lindsay 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:15.400 showed her pictures of her daughter. 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:17.479 They laughed about the old days. 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:20.320 Remembered how much they loved the sound of new guitar strings. 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:24.600 They started hanging out more, drank beer and watch Netflix, 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:31.040 and Jess showed Lindsay Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, a comedy about 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:33.720 a young woman who leaves an underground bunker when she's 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:37.800 rescued from a doomsday cult leader. In the opening credits, 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:40.360 she steps out into the sun for the first time 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:44.160 in a long prairie dress, the kind Lindsay and Jess 0:11:44.240 --> 0:11:44.720 used to wear. 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:49.560 I at the time was not a fan because I 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.920 thought it minimized everything I was feeling. But she really 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:56.319 liked it. Oh, it was so fun. It was almost 0:11:56.480 --> 0:11:58.840 not that we were like sneaking around doing this, but like, 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:01.359 oh my gosh, I can't believe. Could you ever imagine 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:05.280 that we'd be here, like having some beers and watching 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:09.920 this comedy show together. It was surreal. It was like, 0:12:10.080 --> 0:12:12.319 after all this time and all the terrible stuff that 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:17.080 had happened, we're here, like actively trying to put Victor 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:21.280 in jail, but then also having this bonding time together. 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:24.480 It was It was pretty special. 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:32.720 But I honestly don't think we dove in to deep 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:38.480 memories of even the good times, because I think we 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:42.000 both during that time were just still suffering so much 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:45.200 from all the bad stuff that happened that at times 0:12:45.200 --> 0:12:47.880 it was really hard to remember even the good stuff, 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:50.200 if that makes any sense. 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:57.800 Yeah, just had a happy life in River Falls. But 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:00.720 she had dark times too. Could relate. 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:05.640 Yeah, a lot of dark times. She almost ended up 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.040 in the hospital from trying to commit suicide a couple 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:12.880 of times. I think we both had feelings of abandonment 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:18.359 from our parents and betrayal. We both had common reactions 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:22.440 with wanting to hurt ourselves and just feeling that almost 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:27.600 the pain was too big to handle. I would just 0:13:27.640 --> 0:13:31.400 try to encourage her, and I was hoping that, you know, 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:35.200 going through all of this would really help, would help 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:37.840 in some way. I mean, it doesn't take away what 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:40.440 we went through and the pain, the reality of it all. 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:43.880 But I was hoping that Victor going to jail and 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:47.480 some justice being served would help her. 0:13:48.320 --> 0:13:51.360 It was kind of devastating being as that we were 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:53.600 in the community, that it was all going on, and 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:56.080 nobody was really aware of it until us, you know, 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:57.680 burst out into flames. 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:01.520 Eileen rad Dunn's works at Petrie's Bach, the convenience store 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:04.160 in Finlassen that sells everything you need in this small town, 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.880 gas and groceries and fishing and hunting and camping supplies. 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:11.680 Even though River Road members kept to themselves, they did 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:12.240 go into town. 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:14.359 Sometimes they would. 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:18.920 Come into the store. It was Pete here from time 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:19.280 to time. 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:22.240 Eileen says she saw the women in long dresses walking 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:24.920 through the store with their heads down, no eye contact, 0:14:25.520 --> 0:14:28.840 not talking to anyone else. They'd get what they needed 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:32.160 and leave. She says people knew it was a religious 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:34.960 cult because of how closed they were, but they didn't 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:38.480 really know what was going on inside. Eileen helped clean 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.640 the camp after River Road left. She says she saw 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:43.680 the house where Victor took the maidens. 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:45.080 When you know what happened. 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:46.480 It just gives you a creepy feeling. 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:49.320 And you know what happened, It just gives you a 0:14:49.360 --> 0:14:50.160 creepy feeling. 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:50.880 She says. 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:56.520 Peetrees was the store Lindsay and Jess once daydreamed they'd 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:59.480 run away to when they were little girls. Now they 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:01.760 were on tea and everyone in the store learned what 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:05.920 had really happened. People in Pine County often saw River 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:09.000 Road followers over the years. The cult members had a 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:12.880 cabinet business, a butcher shop. Some ran a construction company too. 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:17.120 The local hairdresser gave followers haircuts a few times. She 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:19.960 noticed how they always came two by two and didn't talk. 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:28.040 It gave her an eerie feeling. Now these girls in 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:31.440 prairie dresses were on the news. A lot of people 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:34.240 in Pine County and across Minnesota saw the news story 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:37.520 about River Road found out what was happening right next door. 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:40.400 Many of them might have seen the broadcasts in their 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:43.120 homes and gone on with their day, ate dinner, went 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:46.360 to work, moved on. But there was one person who 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:49.400 couldn't let the story go, who felt like something needed 0:15:49.400 --> 0:15:53.280 to be done, And before long that person would become 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:54.680 a central part of the story. 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:02.400 Well, the primary images that come back for me are 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:06.360 Lindsay and Jess. That's always my strongest memory of this case. 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:10.720 Rehese Frederickson was a lawyer in his late thirties when 0:16:10.760 --> 0:16:15.440 Jesson Lindsay came on TV. He had prosecuted drug crimes, burglaries, 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:18.160 and domestic assaults, but he'd never seen a case like 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:22.280 this in Pine County, and he'd always been interested in cults. 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:25.400 I don't know why I'm so fascinated by them. How 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:31.320 one person can control so many people and change their will, 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:35.480 you know, and change their allegiance to their families and 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:36.239 their community. 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:39.760 Rees swears her members when at three or four years 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:43.160 old he saw the Jonestown cult on the news, the 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:46.520 aerial images with hundreds of dead bodies stuck with him. 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:49.240 When he grew up, Reese got to meet the prosecutor 0:16:49.280 --> 0:16:52.600 on the Manson family cult case. That meeting inspired Reese 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:54.120 to become a prosecutor himself. 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:58.720 I mean, it's like, how many tests do these leaders 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:03.320 push on these people and they cantinue to acquiesce. And 0:17:03.640 --> 0:17:05.840 that's kind of what fascinated me too about the River 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:11.560 Road Fellowship. As Victor Bernard just incrementally kind of went 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:14.960 beyond those boundaries that everybody else is expected to live by, 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:18.840 and they overlooked it, overlooked it, overlooked it until it 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:20.520 just got to be too much for somebody. 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:25.080 And this cult was in Reese's backyard. He trained for 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:27.480 canoe races in the lakes and rivers close to the 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:30.359 Shepherd's camp. He had birthday parties for his kids there. 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:33.159 It struck him that here was this news story, but 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:37.200 Victor hadn't even been arrested. Reese is a private person. 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.320 He describes himself as an introvert, but he wanted to 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.119 do something. He wanted to go after Victor, and he 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:45.800 decided to run for election to be the county attorney 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:47.680 in Pine County that was. 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:49.040 Meant to be on this path, that was meant to 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:49.760 have this case. 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:53.360 Reese was the underdog in the election for county attorney, 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:57.120 but after campaigning and a series of three debates, he won. 0:17:57.760 --> 0:18:00.200 He knew what he had to do next time to 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:08.520 find Victor. Victor's name went on the US Marshal's fifteen 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:11.560 most wanted list, an Inner Pool red notice was put 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:14.439 out for him. The marshals surveilled river road houses in 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:19.960 Washington State. They watched maidens covertly tracked their movements. The 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:22.960 maidens caught on and began to take circuitous roots, flying 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:27.080 to multiple cities in roundabout ways when they had to travel. Then, 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:30.040 one day, when a maiden was coming from Brazil back 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:35.640 to the US, officials searched her baggage and customs they found. 0:18:35.440 --> 0:18:37.480 A card, and a card. 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:42.320 Was a handwritten and it was signed just with a 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:46.480 V at the bottom. And that was when the light 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:49.359 went off and said, Okay, that's got to be Victor Bernard, 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:52.160 and if she has that card on her for returning 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:54.640 from Brazil, that means he's in Brazil. 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:58.600 So they contacted local authorities in Brazil who started to 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:00.720 tail a maiden down there, and she. 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:03.200 Knew she was being followed. At times, she was very careful. 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:04.920 She would pull over to the side of the road 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:07.280 and just wave and kind of watch to see if 0:19:07.280 --> 0:19:10.600 there were people tailing her. My understanding was that it 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:13.919 was a lone Brazilian cop that was doing surveillance on 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:18.000 a condo and that's when they spotted Victor Bernard. 0:19:19.400 --> 0:19:23.560 Law enforcement tore through the condo, seizing documents, usb drives, diaries, 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:27.280 and electronics. There's a picture of Victor during the arrest. 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:30.760 He's on a cream leather couch wearing a tank top. 0:19:31.640 --> 0:19:34.840 He looks tan. His gray beard covers much of his 0:19:34.920 --> 0:19:40.399 thin face. His eyes looked tired, almost squinting, and his 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:42.639 hands are behind his back like he's handcuffed. 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:45.520 I just a vision of him knocking his doors out. 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:49.679 Here's this international fugitive, you know, thinking he's cooling his 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:52.919 heels next to the beach and look and relax like 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:57.679 he's on sulpification. Some rational part of him had to 0:19:57.720 --> 0:19:59.440 know that his time was up. 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:11.040 After basically living my life thinking that I would die 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:15.880 being a maiden, the reality that he was now being 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:20.159 hunted and then finally found. I don't remember crying. I 0:20:20.160 --> 0:20:23.680 think I remember being almost like you know when you 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:33.280 have the wind taken out of you. It was almost like, 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:38.600 oh my gosh, it happened. It's real. Like in the 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:41.439 midst of all of my hurting, I was like, he 0:20:41.760 --> 0:20:44.320 is not going to get away with this. I know 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:48.040 it won't be easy, but bring it on, We're going 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:49.240 to get this bucker. 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:17.480 Victor Bernard was in a Brazilian jail cell, but now 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:20.400 they had to get him back to Minnesota. It took 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:23.359 a year and a half of political and legal maneuvering, 0:21:23.960 --> 0:21:27.800 but finally in June of twenty sixteen, he was extradited 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:34.360 back to Minnesota. The US Marshalls had him. 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:37.560 I think they flew down there on the commercial plane, 0:21:37.600 --> 0:21:41.240 and I remember one of the marshals said that when 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:44.240 they got him on the plane, he sat there for 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:46.720 eighteen hours or twenty hours or whatever it is that 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:49.719 takes Gole from Brazil to the United States. Didn't use 0:21:49.760 --> 0:21:54.119 the restroom once. She thought was extremely odd. And they 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:56.200 had a cup of water in front of him, both 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:58.919 hands or on the cup, and he just kept staring 0:21:58.960 --> 0:22:02.439 at the water and taking sit for like eighteen hours. 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:06.040 Reese knew there were a lot of eyes on them now. 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:10.240 Lindsay knew it too. She was told to be careful 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:13.480 to watch her surroundings and be vigilant while she was out, 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:17.880 and a family member warned her some cult members might 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:20.360 reach out to see if she would say anything incriminating 0:22:21.200 --> 0:22:25.120 information they could pass on to Victor's lawyers. 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.520 So I remember I also felt a little like scared. 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:32.120 I got off of social media for a while because 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:34.560 I was like, I just to be safe, you know, 0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:37.560 I have a two year old. 0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:41.480 It does seem a little scary to try to take 0:22:41.520 --> 0:22:44.240 down a man who a lot of people see as 0:22:45.080 --> 0:22:47.520 practically God as a christ figure. 0:22:48.880 --> 0:22:50.600 Were you worried about. 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:53.280 People who still believed in him actually feeling like very 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:55.959 threatened by your actions, and then taking action in some 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:56.720 way themselves. 0:22:58.119 --> 0:23:01.760 I would lock up the house like Knox. I remember 0:23:01.920 --> 0:23:06.160 just always being on guard. Every door, every window was locked. 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:09.359 I remember driving and looking out the rear view mirror 0:23:09.359 --> 0:23:12.800 making sure nobody was ever following me, just because I 0:23:12.840 --> 0:23:17.679 didn't know what Victor's friends would do, like some of 0:23:17.680 --> 0:23:20.040 the elders, because as far as I knew, they all 0:23:20.080 --> 0:23:24.320 still supported him, including my mother and most of my siblings. 0:23:25.359 --> 0:23:27.679 I had no idea what was going to happen, what 0:23:27.760 --> 0:23:28.439 people would do. 0:23:31.560 --> 0:23:34.439 Reese got to work at the County Courthouse, a modern 0:23:34.480 --> 0:23:39.119 building with long glass windows, surrounded by Pine County farmland. 0:23:40.280 --> 0:23:43.720 Where is the jail, the Pine County jail, It's right 0:23:43.800 --> 0:23:44.359 underneath you. 0:23:45.240 --> 0:23:47.760 The jail is in I don't know if you call 0:23:47.800 --> 0:23:49.600 it the basement, but it's the floor below us. 0:23:51.000 --> 0:23:55.120 So Victor Bernard was being held literally below where we're 0:23:55.160 --> 0:23:56.000 sitting right now. 0:23:56.600 --> 0:23:59.640 That's correct, Yes, that must. 0:23:59.480 --> 0:24:00.680 Have been so so surreal. 0:24:03.040 --> 0:24:04.240 Surreal is a good word for it. 0:24:05.800 --> 0:24:09.320 Fellowship members started visiting Victor in jail. They couldn't meet 0:24:09.359 --> 0:24:11.000 with him face to face, but they could talk to 0:24:11.040 --> 0:24:12.600 him through a video system. 0:24:13.119 --> 0:24:16.280 Some of this diehard followers showed up and we're talking 0:24:16.320 --> 0:24:18.480 to them. It was just interesting to see what is 0:24:18.520 --> 0:24:21.480 the dynamic between a follower and their cult leader and 0:24:21.480 --> 0:24:23.440 how do they interact with each other. 0:24:27.440 --> 0:24:31.880 Good morning, good morning, did you give your voice? It's 0:24:31.920 --> 0:24:32.199 good to. 0:24:32.240 --> 0:24:33.240 Hear yours too. 0:24:34.920 --> 0:24:35.639 This morning. 0:24:37.160 --> 0:24:38.600 I am how about you? 0:24:39.880 --> 0:24:43.000 Thankful to being in this where growing interest that that's 0:24:43.080 --> 0:24:46.840 where we'll be forever. I just want to say this that, 0:24:46.960 --> 0:24:48.640 you know, I think we just need to trust God 0:24:48.720 --> 0:24:51.400 because I don't believe that this was what was supposed 0:24:51.400 --> 0:24:55.440 to happen, and I think that it is my fault, 0:24:56.040 --> 0:24:57.200 my responsibility. 0:24:57.560 --> 0:25:04.520 But we will trust God because he is so good 0:25:04.560 --> 0:25:07.280 and so big, and he works all things together for 0:25:07.400 --> 0:25:09.399 good even if even if we make. 0:25:09.320 --> 0:25:16.240 Mistakes or you know, there are dozens of recorded phone 0:25:16.280 --> 0:25:20.119 calls between Victor and his followers. He speaks regularly to 0:25:20.200 --> 0:25:23.600 two maidens, to jan and there's a call with Lindsay's sister. 0:25:24.520 --> 0:25:28.280 Victor tells them to avoid names and specific details. He 0:25:28.440 --> 0:25:31.520 knows the calls are being recorded. From time to time, 0:25:31.560 --> 0:25:34.840