Speaker 1: And I was like trying to grab these books out
Speaker 1: of her hand because I didn't want her to get
Speaker 1: rid of them. I didn't want her to burn them.
Speaker 1: And I was like please, no, please, no, please no,
Speaker 1: and she's like, yes, this is what we're going to do.
Speaker 1: Then she took them from me, she took them out
Speaker 1: of my hands, and then she threw them all in
Speaker 1: the woodstove. So she closed the door and that was that.
Speaker 1: Couldn't retrieve them. They were on fire.
Speaker 2: Christa Lester Pitch peered over a man's shoulder to see
Speaker 2: the computer screen. There was a news report on it,
Speaker 2: and there was Jess, Jess with her red hair, wearing
Speaker 2: a bright red coat and black gloves. She was saying
Speaker 2: something to a man with a microphone, but Krista couldn't
Speaker 2: hear what she said.
Speaker 1: It was kind of real, honestly.
Speaker 2: Christa was the girl whose mom once burned her books
Speaker 2: to cast away Devil Spirits. She was in her twenties,
Speaker 2: now standing in a house in spoke Anne, Washington, where
Speaker 2: Victor's followers had relocated. She lived there with other River
Speaker 2: Road members, all clustered around the screen. Victor's right hand woman,
Speaker 2: Jan had warned Christa this news story was coming, but
Speaker 2: she wouldn't give her details about what was in it.
Speaker 2: She just told her none of it's true. Jan's husband
Speaker 2: had his headphones plugged into a computer, so the mouths
Speaker 2: on the screen moved, but no sound came out.
Speaker 1: And then immediately I went into my room.
Speaker 2: She pulled out a tablet she kept hidden there against
Speaker 2: the rules, her secret window to the outside world.
Speaker 1: Plugged in my headphones and watched it myself.
Speaker 2: The tall man with a microphone was Tom Lyden, an
Speaker 2: investigative journalist who'd reached out to Lindsay and Jess. Jess
Speaker 2: led the reporter to the grounds of the shepherd's camp,
Speaker 2: where they had all once lived. Large pine trees looked
Speaker 2: black against the snow. Lindsay and Jess talked openly about
Speaker 2: what had happened to them as maidens, about the sexual
Speaker 2: abuse they had experienced when their parents gave them away
Speaker 2: to Victor. Jess explained she had never gotten the talk
Speaker 2: about sex, but that she knew something was wrong. She
Speaker 2: looked straight to the camera and said, my young impressions
Speaker 2: of him was he was a scary person because he
Speaker 2: yelled a lot, and I was afraid of him when
Speaker 2: I said to my parents, this man that you support,
Speaker 2: Victor Bernard, raped your daughter. My mom said, the blood
Speaker 2: of the lamp covers it all. Jesus Christ forgives.
Speaker 1: And I was really, really sad. I didn't know Lindsay
Speaker 1: very well, but I knew Jess. I knew Jess very
Speaker 1: very well. She was like a sister to me. Watching
Speaker 1: Lindsay's story and watching Jess around my hometown and showing
Speaker 1: the Shepherd's camp and seeing the places that I grew up.
Speaker 1: At the time, the band aid was starting to get
Speaker 1: ripped off for me, like my childhood was suddenly tarnished,
Speaker 1: and that's a hard thing to bounce back from.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: It was shocking, but I wasn't surprised. I grew up
Speaker 1: in this church. I knew how Victor behaved with young women,
Speaker 1: and I knew how they behaved with him. I always
Speaker 1: thought it was weird, so old.
Speaker 2: And Krista knew how he behaved with her. She thought
Speaker 2: about encounters she'd had with Victor, like when she was
Speaker 2: fifteen and he slapped her butt when she walked by,
Speaker 2: or another time when she and some girls and their
Speaker 2: moms had invited Victor on a picnic.
Speaker 1: And one of the moms thought, what a good idea
Speaker 1: would be if after lunch the moms leave and we
Speaker 1: stay and we lay on blankets with Victor under the trees.
Speaker 1: And I did not like that idea. I thought it
Speaker 1: was weird. I was just like laying there, not touching anything.
Speaker 1: I was not enjoying myself whatsoever. And the other two
Speaker 1: girls were like cuddled up next to Victor, and it
Speaker 1: was like, what are we even doing?
Speaker 2: Started raining, so Krista got to leave, but she always
Speaker 2: wondered what would have happened if the rain hadn't come.
Speaker 1: And so, you know, it's not hard for me to
Speaker 1: believe that he went much further with some girls, and
Speaker 1: that type of stuff was normal. It was so normal.
Speaker 1: We weren't all raped, but we were all. I can
Speaker 1: honestly say, beyond all shadow of doubt, that every last
Speaker 1: one of us young girls in that church was in
Speaker 1: some type of situation like that at least one time
Speaker 1: in our childhood.
Speaker 2: But the people around Christa had just one reaction to
Speaker 2: the news story.
Speaker 1: Everybody around me was saying, it's all lies, even the maiden,
Speaker 1: it's all lies. It's all lies. It's all lies. And
Speaker 1: I was like but it makes sense though. These girls
Speaker 1: they had every thing to lose and they lost it.
Speaker 1: They lost the respect of their peers, they lost their families,
Speaker 1: and they still came out and told their stories. I
Speaker 1: was just like, there's no possible way that they're lying.
Speaker 1: These girls had been raped. It was definitely a marked
Speaker 1: moment in my life watching these girls. These women, they
Speaker 1: did something so strong, and I knew in my soul
Speaker 1: that they were telling the truth. What's crazy, this is
Speaker 1: really crazy, is Victor had already taken off to Brazil.
Speaker 4: Victor was on the run.
Speaker 2: From a cocoa punch and iHeart podcasts This is the
Speaker 2: Turning River Road, I'm Erica Lance.
Speaker 5: And I'm Alan Lance Lesser Part seven Manhunt. While Krista
Speaker 5: lived in the tightly sealed River Road community in Washington,
Speaker 5: Lindsay was on the other side of the country with
Speaker 5: a lot more freedom. Lindsay didn't live with her parents anymore,
Speaker 5: and by now she'd been out of the cult for years.
Speaker 5: Then she learned she was pregnant. It wasn't something she
Speaker 5: planned for. The father was a friend and didn't really
Speaker 5: want to be involved. If Lindsay was going to have
Speaker 5: this baby, it be up to her to raise it
Speaker 5: on her own.
Speaker 6: And I was in no position to have a kid,
Speaker 6: you know, like I was dealing with so much my
Speaker 6: own uncle and Bethesda and my cousin at that point,
Speaker 6: like did not support me having my daughter and wanted
Speaker 6: me to give her up for adoption and took me
Speaker 6: to an adoption agency. And I remember like sitting in
Speaker 6: the office and looking at these books. Couples made books
Speaker 6: of their travels and adventures and their families and what
Speaker 6: they did, how they would raise kids. And I just
Speaker 6: keep thinking, my parents gave me up the firstborn. I
Speaker 6: could never give my firstborn up. I remember it was
Speaker 6: seven weeks and four days when I went to the
Speaker 6: clinic and confirmed the pregnancy, and it was just this tiny,
Speaker 6: tiny little seed on the screen, and I knew. I
Speaker 6: was like, I'm gonna keep you and I want to
Speaker 6: be your mommy.
Speaker 5: She was pregnant. When the story broke, she watched herself
Speaker 5: on the screen.
Speaker 6: It didn't feel real because we'd waited for two years
Speaker 6: for anything to happen, and then now everything was blowing
Speaker 6: up and it almost seemed like a train that had
Speaker 6: gone off its tracks. It was just rolling full speed ahead,
Speaker 6: and it was like, Okay, people are hearing this, people
Speaker 6: are believing me. Finally, you know, like something is going
Speaker 6: to come out of this.
Speaker 5: Before the story was on TV, Lindsay and Jess's case
Speaker 5: set for two years, seemingly without any decision or movement
Speaker 5: or updates. But after the news things started to change.
Speaker 5: More media wanted to interview Lindsay, and the US Marshals
Speaker 5: wanted to meet with her.
Speaker 6: They wanted to meet me and give them, like all
Speaker 6: the information I had about Brazil, all the places I
Speaker 6: had visited, and I was like, okay, like we are
Speaker 6: going somewhere now.
Speaker 5: We went back out to Minnesota for the meeting. Jess
Speaker 5: was there too. Lindsay hadn't seen her for seven years.
Speaker 5: They'd both been interviewed for the news report, but they
Speaker 5: hadn't actually seen each other in person, not since Lindsay
Speaker 5: was a Maideness as long red hair was now cropped
Speaker 5: to a pixie and bleached blonde.
Speaker 6: And of course our clothes were different because we made
Speaker 6: most of our clothes. But I still remember like she
Speaker 6: had that great smile that I loved so much, and
Speaker 6: I remember thinking how good it was to see her smile.
Speaker 6: I remember just hugging each other and crying. We just
Speaker 6: hugged and cried. She seemed more free and more expressive
Speaker 6: from what I had remembered living in the coult and
Speaker 6: having to not really be our true selves.
Speaker 5: Jess lived in Wisconsin now in a small town called
Speaker 5: River Falls, built around a trickling waterfall. She worked at
Speaker 5: a liquor store and had a partner named Mike. Lindsay
Speaker 5: showed her pictures of her daughter.
Speaker 1: They laughed about the old days.
Speaker 5: Remembered how much they loved the sound of new guitar strings.
Speaker 5: They started hanging out more, drank beer and watch Netflix,
Speaker 5: and Jess showed Lindsay Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, a comedy about
Speaker 5: a young woman who leaves an underground bunker when she's
Speaker 5: rescued from a doomsday cult leader. In the opening credits,
Speaker 5: she steps out into the sun for the first time
Speaker 5: in a long prairie dress, the kind Lindsay and Jess
Speaker 5: used to wear.
Speaker 6: I at the time was not a fan because I
Speaker 6: thought it minimized everything I was feeling. But she really
Speaker 6: liked it. Oh, it was so fun. It was almost
Speaker 6: not that we were like sneaking around doing this, but like,
Speaker 6: oh my gosh, I can't believe. Could you ever imagine
Speaker 6: that we'd be here, like having some beers and watching
Speaker 6: this comedy show together. It was surreal. It was like,
Speaker 6: after all this time and all the terrible stuff that
Speaker 6: had happened, we're here, like actively trying to put Victor
Speaker 6: in jail, but then also having this bonding time together.
Speaker 1: It was It was pretty special.
Speaker 6: But I honestly don't think we dove in to deep
Speaker 6: memories of even the good times, because I think we
Speaker 6: both during that time were just still suffering so much
Speaker 6: from all the bad stuff that happened that at times
Speaker 6: it was really hard to remember even the good stuff,
Speaker 6: if that makes any sense.
Speaker 5: Yeah, just had a happy life in River Falls. But
Speaker 5: she had dark times too. Could relate.
Speaker 6: Yeah, a lot of dark times. She almost ended up
Speaker 6: in the hospital from trying to commit suicide a couple
Speaker 6: of times. I think we both had feelings of abandonment
Speaker 6: from our parents and betrayal. We both had common reactions
Speaker 6: with wanting to hurt ourselves and just feeling that almost
Speaker 6: the pain was too big to handle. I would just
Speaker 6: try to encourage her, and I was hoping that, you know,
Speaker 6: going through all of this would really help, would help
Speaker 6: in some way. I mean, it doesn't take away what
Speaker 6: we went through and the pain, the reality of it all.
Speaker 6: But I was hoping that Victor going to jail and
Speaker 6: some justice being served would help her.
Speaker 7: It was kind of devastating being as that we were
Speaker 7: in the community, that it was all going on, and
Speaker 7: nobody was really aware of it until us, you know,
Speaker 7: burst out into flames.
Speaker 2: Eileen rad Dunn's works at Petrie's Bach, the convenience store
Speaker 2: in Finlassen that sells everything you need in this small town,
Speaker 2: gas and groceries and fishing and hunting and camping supplies.
Speaker 2: Even though River Road members kept to themselves, they did
Speaker 2: go into town.
Speaker 4: Sometimes they would.
Speaker 8: Come into the store. It was Pete here from time
Speaker 8: to time.
Speaker 2: Eileen says she saw the women in long dresses walking
Speaker 2: through the store with their heads down, no eye contact,
Speaker 2: not talking to anyone else. They'd get what they needed
Speaker 2: and leave. She says people knew it was a religious
Speaker 2: cult because of how closed they were, but they didn't
Speaker 2: really know what was going on inside. Eileen helped clean
Speaker 2: the camp after River Road left. She says she saw
Speaker 2: the house where Victor took the maidens.
Speaker 8: When you know what happened.
Speaker 7: It just gives you a creepy feeling.
Speaker 2: And you know what happened, It just gives you a
Speaker 2: creepy feeling.
Speaker 4: She says.
Speaker 2: Peetrees was the store Lindsay and Jess once daydreamed they'd
Speaker 2: run away to when they were little girls. Now they
Speaker 2: were on tea and everyone in the store learned what
Speaker 2: had really happened. People in Pine County often saw River
Speaker 2: Road followers over the years. The cult members had a
Speaker 2: cabinet business, a butcher shop. Some ran a construction company too.
Speaker 2: The local hairdresser gave followers haircuts a few times. She
Speaker 2: noticed how they always came two by two and didn't talk.
Speaker 2: It gave her an eerie feeling. Now these girls in
Speaker 2: prairie dresses were on the news. A lot of people
Speaker 2: in Pine County and across Minnesota saw the news story
Speaker 2: about River Road found out what was happening right next door.
Speaker 2: Many of them might have seen the broadcasts in their
Speaker 2: homes and gone on with their day, ate dinner, went
Speaker 2: to work, moved on. But there was one person who
Speaker 2: couldn't let the story go, who felt like something needed
Speaker 2: to be done, And before long that person would become
Speaker 2: a central part of the story.
Speaker 9: Well, the primary images that come back for me are
Speaker 9: Lindsay and Jess. That's always my strongest memory of this case.
Speaker 2: Rehese Frederickson was a lawyer in his late thirties when
Speaker 2: Jesson Lindsay came on TV. He had prosecuted drug crimes, burglaries,
Speaker 2: and domestic assaults, but he'd never seen a case like
Speaker 2: this in Pine County, and he'd always been interested in cults.
Speaker 9: I don't know why I'm so fascinated by them. How
Speaker 9: one person can control so many people and change their will,
Speaker 9: you know, and change their allegiance to their families and
Speaker 9: their community.
Speaker 2: Rees swears her members when at three or four years
Speaker 2: old he saw the Jonestown cult on the news, the
Speaker 2: aerial images with hundreds of dead bodies stuck with him.
Speaker 2: When he grew up, Reese got to meet the prosecutor
Speaker 2: on the Manson family cult case. That meeting inspired Reese
Speaker 2: to become a prosecutor himself.
Speaker 9: I mean, it's like, how many tests do these leaders
Speaker 9: push on these people and they cantinue to acquiesce. And
Speaker 9: that's kind of what fascinated me too about the River
Speaker 9: Road Fellowship. As Victor Bernard just incrementally kind of went
Speaker 9: beyond those boundaries that everybody else is expected to live by,
Speaker 9: and they overlooked it, overlooked it, overlooked it until it
Speaker 9: just got to be too much for somebody.
Speaker 2: And this cult was in Reese's backyard. He trained for
Speaker 2: canoe races in the lakes and rivers close to the
Speaker 2: Shepherd's camp. He had birthday parties for his kids there.
Speaker 2: It struck him that here was this news story, but
Speaker 2: Victor hadn't even been arrested. Reese is a private person.
Speaker 2: He describes himself as an introvert, but he wanted to
Speaker 2: do something. He wanted to go after Victor, and he
Speaker 2: decided to run for election to be the county attorney
Speaker 2: in Pine County that was.
Speaker 9: Meant to be on this path, that was meant to
Speaker 9: have this case.
Speaker 2: Reese was the underdog in the election for county attorney,
Speaker 2: but after campaigning and a series of three debates, he won.
Speaker 2: He knew what he had to do next time to
Speaker 2: find Victor. Victor's name went on the US Marshal's fifteen
Speaker 2: most wanted list, an Inner Pool red notice was put
Speaker 2: out for him. The marshals surveilled river road houses in
Speaker 2: Washington State. They watched maidens covertly tracked their movements. The
Speaker 2: maidens caught on and began to take circuitous roots, flying
Speaker 2: to multiple cities in roundabout ways when they had to travel. Then,
Speaker 2: one day, when a maiden was coming from Brazil back
Speaker 2: to the US, officials searched her baggage and customs they found.
Speaker 10: A card, and a card.
Speaker 9: Was a handwritten and it was signed just with a
Speaker 9: V at the bottom. And that was when the light
Speaker 9: went off and said, Okay, that's got to be Victor Bernard,
Speaker 9: and if she has that card on her for returning
Speaker 9: from Brazil, that means he's in Brazil.
Speaker 2: So they contacted local authorities in Brazil who started to
Speaker 2: tail a maiden down there, and she.
Speaker 9: Knew she was being followed. At times, she was very careful.
Speaker 9: She would pull over to the side of the road
Speaker 9: and just wave and kind of watch to see if
Speaker 9: there were people tailing her. My understanding was that it
Speaker 9: was a lone Brazilian cop that was doing surveillance on
Speaker 9: a condo and that's when they spotted Victor Bernard.
Speaker 2: Law enforcement tore through the condo, seizing documents, usb drives, diaries,
Speaker 2: and electronics. There's a picture of Victor during the arrest.
Speaker 2: He's on a cream leather couch wearing a tank top.
Speaker 2: He looks tan. His gray beard covers much of his
Speaker 2: thin face. His eyes looked tired, almost squinting, and his
Speaker 2: hands are behind his back like he's handcuffed.
Speaker 9: I just a vision of him knocking his doors out.
Speaker 9: Here's this international fugitive, you know, thinking he's cooling his
Speaker 9: heels next to the beach and look and relax like
Speaker 9: he's on sulpification. Some rational part of him had to
Speaker 9: know that his time was up.
Speaker 6: After basically living my life thinking that I would die
Speaker 6: being a maiden, the reality that he was now being
Speaker 6: hunted and then finally found. I don't remember crying. I
Speaker 6: think I remember being almost like you know when you
Speaker 6: have the wind taken out of you. It was almost like,
Speaker 6: oh my gosh, it happened. It's real. Like in the
Speaker 6: midst of all of my hurting, I was like, he
Speaker 6: is not going to get away with this. I know
Speaker 6: it won't be easy, but bring it on, We're going
Speaker 6: to get this bucker.
Speaker 5: Victor Bernard was in a Brazilian jail cell, but now
Speaker 5: they had to get him back to Minnesota. It took
Speaker 5: a year and a half of political and legal maneuvering,
Speaker 5: but finally in June of twenty sixteen, he was extradited
Speaker 5: back to Minnesota. The US Marshalls had him.
Speaker 9: I think they flew down there on the commercial plane,
Speaker 9: and I remember one of the marshals said that when
Speaker 9: they got him on the plane, he sat there for
Speaker 9: eighteen hours or twenty hours or whatever it is that
Speaker 9: takes Gole from Brazil to the United States. Didn't use
Speaker 9: the restroom once. She thought was extremely odd. And they
Speaker 9: had a cup of water in front of him, both
Speaker 9: hands or on the cup, and he just kept staring
Speaker 9: at the water and taking sit for like eighteen hours.
Speaker 5: Reese knew there were a lot of eyes on them now.
Speaker 5: Lindsay knew it too. She was told to be careful
Speaker 5: to watch her surroundings and be vigilant while she was out,
Speaker 5: and a family member warned her some cult members might
Speaker 5: reach out to see if she would say anything incriminating
Speaker 5: information they could pass on to Victor's lawyers.
Speaker 6: So I remember I also felt a little like scared.
Speaker 6: I got off of social media for a while because
Speaker 6: I was like, I just to be safe, you know,
Speaker 6: I have a two year old.
Speaker 2: It does seem a little scary to try to take
Speaker 2: down a man who a lot of people see as
Speaker 2: practically God as a christ figure.
Speaker 5: Were you worried about.
Speaker 2: People who still believed in him actually feeling like very
Speaker 2: threatened by your actions, and then taking action in some
Speaker 2: way themselves.
Speaker 6: I would lock up the house like Knox. I remember
Speaker 6: just always being on guard. Every door, every window was locked.
Speaker 6: I remember driving and looking out the rear view mirror
Speaker 6: making sure nobody was ever following me, just because I
Speaker 6: didn't know what Victor's friends would do, like some of
Speaker 6: the elders, because as far as I knew, they all
Speaker 6: still supported him, including my mother and most of my siblings.
Speaker 6: I had no idea what was going to happen, what
Speaker 6: people would do.
Speaker 5: Reese got to work at the County Courthouse, a modern
Speaker 5: building with long glass windows, surrounded by Pine County farmland.
Speaker 2: Where is the jail, the Pine County jail, It's right
Speaker 2: underneath you.
Speaker 9: The jail is in I don't know if you call
Speaker 9: it the basement, but it's the floor below us.
Speaker 5: So Victor Bernard was being held literally below where we're
Speaker 5: sitting right now.
Speaker 10: That's correct, Yes, that must.
Speaker 2: Have been so so surreal.
Speaker 10: Surreal is a good word for it.
Speaker 5: Fellowship members started visiting Victor in jail. They couldn't meet
Speaker 5: with him face to face, but they could talk to
Speaker 5: him through a video system.
Speaker 9: Some of this diehard followers showed up and we're talking
Speaker 9: to them. It was just interesting to see what is
Speaker 9: the dynamic between a follower and their cult leader and
Speaker 9: how do they interact with each other.
Speaker 3: Good morning, good morning, did you give your voice? It's
Speaker 3: good to.
Speaker 6: Hear yours too.
Speaker 4: This morning.
Speaker 3: I am how about you?
Speaker 11: Thankful to being in this where growing interest that that's
Speaker 11: where we'll be forever. I just want to say this that,
Speaker 11: you know, I think we just need to trust God
Speaker 11: because I don't believe that this was what was supposed
Speaker 11: to happen, and I think that it is my fault,
Speaker 11: my responsibility.
Speaker 8: But we will trust God because he is so good
Speaker 8: and so big, and he works all things together for
Speaker 8: good even if even if we make.
Speaker 5: Mistakes or you know, there are dozens of recorded phone
Speaker 5: calls between Victor and his followers. He speaks regularly to
Speaker 5: two maidens, to jan and there's a call with Lindsay's sister.
Speaker 5: Victor tells them to avoid names and specific details. He
Speaker 5: knows the calls are being recorded. From time to time,
Speaker 5: he talks about his mistakes, but never exactly what those
Speaker 5: mistakes are. In those moments, the callers comfort him.
Speaker 7: In the end, Jesus Christ is the hero. And you
Speaker 7: know what, God knew that we were human and we
Speaker 7: were not going to walk with him perfectly, and sometimes
Speaker 7: we were going to blow it don't work.
Speaker 4: So your friends, no matter what, they're.
Speaker 9: Fawning language over him. Oh victory, he looked great, and
Speaker 9: he really didn't look great, but they thought he looked great,
Speaker 9: and he didn't say a whole lot. What also stood
Speaker 9: out to me was just what a narcissist he is,
Speaker 9: especially with regard to when his mugshot hit the media
Speaker 9: and of course social media. I mean, people are often cruel,
Speaker 9: but he deserves to be cruel against him, I suppose.
Speaker 10: But his mugshot is terrible.
Speaker 9: He looks awful, you know, with his squinted eyes, and
Speaker 9: it was just it was a bad picture of him.
Speaker 9: And I remember him asking one of I believe she
Speaker 9: was one of the maidens about his mugshot and expressing
Speaker 9: disapproval of it and asking her how he looked, and
Speaker 9: so it told me that he was more concerned about
Speaker 9: his image than anything else. She said, oh, Victory, you're
Speaker 9: so handsome in your picture.
Speaker 10: You look great. A lot of it was especially with her.
Speaker 9: She would come in with the Bible and just read
Speaker 9: read passages of the Bible, hours of this boring stuff.
Speaker 7: Let us stand together. Who is mine adversary? Who would
Speaker 7: see that shall condemn me? Well, they all fall wax
Speaker 7: old as a garment. The moth shall eat the mouth?
Speaker 9: And he went say much he would just kind of
Speaker 9: nod and maybe just kind of an incomprehensible gruntsy yes,
Speaker 9: or something like that.
Speaker 5: Victor asked his followers to help him through his new
Speaker 5: life in jail, and they did. They help him figure
Speaker 5: out which lotion to order. They tell him he's been
Speaker 5: on the news. Helped him choose what food to order
Speaker 5: from the canteen.
Speaker 8: Do you know what.
Speaker 11: You have?
Speaker 3: The fudle?
Speaker 1: Okay, they have like pepperoni or vice like.
Speaker 7: Ooh, the summer saus This is how you really good.
Speaker 7: That's gonna give you good protein too. We're going to heaven.
Speaker 7: Just don't forget it. And it's bigger. It could be tonight.
Speaker 7: You might you might never even wake up because you're
Speaker 7: going to fly away and be at rest.
Speaker 3: But Jesus Christ when.
Speaker 7: With this.
Speaker 9: One thing that really stood out for me is just
Speaker 9: kind of watching the facial expressions of the followers when
Speaker 9: they interact with Victor. Just this happiness, this weird, gleaming,
Speaker 9: kind of superficial happiness and glow in their eyes like
Speaker 9: they are in the presence of a savior. I don't
Speaker 9: know how to describe it, but it's it's like if
Speaker 9: you see somebody that's pretending to be happy. I wouldn't
Speaker 9: call it that, and I wouldn't call it somebody that's
Speaker 9: genuinely happy. It seems like somebody who is kind of
Speaker 9: convinced themselves that they're happy. It felt kind of force
Speaker 9: just you're happy, you're happy, you have to be happy
Speaker 9: around me, And eventually it just kind of gets frozen.
Speaker 4: Have you been frozen on your face?
Speaker 10: Yeah? Exactly. It felt kind of frozen on their faces.
Speaker 4: I mine.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 7: This morning, when I got up, I was humming a
Speaker 7: song to myself, and I thought it might bless you
Speaker 7: to hear it too.
Speaker 3: Okay, peace, peace, wonderful, oh peace, coming down from the
Speaker 3: Father of sleep over my spears forever crazy.
Speaker 7: In fad mistill.
Speaker 11: So thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he will give it to us today.
Speaker 1: We have that piece.
Speaker 3: I love you, Thank you.
Speaker 7: Okay.
Speaker 5: Lindsay knew many followers still supported Victor, but what hurt
Speaker 5: Lindsay the most was what came from her own family. Well,
Speaker 5: and Victor talked with her sisters and her mom, Peggy,
Speaker 5: and she told Victor exactly where she stood.
Speaker 7: Good morning, good morning, get there, God bless you. I
Speaker 7: just thank God for you, Victor. I love you, and
Speaker 7: You've been in my heart and prayers, and I know
Speaker 7: and believe God called you. And where I was at
Speaker 7: my life when you came because I was crying out
Speaker 7: to God because my life was in such a miserable state.
Speaker 7: And you showed up a couple of weeks later, and
Speaker 7: I just remember over the years thinking how could one
Speaker 7: man love and give so much to so many people?
Speaker 7: Is only by the power of God in Christ, in you,
Speaker 7: And I am forever thankful to God.
Speaker 3: For you.
Speaker 6: My mom and two of my sisters wrote letters to
Speaker 6: the judge on Victor's behalf, totally trashing me and supporting Victor.
Speaker 5: Lindsay's mom wrote in her letter, quote I have much
Speaker 5: sorrow for Lindsay and the direction she's gone and turning
Speaker 5: away from God, the Bible, and her minister. I do
Speaker 5: not believe her accusations against Victor are true. They contradict
Speaker 5: everything I have known in my daughter's life and Victor
Speaker 5: Bernard's life. Victor Bernard is a man of integrity and honesty,
Speaker 5: and I would trust him with my life or anyone else's.
Speaker 2: These believers stood with Victor against Lindsay, but when police
Speaker 2: interviewed a number of other River Road members, they corroborated
Speaker 2: Lindsay's story. They claimed not to know about the sexual abuse,
Speaker 2: but no one in the police recordings we heard doubted
Speaker 2: Lindsay and Jess. One of them said they'd had suspicions.
Speaker 2: Another said they could see red flags in retrospect, like
Speaker 2: when Victor had a spiritual marriage ceremony with these young
Speaker 2: girls and mentioned concubines in his sermon. Jan came up
Speaker 2: in these interviews too. They said she was Victor's personal secretary,
Speaker 2: his recruiter, and a house mother to the maidens. Even
Speaker 2: with these other witnesses, though the case against Victor was
Speaker 2: not a slam dunk, the county attorney Rhyes. Frederickson knew
Speaker 2: any lawyer would be nervous about a case like this.
Speaker 2: He wasn't sure whether people could believe that parents would
Speaker 2: give their kids away to a sexual predator like that,
Speaker 2: and maybe even more importantly, before he met Lindsay and Jess,
Speaker 2: he wasn't sure how they'd come off, whether they'd be
Speaker 2: believable to a jury, But he was about to find out.
Speaker 2: He plans to meet them at the county courthouse.
Speaker 9: I remember I walked out where you came out in
Speaker 9: this hallway here, and they showed up early, like ten
Speaker 9: minutes early, and I came around the corner. I mean,
Speaker 9: he developed certain instincts in this job over the years,
Speaker 9: and it was almost like kind of a gut punch
Speaker 9: where I saw the two victims, and right away I
Speaker 9: knew that they were completely trustworthy and believable. That was
Speaker 9: one of the strongest instincts I've ever had when I
Speaker 9: saw them. It was within five seconds, I said, Okay,
Speaker 9: we won the case. Never had that feeling since that time,
Speaker 9: but I I just it was weird. I just turned
Speaker 9: around the corner and I just knew.
Speaker 2: Reese and Victor's lawyer began to negotiate a plea deal.
Speaker 2: Rees says they didn't think Jess and Lindsay would actually
Speaker 2: want to testify about what they've been through, but Rees said, no,
Speaker 2: they're not backing down no matter what.
Speaker 9: These girls are very br and they're gonna sit up
Speaker 9: there in the witness stand. They're going to look on
Speaker 9: the eye and they're going to testify about what happened.
Speaker 2: Victor's attorney came back with an offer eighteen years for
Speaker 2: a guilty plea. Jess and Lindsay said no, twenty four years.
Speaker 2: Victor's attorney offered the victims wouldn't have to testify. Did
Speaker 2: they really want to go through that?
Speaker 9: And I thought, okay, that's not bad, and so I
Speaker 9: contacted Jess. And my feeling from Jess is that she
Speaker 9: wanted just to get this done with, put it behind her,
Speaker 9: and that she was ready to testify. She had a
Speaker 9: lot of courage, but preferred not to and so she
Speaker 9: seemed okay with the twenty four years. And then I
Speaker 9: talked to Lindsay, and Lindsay her perspective on this was
Speaker 9: she wanted more exposure on Victor Bernard and his crimes
Speaker 9: and what they did to her and Jess, and she said,
Speaker 9: no way more than twenty four years.
Speaker 2: Reese gave the attorney their answer and began to prepare
Speaker 2: for trial.
Speaker 9: And then I believe it was a Friday, his attorney
Speaker 9: came up and he was wearing a T shirt and shorts.
Speaker 9: It was in the summer, and I thought, well, that's
Speaker 9: odd that he's up here in a Friday looking for me,
Speaker 9: and I didn't even know he was in the building.
Speaker 9: And he came into my office and said, okay, he'll
Speaker 9: agree to plead to one count for each of the victims,
Speaker 9: and agreed to the maximum.
Speaker 10: Sentence of thirty years, which is unheard of.
Speaker 9: It's completely unheard of, and I can't think of another
Speaker 9: case of my career where that's happened.
Speaker 6: I mean, in my opinion, he deserved life in prison
Speaker 6: if we had gone to trial, I mean, all of
Speaker 6: his dirty evil you know, that he had done, would
Speaker 6: come to light. And I remember thinking what a coward
Speaker 6: he was that he didn't want to go to trial.
Speaker 6: You know that, basically in my mind, he was taking
Speaker 6: the cowardly way out.
Speaker 5: Lindsay had one more opportunity to face victor, and she
Speaker 5: was not going to squander it. They showed up to
Speaker 5: victor sentencing with prepared statements. They'd finally get to use
Speaker 5: their own words to stand up to him, to tell
Speaker 5: him how he'd hurt them. Jess made them matching bracelets
Speaker 5: that said Survivor. Lindsay and Jess arrived at the courthouse.
Speaker 5: They grabbed each other's hands. They followed Reese into the
Speaker 5: courtroom and took their seats. Reporters were there, but Lindsay
Speaker 5: tuned them out. She was focused on what she was
Speaker 5: about to do. She stood up facing the judge to speak.
Speaker 5: This is her reading the statement she read that day.
Speaker 1: Hello, and get afternoon.
Speaker 6: In your honor, I would like to share how the
Speaker 6: terrible evil actions of mister Bernard impacted my life when
Speaker 6: I was young, and how they still continued to impact
Speaker 6: my life. Yeah, I remember, you know, my hands constantly
Speaker 6: sweating and like just trying to take deep breaths. But
Speaker 6: I think most of them were just like.
Speaker 1: Short gulps of air.
Speaker 6: I first recall mister Bernard sexually abusing me when I
Speaker 6: was just thirteen years old. He started off by asking
Speaker 6: me if I'd ever masturbated. I'd never even heard the
Speaker 6: word before. For some reason, he thought I was lying.
Speaker 6: I was so focused on what was going to happen.
Speaker 6: One by one, we read ours and face the judge,
Speaker 6: and I remember looking up at him at one point
Speaker 6: when I was reading mine and he was wiping a
Speaker 6: tear from his face. I have a little girl of
Speaker 6: my own now, and I cannot even fathom how parents
Speaker 6: can give up the most precious things in their life
Speaker 6: to a cult leader and a sexual predator. She will
Speaker 6: never know the feeling of abandoned me, and she will
Speaker 6: never know the feeling that she's not good enough, or
Speaker 6: pretty enough, or skinny enough. She will never be punished
Speaker 6: for smiling too much. She will never be yelled at
Speaker 6: and made to feel ashamed for being full of energy
Speaker 6: and excitement. She will never be spit in the face
Speaker 6: by someone for simply sharing her opinion and standing up
Speaker 6: for herself. She will never feel that she can't be
Speaker 6: anything she wants to be. She will always feel protected
Speaker 6: and loved. I know all these things because I am
Speaker 6: her mother. I didn't want Victor to remember me as
Speaker 6: some person in the background who maybe was scared of him.
Speaker 6: He did not see this coming. He did not expect
Speaker 6: me who he had to make share at every meal.
Speaker 6: Because I was afraid to talk, be the one to
Speaker 6: bring him and the whole thing down to the ground.
Speaker 6: I wanted him to hear my voice and hear my
Speaker 6: words and know that I did this to him. I
Speaker 6: helped put him in jail, and that Victor from then
Speaker 6: on would forever be known as a pedophile. He wouldn't
Speaker 6: be known anymore as a man of God, or a
Speaker 6: shepherd or anything like that. He would be known as
Speaker 6: a pedophile who did these horrific things to children. Because
Speaker 6: of what mister Bernard did. I used to feel so
Speaker 6: alone and helpless. But he is the one who is alone,
Speaker 6: and he will die alone. My heart's beating so fast
Speaker 6: right now.
Speaker 5: Victor looked straight ahead while she talked. When it was
Speaker 5: his turn to speak, he stood in handcuffs and shackles.
Speaker 1: He said.
Speaker 5: He was deeply sorrowful. God is good, he said, and
Speaker 5: his word is faithful and true. I have not walked
Speaker 5: in his goodness.
Speaker 6: And then I think that's when the judge gave his
Speaker 6: you know, handed out the sentence to him. I think
Speaker 6: it was fifty nine counts of sexual abuse and he
Speaker 6: was getting thirty years, which I mean fifty nine counts.
Speaker 4: That is that number is so low.
Speaker 6: Ten years of living in that Yeah, that number is
Speaker 6: very low.
Speaker 5: Victor was charged with fifty nine counts, but only pled
Speaker 5: guilty to two. There was a press conference after the hearing.
Speaker 5: Rees stood to one side, jessin Lindsay sat behind a
Speaker 5: large wooden table, a cluster of microphones in front of them.
Speaker 5: They often looked at each other as they talked. Sometimes
Speaker 5: they exchanged a little smile.
Speaker 11: You're explaining your emotions for.
Speaker 5: It's an overwhelming feeling, you know, it's every day.
Speaker 8: That we deal with us together.
Speaker 6: But the truth, everyone knows the truth of what happened
Speaker 6: to us, and I think that's what's most important to us.
Speaker 10: Yeah, and now we can.
Speaker 11: Move on completely.
Speaker 6: I mainly just remember being so happy Jess and I
Speaker 6: were together, knowing that we were the two youngest of
Speaker 6: the maidens and.
Speaker 1: Going through all of that together.
Speaker 6: And then I remember looking at her and just being
Speaker 6: so thankful that we had gotten through this together, we
Speaker 6: had put him in jail together, that we survived all
Speaker 6: of it. It almost gets me feeling even more powerful.
Speaker 6: You know that Victor tried all those years and I
Speaker 6: was his downfall.
Speaker 1: Next time on the turning, I don't care what happens
Speaker 1: when Jesus Christ comes back. Whatever happens to me, it
Speaker 1: cannot possibly be worse than this. That thought scared me.
Speaker 2: The Turning is a production of Rococo Punch and iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 2: It's written and produced by Alan Lance, Lesser and Me.
Speaker 2: Our story editor is Emily Foreman. Mixing and sound designed
Speaker 2: by James Trout. Grace Doe is our production assistant. Fact
Speaker 2: checking by Andrea Lopez Crusado. Our executive producers are John
Speaker 2: Parratti and Jessica Alpert at Rococo Punch and Katrina Norvel
Speaker 2: and Nikki Etur at iHeart Podcasts. You can follow us
Speaker 2: on Instagram at Rococo Punch, and you can reach out
Speaker 2: via email The Turning at Rococo punch dot com I
Speaker 2: America Lance thanks for listening.