Speaker 1: I knew I wanted to obey and submit because I
Speaker 1: didn't want to get in trouble, But I didn't fully
Speaker 1: grasp for the rest of my life what that meant.
Speaker 2: For my heart. Podcasts and Rococo Punch. This is the
Speaker 2: Turning River Road.
Speaker 1: And then he put the rings on our hands to
Speaker 1: be worn on our ring fingers. Doesn't fit anymore. This
Speaker 1: is all goes on now.
Speaker 2: It doesn't even pass your second knuckle now.
Speaker 1: Nope, so tiny. Yeah, I was just a kid.
Speaker 2: In the early two thousands in rural Minnesota, Lindsay became
Speaker 2: one of the maidens of River Road Fellowship. She was
Speaker 2: thirteen years old. A ritualistic ceremony married her and nine
Speaker 2: other girls to their adult leader, and for years they
Speaker 2: all endured a secret life of physical and mental abuse.
Speaker 2: It all happened in their community of a hunh hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty people, believers on a commune who saw their
Speaker 2: leader as an apostle, like God in the flesh. They
Speaker 2: followed his command for decades.
Speaker 1: Why did I think that way? Why did I allow
Speaker 1: myself to get so sucked in by this man and
Speaker 1: thinking to the point that if I died for him,
Speaker 1: that would be the greatest honor.
Speaker 3: I don't care what happens when Jesus Christ comes back,
Speaker 3: whatever happens to me, it cannot possibly be worse than this.
Speaker 2: But in twenty fourteen, Lindsay and a friend, the youngest Maidens,
Speaker 2: made the daring decision to escape. They sparked an international
Speaker 2: man hunt for the cult leader who had controlled their
Speaker 2: world for.
Speaker 1: All those years. You know, he was the predator and
Speaker 1: I was the prey, and then he became the prey.
Speaker 1: Listened to The Turning River Road starting on July eighth
Speaker 1: on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts