Stash of Weapons in San Diego Tied to Leader of Cult

SAN DIEGO —  The leader of a religious cult arrested Sunday at a San Diego suburban motel for the ritualistic slayings of an Ohio family had been in another San Diego suburb in mid-December to store guns, ammunition and paramilitary gear, authorities learned Monday.

With the capture of Jeffrey D. Lundgren, authorities were combing Southern California for the two remaining fugitives among 13 indicted in the Ohio killings. The pair were sighted in San Diego last Saturday.

While that search continued, police and prosecutors were left to speculate why Lundgren came to the San Diego region, how long he had been in the area and what he intended to do with the weapons.

The leading theory was that Lundgren, his wife and four children were preparing to flee to Mexico to evade police.

But authorities also were studying a report that Lundgren experienced a “vision” that told him to go to Mexico, said Steven C. LaTourette, a prosecutor in Lake County, Ohio. LaTourette declined to reveal the source of the rumor.

Lundgren, his wife, and their oldest son, 19-year-old Damon P. Lundgren, were arrested Sunday at the Santa Fe Motel in National City. The couple’s three younger children were taken into temporary custody.

Federal agents coordinating the nationwide search that led to Lundgren’s arrest said they had “no direct ties” linking him to San Diego. “We have not been able to determine why he came here,” said April Freud, a spokeswoman for the San Diego office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

But as part of their investigation, federal agents learned that Lundgren had rented a self-storage locker Dec. 17 in Chula Vista, another southern San Diego suburb, and filled it with weapons, ammunition and military-style gear, Freud said. When agents searched the locker late Sunday afternoon, they found a handgun, two rifles, a shotgun, explosive powder, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a fire ax and gas masks, Freud said.

Earlier Sunday, when federal agents and National City police officers arrested Lundgren, they found four guns, more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition, knives, gas masks and canteens in his motel room.

Lundgren, 39, is a defrocked minister of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That church is not related to the larger Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints based in Salt Lake City, although both groups base their beliefs on the Book of Mormon and the Bible.

On Monday, Lundgren, his wife and oldest son refused voluntary extradition to Ohio and remained jailed in San Diego County, Deputy Dist. Atty. John Hewicker said. An extradition hearing for the three is set for today in San Diego Municipal Court.

Charges facing Lundgren and his son include five counts of aggravated murder, prosecutor LaTourette said. If convicted, they could face the death penalty. Charges against Lundgren’s wife include five counts of conspiracy to commit murder.

The Lundgrens’ three younger children--two sons, ages 9 and 15, and a 10-year-old daughter--were in “safe hands” in San Diego, Freud said, but he declined to elaborate.

The arrests Sunday left police seeking only two of the 13 cult members indicted in Ohio for the April murders of Dennis and Cheryl Avery and their three young daughters, authorities said.

Kathryn Renee Johnson, 36, and Daniel David Kraft, 25, were spotted Saturday-- in San Diego, police said. They were believed to be driving a light-blue 1986 Nissan pickup truck, Freud said. The vehicle sports a silver camper top, a dented front fender and either Ohio or Missouri license plates, she said.

“We still anticipate them to be in the Southern California area,” Freud said. It was “highly probable” the pair was “armed and dangerous,” she said.

The bodies of the Averys--Dennis, 49, his wife, Cheryl, 42, and their daughters, Trina, 13, Rebecca, 9, and Karen, 5--were found last week buried in a barn near Kirtland, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb. The faces, heads and feet of all five were bound with duct tape, and each had been shot at least twice.

The Averys were identified as one-time followers of Lundgren, who had declared himself the “prophet” of his own religion after his 1988 break with his previous church.

According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, investigators believe the Averys were killed last April in a sacrifice performed so the rest of Lundgren’s group could travel to the wilderness, where they could be cleansed and search for a “golden sword.”

Federal agents have said the killings occurred during a one-hour period sometime between April 16 and 18 on a farm owned by the 29-member cult, which lived communally.

Neighbors said the group left the house hurriedly in mid-April. They became somewhat nomadic, authorities said, traveling first to West Virginia, then to southwestern Missouri, then to the suburbs of Kansas City and Independence, Mo.

The killings were not discovered until an informer mentioned them on New Year’s Eve, officials said.

The Averys were killed with a .45-caliber handgun. Police recovered a gun of that type at Lundgren’s National City motel room. Freud said that, pending ballistics and fingerprint tests, authorities could not identify it as the murder weapon.

Lundgren had rented a 5-by-4-foot locker at the Security First Self Storage facility in Chula Vista on Dec. 17, paying $56 for two months’ rent, manager Doug Reed said. Reed said records showed that items were moved into the locker between 1:55 and 2:45 p.m. the next day.

Records do not indicate any further visits to the locker, Reed said, adding that he would not have allowed weapons to be moved in if he had known about them.

Reed added, “They just seemed like average, everyday people.”

The Lundgren family checked in last Wednesday night to the Santa Fe Motel under a false name, motel managers said. The room, at $37.80 per night, had been paid for through today, they said.

Johnson and Kraft may have visited, because “we were told that at one time eight people were in that room,” Freud said. “But we don’t know whether those people were visiting or staying overnight. And we don’t know the identity of those other people for sure.”

Last Friday, seven members of the cult were arrested in Kansas City, Mo.

Five of the seven have waived extradition to Ohio, LaTourette said Monday. He said he was heading to Missouri today to discuss the other two cases. An eighth member, Sharon Blunchly, waived extradition Monday in Bay City, Mich., LaTourette said.