Leader of Cult Was Drawing Welfare in S.D.

SAN DIEGO —  The leader of a religious cult who was sought in the ritualistic slayings of an Ohio family had been collecting welfare checks in the San Diego area for nearly a month before his arrest Sunday at a National City motel, authorities said Tuesday.

The disclosure surfaced as defrocked minister Jeffrey D. Lundgren, 39, made a brief court appearance Tuesday morning at which his lawyer said Lundgren would resist extradition to Ohio. Lundgren’s wife and oldest son, also arrested Sunday in connection with the killings, appeared at the same hearing and said through their lawyers that they, too, would fight extradition.

Lundgren applied for welfare in December and received checks for $940 each in December and January, a law enforcement source familiar with the case said Tuesday. While he collected the checks, which were sent to a Chula Vista motel, Lundgren and his family “were applying for local, day-type jobs,” a federal agent said.

Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms declined Tuesday to confirm the details of the welfare payments and said they still did not know what brought the family to San Diego County in mid-December.

Those agents, still seeking two of the 13 cult members indicted in the Ohio killings of Dennis and Cheryl Avery and their three young daughters, intensified the search for the pair late Tuesday. The hunt was focused in San Diego, bureau spokeswoman April Freud said, but she declined to elaborate.

Kathryn Renee Johnson, 36, and Daniel David Kraft, 25, were last seen Saturday in San Diego, Freud said.

At Tuesday’s seven-minute court hearing, county prosecutors began the lengthy extradition process for Lundgren; his wife, Alice, and their eldest son, Damon P. Lundgren, 19. All three are being held in San Diego County jails without bail.

Lundgren and his son face five counts of aggravated murder, according to Steven C. LaTourette, a prosecutor in Lake County, Ohio. 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--ages 15, 10 and 9--have been placed with a relative in Missouri, federal agents said Tuesday.

At the hearing, all three adults, handcuffed and dressed in blue jail jumpsuits, remained silent as their court-appointed lawyers said that extradition would be resisted. San Diego Municipal Judge Timothy Tower scheduled a status hearing for Feb. 8.

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 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 breaking in 1988 with the Reorganized Church 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 the beliefs of both groups center on the Book of Mormon and the Bible.

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

When federal agents arrested Lundgren on Sunday morning, they said, they found guns, ammunition and paramilitary gear at his motel room. After learning that Lundgren had rented a self-storage locker Dec. 17 in Chula Vista, agents said, they searched it later Sunday and found more guns and ammunition.

A desk manager at the Traveler Motel in Chula Vista, Laverne Schmidt, said Tuesday that the Lundgrens arrived at the motel Dec. 14 and checked out Jan. 4. Federal agents have said the family checked in to the Santa Fe Motel in nearby National City on Jan. 3, paying for the room through Jan. 9.

Schmidt said she did not notice anything unusual about the family. “There was nothing that would draw attention to them. They were very pleasant and said they were looking for jobs and arrived here from Texas,” she said.

The two welfare checks were mailed to Lundgren at the Traveler Motel, where the family was staying in Room 140, a law enforcement source said. Lundgren told welfare officials he was disabled and needed help, the source said.

Schmidt said the only mail she remembers the family receiving at the motel was correspondence from San Diego County. Lundgren never reported a change of address, the source said.