The Kirtland Cult Killings: Part II

Who Killed...?

Bill Huffman

True Crime, Society & Culture, History

3.8 • 595 Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2021

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kirtland is located in Lake County and only a 25 minute drive east of Cleveland the small town became a national story in January 1990. After moving to town, Lundgren became a lay minister in Kirtland for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Dale Luffman, president of the northeast Ohio chapter of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, said Lundgren worked from 1985 to 1987 at a church temple in Kirtland. Lundgren conducted tours for the public of the church's 153-year-old temple in Kirtland when he moved from Kansas City, Mo. SOURCES: https://www.news-herald.com/2014/12/30/kirtland-cult-killings-looking-back-at-lake-countys-worst-mass-murder-25-years-later/ https://web.archive.org/web/20080828040940/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/24/ap/national/mainD8KV5DV80.shtml https://www.news-herald.com/2014/12/30/kirtland-cult-killings-time-has-healed-the-city-of-faith-and-beauty/ https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna14500204 https://web.archive.org/web/20061019025800/http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/10/18/bc.na.gen.us.cultleader.ap/index.html https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kirtland-cult-killings_n_7088210 https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/ohio/cleveland/kirtland-cult-cle/ https://fox8.com/news/true-crime-in-cleveland-kirtland-cult-murders/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZJso4RfdCg http://www2.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=68347 https://murderpedia.org/male.L/l1/lundgren-jeffrey-don.htm https://www.newspapers.com/clip/88389254/ https://www.newspapers.com/clip/88389475/ https://www.newspapers.com/clip/88390405/ https://www.newspapers.com/clip/88391008/ https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/kirtland-ohio?lang=eng&abVersion=V02&abName=GLOB88 caselaw.findlaw.com https://www.news-herald.com/news/ohio/kirtland-cult-killings-timeline-of-events/article_d13876c8-f5bb-5134-8ee3-3f0df58ed99f.html https://youtu.be/OZJso4RfdCg Murphey, Jeanne. “Violence and Tragedy: Jeffrey Lundgren’s Legacy.” The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal, vol. 27, John Whitmer Historical Association (JWHA), 2007, pp. 120–38, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43200279. https://culteducation.com/group/1036-jeffrey-lundgren.html Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Slow Burn Media, an Evergreen podcast presents Who Killed, a podcast that provides a voice for the voiceless.
0:11.2	His group of followers broke from the church and became known as the Lindgren commune, operating out of the farmhouse and barn along Route 6.
0:18.5	I would say it was very much cult-like. He saw himself as the spiritual
0:22.9	leader. Dennis and Cheryl Avery and their three daughters were among his followers. There were a family
0:27.9	that needed somebody kind of tell them what to do and when to do it, it seemed, and I think Jeff
0:34.2	fulfilled that. One body at a time. Slowly, paramedics and firemen carried the five out of the barn tonight.
0:41.3	It took about eight hours for local police and federal agents to dig through the floor
0:45.3	of the barn and exhumed the bodies.
0:48.3	It's total mud, flood, clay.
0:52.3	Police aren't saying how they were killed, but the killer had gagged and bound the victims
0:56.4	with electrical duct tape. They were then buried under a layer of clay, a layer of stone, and a layer
1:02.9	of dirt. Police believe the family was killed and buried in April of 1989. For a year and nine
1:09.8	months, the Kirtland Police Department has been investigating
1:12.6	several families who lived together in this house, including the Avery's and Jeff Lundgren's family.
1:19.1	Police believe Lundgren is the leader of a religious cult responsible for the killings.
1:24.5	Hello and welcome to episode 141 of Who Killed.
1:30.3	I am your host, Bill Huffman, and this is a slow burn media and evergreen podcast production.
1:38.3	I hope everyone has had a great week, and on this week's episode, we are going to conclude our look into the Curtland cult killings and the murder of the Avery family.
1:48.0	I'm going to explore the reasons for this family's execution and what kind of power Jeffrey Lundgren had over his followers.
1:56.0	I have questions about what leads people to fall into the crosshairs of a guy like Jeffrey Lundgren.
2:01.7	Why did the cult turn on this particular family?
2:05.0	How was the group able to keep these murders a secret for almost eight months before someone
	...

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