Rest of Jesus Ministry

[harlequin2005]

Can't see that anyone else has posted this so here goes:-


February 15, 2002


In Wisconsin, Threats, 2 Dead Undertakers, and Plenty of Questions

By JOHN W. FOUNTAIN


HUDSON, Wis., Feb. 14 — When an undertaker and his young apprentice were found shot dead in a funeral home here on a sunny afternoon last week, this town became intrigued over the inevitable question of who was responsible for the killings, the first in Hudson in 24 years.


The police say they are following at least 10 leads in the Feb. 5 crime. But perhaps the most intriguing came the day after the killings, when the head of the state funeral home association told the authorities that an obscure Christian anti-embalming group had been sending threatening letters to funeral homes, including the one in Hudson, since early last year.


"Thus saith the Lord, because you have heard not the words of the Lord, I take from you your sons and daughters into early graves," read the notes, according to records in Eau Claire County Circuit Court. "And prepare for burial yourself. Amen."


The letters came from a group based in nearby Augusta called the Rest of Jesus Ministry. The group, which believes embalming desecrates the body, denies any connection to the killings. But the questions surrounding the organization have left local residents more perplexed.


"It really is just a tragedy, a bizarere tragedy that has made people feel a little uncomfortable," said Gretchen Murphy, 28, a Hudson resident.


The killings were discovered at 1:40 p.m., when the St. Croix County coroner stopped by to sign a death certificate at the O'Connell Family Funeral Home, which is in a quiet residential neighborhood. There, the Hudson police said, the coroner found the bodies of the undertaker, Daniel O'Connell, 39, who ran the longtime family business, and James Ellison, a 22-year-old intern, in an office. Shell casings littered the floor, there were no signs of forced entry, nothing appeared to have been taken and there was no apparent motive, Sgt. Marty Jensen said.


For Hudson, a town of 10,000 where summers along the St. Croix River flow with the sounds of jazz, the case, is "huge," Sergeant Jensen said. The Police Department has sought the help of outside law enforcement agencies, including the state's Department of Crime Investigation.


On Tuesday, the police set up a roadblock in front of the funeral home, stopping more than 300 drivers to ask if anyone had noticed anything suspicious in the area last week.


The police and court records provide a sketchy portrait of the religious group under investigation by several Wisconsin police departments because of the letters sent to funeral homes. Its leader, Kathryn J. Padilla, 55, who is said to teach from the Bible at weekly gatherings at her home in Lincoln, Wis., also speaks in tongues and is believed by her followers to be a prophet.


On Tuesday, the authorities in Eau Claire County charged Mrs. Padilla with disorderly conduct and stalking in connection with the letters. The police carried out a search warrant of Mrs. Padilla's home on Feb. 8, seizing receipts, photographs and documents, including a letter titled "Prepare for War," court records show.


Sergeant Jensen is quick to point out that the religious group is just "one of the top five" leads investigators are pursuing. At first, the police suspected that the two men were killed by someone seeking formaldehyde, which can be used to lace marijuana. But none was stolen.


Mrs. Padilla declined to comment, referring calls to her lawyer, Thomas Bilski.


In a telephone interview, Mr. Bilski said the Rest of Jesus Ministry was founded three years ago by Mrs. Padilla and three other people, and has 15 adult members and 10 children.


Although he admitted that members had delivered the recent letters to two Eau Claire County funeral homes and that the group had sent letters to others over the past year, he described it as an exercise of religious freedom.


"They're just a Christian religious group," Mr. Bilski said. "They're not fanatical or anything like that. She's been arrested for essentially distributing a letter with her religious beliefs in it."


A copy of one of the letters sent last year, bearing the heading, "My people who deal with the corpses," was filed this week in court.


"Respect for the body," it said, "comes by wrapping it in white linen and laying it in a place prepared — pickling of the body, by the draining of the blood, by the draining of its leftover blood is an abomination to Me and this practice Must Cease! Failure to comply to cease from the pickling of the body and the adoration of the dead, will bring a judgement of much death upon this land."


Asked why the congregation kept delivering the letters after news of the killings, Mr. Bilski said: "Kathryn doesn't have radio or a TV. She didn't know about the murders."


The Wisconsin Funeral Home Association has urged its members to be vigilant. In Hudson, though, many just feel stunned.


Daniel O'Connell, who lived with his wife and two children, ages 8 and 11, was a youth softball coach, a member of the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce, and an ambulance worker. Mr. Ellison, who had worked at the business for more than a year as an intern, was scheduled to start full-time after graduation this spring from the University of Minnesota.


Mr. Ellison was a "hard worker" and just the "nicest Christian boy," said Tom O'Connell, 74, the undertaker's father, who started the business.


As Mr. O'Connell sat at a restaurant this morning, people stopped to offer condolences.


"I don't know of anybody who had a type of grudge, nothing," he said tearfully. "I've been searching my mind and searching, but there's absolutely nothing, just nothing."


Original link - NY Times

Oddity upon oddity...

8-)

 

[lopaka]

This case was featured on US true crime series America's Most Wanted recently. It remains a bizarre, unsolved case almost 2 1/2 years on. Here's a report from a local paper after the AMW program aired:


Barron News Shield
Ellisons find America's Most Wanted segment wanting
By:Jenny Miller 05/03/2004

Daniel O'Connell, at the O'Connel Funeral Home.


O'Connel owned the funeral home. Ellison was an intern there.
Carsten and Sally Ellison of Barron watched America's Most Wanted (AMW) on Channel 9 and the Channel 9 newscast afterward.

The AMW segment aired at 8 p.m. on Channel 9 and featured the double murder which occurred Feb. 5, 2002.

The report began with the observation that the crime rocked the small, idyllic northwestern Wisconsin town. They said that the February 2 murder was the first ever double murder and the first murder since the 1980s in Hudson.

There were various theories floating around the community about the possible motive of the killer(s)-perhaps a cult opposed to embalming , or maybe the murderer(s) wanted to steal formaldehyde for drug purposes.
No matter the motive, life in Hudson changed dramatically.

The show's producer talked to two young men in a tattoo parlor and a woman in a local restaurant/pub about possible murder theories. The woman said that she felt uneasy not knowing if the killer was shopping in the same grocery store with her or walking by her on the street.

Few clues

Paul Larsen of the Hudson Police Department said the assailant(s) entered and left the funeral home leaving a very clean crime scene-- no hairs or other evidence was discovered.

The first step for the police was to study the lives of the victims to look for clues to possible motives. O'Connell seemed to be loved by everyone. He was the 1994 Hudson Red Pepper Festival King. A high-profile Hudson citizen, O'Connell was involved in the Rotary, Chamber of Commerce, Boy Scouts, YMCA, and other local organizations. O'Connell loved his job and loved life.
The police did not find any hint of drugs, gambling, or cheating associated with the victims' lives.

Sally Ellison, in a video clip on the program , seemed to indicate that a meeting with O'Connell was planned for the day of the murders. The two were to discuss Ellison's position at the funeral home. AMW brought up the question of whether another employee might have been jealous, but they said that theory was unproven.

Another theory that led nowhere was that the Rest of Jesus ministry, a group opposed to embalming, was somehow involved. They had sent threatening letters to several funeral homes, but police officers could not prove that the group had committed any specific violent acts. Even though the group was still on the suspect list, there was nothing to prove that they could or would even do such an act.

Part of the formaldehyde theory was that the killer(s) wanted the chemical to make methamphetamine or for use in dipping cigarettes.
However, police said that formaldehyde doesn't work as a drug and no formaldehyde was stolen.

AMW also reported that Highway 94 ran from the Twin Cities to Chicago, and that the funeral home was just two blocks off the highway. However no solid suspects surfaced. The police were at a dead-end and sought a nation-wide audience for help in solving the case. AMW said the investigators opened their files for the first time in an effort to get that help.

The report established that on Feb. 2, at 1:07 p.m. one of the victims was on the phone. By 1:22 p.m., someone tried reaching Ellison on his cell phone to no avail. Investigators believe the murders were committed in that 15-minute time span.

Witnesses reported seeing many different cars and trucks coming and going under the front canopy of the funeral home that day. However, there was one lone man, a Caucasian, wearing dark pants, a baseball cap, and a light colored t-shirt, who seemed out of the ordinary because he was not dressed for the frigid February weather.

Authorities are looking for this man, even though they are not ruling out anyone else and are taking all leads.

All in all, there wasn't much for AMW to go on: The crime scene was clean, and there were no apparent motives, but it still nagged at the Ellisons that they hadn't said more about James.

Copyright © 1995 - 2004 PowerOne Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.




http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=11431462&BRD=1132&PAG=461&dept_id=157660&rfi=6

 

[lopaka]

This seemed worth making a rare return engagement to FTMB posting.

Turns out after all it WAS (apparently) a member of a dangerous, secretive cult who was responsible for the murders: the local Roman Cathloic priest.

Last update: December 10, 2005 at 9:24 PM


This story first appeared on Jan. 13, 2005.

Not long before he killed himself, the Rev. Ryan Erickson told close friends that police investigators had questioned him aggressively about the double homicide at a Hudson funeral home in 2002.

Investigators asked him whether he had had affairs, both heterosexual and gay, and they named names as they interrogated the man people in the western Wisconsin border town knew as "Father Ryan." They suggested that he wanted to have sex with a woman he had counseled at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Hudson.

Friends, clergymen and others who provided information for this article said Erickson's denials were strong and passionate. But one of those sources with knowledge of the homicide case said Erickson was also being investigated in connection with other possible criminal cases.

On Dec. 16, 2004, Hudson police searched the church, school, convent and rectory at St. Mary of the Seven Dolors Church in Hurley, Wis., confiscating 22 items - including Erickson's computer, his secretary's computer, six pairs of shoes and his Bible.

Three days later, Erickson, 31, hanged himself.

He denied any connection with the murders of Dan O'Connell and James Ellison, according to several people who spoke with him, and according to Hudson Police Chief Richard Trende.

A friend said Erickson told him that he felt violated by the tone and the specifics of the interrogations.

"I remember him saying it," said Rick Reams of Hudson, who was visiting Erickson the weekend he killed himself. "It came out of his mouth, and it came out like poison when he used the word `violated.' "

Trende declined to reveal what questions were asked of Erickson, but he defended the "professional and ethical" manner in which his detectives conducted their investigation of what he called a "cold-blooded murder."

"Sometimes," Trende said, "you may have to ask questions in the way that you might not like."

Erickson was a priest at St. Patrick from 2000 to 2003. He was transferred to a church in Ladysmith, Wis., in 2003 and then to Hurley in August. Friends from Hudson often made the 200-mile drive to visit him.

As police intensified their questioning, Erickson became more distraught, and those friends rallied to his side. "He was upset," recalled his friend Craig Beemer of Hudson. "He was accused of something very incomprehensible."

On Dec. 17, Reams and Tom Burns, another close friend, drove from Hudson to Hurley to visit Erickson. They found him upset, but by Saturday, they said, he was calm and peaceful.

Beemer called Erickson that night from Hudson, and Erickson returned his call about 7 p.m. Saturday. "He seemed fine," Beemer said. "His last words to me were `God bless.' My last words to him were `God bless.' "

Reams, Burns and Erickson had dinner together at a Hurley restaurant. "He said, let's go back and watch `Bells of St. Mary's,' " Burns said. It was Erickson's favorite movie. They watched it, and they also watched "Big Jake," a John Wayne western from 1971.

They each went to bed in the church's dorm-style facility.

The next morning they found Erickson dead. "I was in shock," Reams said. "I can't even express what it was. I was numb."

.

A rare case

Last week, several of Erickson's friends were subpoenaed and testified in St. Croix County Circuit Court in Hudson at a closed hearing in connection with the murder investigation.

Hudson police are grappling with only their second homicide case in about two decades, which is further complicated by Erickson's suicide. Police won't say whether he was a suspect in the funeral home murders, or how he might have been involved. They said he's one of several people they've interviewed recently.

Erickson's suicide shocked St. Patrick's parishioners. "I don't know why he did what he did, and neither do any of you," said the Rev. Peter Szleszinski, addressing 200 mourners at a memorial service in Hudson on Dec. 29.

It was only after he died that police disclosed that they had questioned Erickson twice - in November and December - as part of the murder investigation. He consulted two public defenders after he was contacted by police, but neither was present when he was interviewed.

Those lawyers say they remain perplexed why he was being questioned in the deaths of O'Connell, 39, and Ellison, 22, who were found shot to death at the O'Connell Family Funeral Home on Feb. 5, 2002.

A church deacon in Hurley, Russell Lundgren, recalled a conversation in which Erickson asked: "Can you believe that they think I've done that?"

The Rev. Philip Heslin, an official of the Diocese of Superior, Wis., said Erickson told him, "I know I am speaking the truth, and God knows I didn't have anything to do with the murder."

Police were blunt in their questions to Erickson, say people who had talked with him. They asked him straight out whether he killed the men and what O'Connell's children would say if they thought he'd killed their father. They asked him about his relationship with a woman he had counseled during his time in Hudson.

Erickson told two people that an investigator said to him, "Come on, you're a man, you've got feelings. Don't you want to bend her over?"

Trende, the Hudson police chief, is circumspect about what was asked of Erickson. "I will acknowledge that he claimed that he did not commit the murders," he said. "We did not accuse him; we haven't charged him."

Police confiscated guns he owned, but a few days before he killed himself, they were returned.

Erickson reportedly left at least two suicide notes at the rectory, according to sources. One was to his parents; one to his friends, Burns and Reams, and one other. Their contents have not been disclosed.

Some parishioners say he had emotional problems. "He said he suffered depression," said John Gagliardi, a St. Patrick member. "He was very open about it."

.

Views drew concern

The traditional Catholic views of Erickson, a charismatic priest, resonated with some parishioners who were devoted to him, while alienating others within the Hudson church.

"He had a certain passion about him that was different from other people," Szlezinski said during the memorial service.

Heslin, who supervises the diocesan staff, said Erickson was a traditional and very conservative priest, "almost giving the impression of being pre-Vatican II."

Some of the differences Erickson had with others in the parish "caused a lot of tension" among the Hudson church's more liberal members, Heslin said. While he said that "tension is not a bad thing," Heslinalso thought that some people "were concerned about what he was teaching the youth."

"He irritated some," recalled Gagliardi, 46, who supported Erickson. "He would say that contraception is considered by the Catholic Church to be intrinsically evil." But Gagliardi said that "the kids loved him" and that Erickson became a spiritual adviser for many, including Gagliardi's teenage daughter.

About 25 to 35 children met with Erickson on Sunday nights at the church, where he taught them about the Catholic faith, Beemer said. "These kids hung on every word."

He said Erickson "gravitated toward people who were also passionate about his faith. . . . What he taught was the truth - not his definition, but the church's definition."

Erickson preached that abortion, masturbation and contraception are sins, Beemer said.

"He challenged the kids," he said. The kids often would then go home and challenge their parents, some of whom did not like what they were hearing from Erickson. Some parents got angry at him; others drew closer.

Reams, Burns and Beemer got to know Erickson on a retreat in 2000, and their friendship and respect for him deepened over time. "He was a great mechanic," Reams said. "When we entered that confessional, he repaired souls."

.

Legal questions

Since Erickson's death, questions have arisen as to what evidence police had that led them to question him.

Ann Davey, who manages the public defender's office in Hudson, said that the day after the search in Hurley (and two days before Erickson killed himself), she prepared a motion to obtain a copy of the search warrant, which had been sealed.

"We wanted to see if the police had probable cause to conduct the search," Davey said, adding that she isn't sure if her office still has legal standing in the case now that Erickson is dead.

Former Minneapolis Police Chief Tony Bouza, who has written several books on police investigations, said that unless police have reached a delicate stage in an investigation, where release of a search warrant would jeopardize it, the warrant ought to be made public.

"I think the bureaucracy has a passion for secrecy, and it's rubbish," he said. "We desperately need a history of his life and of the victims. Either he is cleared or he is implicated. Three people are dead; justice for all three needs to be served. Why did he commit suicide? We need answers."

Public defender John Leonard, whom Erickson contacted before his death, said: "The people of Hudson are entitled to know what the police are doing. The records should be kept and someday be known to the people of Hudson."

But Trende said he is not ready to make those disclosures.

"There were mistakes made by the killer," the police chief said. "That stuff is still out there, and we are working on that. Right now, we don't feel it is appropriate to release that information."

.

Randy Furst can be reached at [email protected], 612-673-7382 or 1-800-829-8742, ext. 7382.

.

The Hudson murders

On the afternoon of Feb. 5, 2002, Martin Shanklin, who was the St. Croix County medical examiner, stopped by the O'Connell Family Funeral Home in Hudson, Wis., to sign a death certificate. He found the bodies of Dan O'Connell, 39, and intern James Ellison, 22, shot to death in the back office. O'Connell was well-known in the Wisconsin border city; Ellison, a mortuary science student at the University of Minnesota, came from Barron, Wis. Investigators said there was no sign of a struggle. Hudson Police Chief Richard Trende said police have conducted about 1,900 interviews in the investigation, but no one has been arrested or charged. A reward of up $100,000 has been offered for information leading to the apprehension and conviction of the killer or killers. Anyone with information can call Crimestoppers at 800-442-7463 or the Hudson police at 715-386-4771.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5775577.html