Police alert: 6 adults, 8 children plan mass suicide

[Judi Lynn]

Source: NBC News

Police alert: 6 adults, 8 children plan mass suicide
'Cult-like' group 'awaiting the rapture' after California church service
NBC, msnbc.com and news services
updated 9/19/2010 3:24:29 AM ET

PALMDALE, Calif. — Officials in Southern California issued an emergency alert late Saturday for six adults and eight children who are members of a "cult-like" group believed to be planning a mass suicide.

"They were awaiting the rapture or some other catastrophic event," Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Captain Mike Parker said.

Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the sheriff's department, told a hastily called news conference covered by KNBC that the group believed "they were going to meet Jesus or deceased relatives." He said deputies were searching the desert for the group, believed to be six adults and six boys and two girls. The children range in age from 3 to 17, Whitmore said.

The notes did not use the term suicide but did say "they wanted to go on to the next life," Whitmore said.




Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39251083/ns/us_news-life/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Cult members go missing in apparent mass suicide bid

Cult members go missing in apparent mass suicide bid
Police in California are searching for 13 missing cult members amid fears they are planning a mass suicide.
By Nick Allen in Los Angeles
Published: 9:31AM BST 19 Sep 2010

The group, which includes eight children aged three to 17, were believed to have driven into the desert outside Los Angeles and the area was being scoured with helicopters.

A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department spokesman said the group had left notes saying they believed "they were going to meet Jesus or deceased relatives" and "wanted to go on to the next life."

He described the group as being from a church which was was "fundamentalist and close-knit." The group's leader, Reyna Marisol Chicas, 32, was among the missing.

The missing people, from Palmdale in northern Los Angeles County, were reported to include members of three families of immigrants from El Salvador, including three sisters. They were believed to be in three vehicles.

They left a purse containing notes, identification documents and deeds to property with a husband of one of the cult members. They were reported missing by their families.

More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8011804/Cult-members-go-missing-in-apparent-mass-suicide-bid.html

[mikelgb]

2. UNless that is a very industrious 3 yr/old this is homicide/suicide

[L.Torsalo]

3. Furthermore,

this is group-suicide/cult suicide, not mass suicide. Mass implies large numbers of people. This is just a story about some disturbed believers and their desire to murder their offspring and themselves in order to be "saved".

[ET Awful]

4. How many people does it take to qualify as a "mass"?

I mean, yes, "mass" does seem to be a bit of an overstatement here, but how many are there in a "mass" as compared to a "group"?

[bettyellen]

5. mass would be a large group, so i would say 30 minimum

but I guess its pretty relative

[Ticonderoga]

8. Gotcha

As in George W. Bu$h : Mass Murderer

[SkyDaddy7]

9. Exactly! It was written like...

The 3yr old was part of the panel that decided they were in fact so delusion they were going to go meet their imaginary creator in the desert!

[Bluenorthwest]

6. Um, the adults are planning a mass murder of their kids

Three year olds can not commit suicide, their parents murder them. More great news from the 'faith community'.

[Bette Noir]

7. The AP story includes the names of the missing people.

It describes the group as a "group of Salvadoran immigrants," but 4 of the children have English names. That gives me a clue that these children were born in the US, and hence citizens.

Damned racist media. Sorry; I'm very sensitive to this sort of thing, ever since I had to put my passport in my purse earlier this year, to keep from being arrested as an "illegal" in Arizona. The hysteria seems to have died down somewhat, but I'm still reluctant to let the media label people as "immigrants" because their relatives have Spanish names.

Edited to add link.

http://channels.isp.netscape.com/news/story.jsp?flok=FF-APO-1110&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20100919%2F7570.htm&sc=1110&floc=NI-nelead

[Turborama]

10. LA Times: Families fear mass suicide as deputies search remote areas for church members

On foot and in helicopters, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies searched Vasquez Rocks and other remote high desert areas for 13 people from a "cult-like" Palmdale church, including several children, who went missing Saturday amid fears that they may have been planning a suicide pact.

One woman told The Times that her sister-in-law has been with the group and that they often take "trips to the mountains to pray."

Her sister-in-law, she said, told her she was going on a religious trip this weekend and would return Sunday morning. Sheriff's officials said that members of the group had taken at least one prayer trip before but that this trip seemed unusual.

"They've done late-night prayer vigils before, but not in the context of these elements," said Capt. Mike Parker said. "IDs, money, goodbye notes, all that stuff left behind, put in a purse."

Full article: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/09/families-fear-mass-suicide-as-deputies-search-remote-areas-for-church-members.html

[obxhead]

11. The 3 year old child would not be suicide.

It would be murder.

[JerseygirlCT]

16. Exactly nt

[enki23]

12. This was predicted.

[pleah]

13. Let the adults bump themselves off, but save the brainwashed children.

[mitchum]

14. More religious insanity

[JerseygirlCT]

15. How can the kids be planning a suicide?

Their parents are planning their murders, more like.

[LostinVA]

17. Exactly

Just like child molesters don;'t have sex with their victims, they rape them. Another sloppy and inaccurate journalism term I loathe.