Kirtland cult killings: Time has healed the 'City of Faith and Beauty'
The News-Herald, Ohio/December 30, 2014
By David Glasier
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the last in a four-part series looking back at the events surrounding what would become known as “The Kirtland Cult Killings” and the recollections 25 years later of the local authorities who were faced with the aftermath.
In Kirtland, the place that calls itself the “City of Faith and Beauty,” time has healed the wounds opened 25 years ago by the discovery of the worst mass murder in Lake County history.
“It did not slow down this community. We’re growing,” says Doris Straka.
For 30 years, Straka and her husband, Ted, have lived in the house on Chardon Road across the street from the former rental property where the bodies of Dennis Avery, his wife and their three children were found on Jan. 4, 1990.
The Averys had been gunned down by Jeffrey Lundgren on April 17, 1989, in the barn adjacent to the century-old home occupied by Lundgren, his family and some of his followers.
“They were not congenial,” Straka replied when asked for her memories about Lundgren and his followers.
After the shootings, Lundgren had his followers bury the bodies in a pit on the barn’s lower level. The bodies were found after authorities were tipped off to the murders by Keith Johnson, a disgruntled former cult member.
Straka well remembers the events of Jan. 4, 1990. The day unfolded amid news media reports of the terrible discoveries being made inside the barn.
“We’d long sensed something was terribly wrong over there, but we never thought about people being killed,” Straka said. “There was so much interest in what was happening over there. The traffic was terrible. People were turning around in our driveway.”
Flash forward 25 years, and Straka hears very few mentions anywhere about what came to be called the Kirtland cult killings.
“It’s not something that’s spoken of very often,” Straka said.
Wayne C. Baumgart, chief of the Kirtland Police since 2000, also said he rarely hears any reference to Kirtland in the context of the Avery murders and Lundgren’s cult.
“The people who’ve lived here a long time certainly are aware of what happened back then,” Baumgart said. “People who are new or relatively new to Kirtland, a lot of them don’t know anything about it.”
These days, Baumgart said, people associate Kirtland with its state title-winning high school football team, annual Strawberry Festival and its reputation as a family-oriented community.
“We have our little problems here, but this is a beautiful, quiet town,” Baumgart said. “It’s always possible something can happen, though, because we’re dealing with human nature and some humans don’t have the same nature as others.”
The most compelling visual evidence of healing in Kirtland is New Promise Church.
Opened in 2007 and topped by its tall, white steeple, the worship center for this non-denominational, evangelical Christian congregation was built on ground where once stood the barn where the bodies of the Averys were found.
“We’re looking forward and thinking about what’s going to happen, not backward,” said Pastor Dale Diggs, senior pastor of New Promise Church.
Diggs, a Kirtland resident, said he sought feedback from his congregation when the church was presented with the opportunity to purchase the property for construction of the new worship center and offices.
“One person had reservations, everyone else believed how right it was, in the spirit of the redeeming Lord, to have good come of a place where something so horrible had taken place,” Diggs said.
Within a matter of days, Diggs added, that one person swung to the view of the vast majority.
Baumgart, for one, much prefers the new view off Chardon Road.
“Every day, for years, I had to drive by that barn on my way to work,” he said. “I’d much rather drive by the church and be reminded of the good things in life and not the product of hate.”
Diggs said he and the members of his congregation are pleased to be part of the ongoing healing process.
“Kirtland has that small-town feel, with a great school system and friendly people,” Diggs said. “It’s a special place.”
To see more documents/articles regarding this group/organization/subject click here.
