Sect Members To Cooperate With Cops

Newsday.com/October 24, 2000
By Associated Press

A member of a fundamentalist Christian sect has agreed to lead investigators to the bodies of two children in return for immunity from prosecution.

David Corneau, 33, is the father of one of the two children whom authorities believe died and were buried by members of the sect in a Maine's Baxter State Park last fall.

Under terms of Monday's agreement, Corneau and his wife, Rebecca, 32, will be granted immunity while at least three other members of the sect would be immediately released from jail as well as granted immunity.

The Corneaus' son, Jeremiah, was thought to have been stillborn, but police have no proof since the fundamentalists file no birth records and do not use hospitals. The other child, 10-month old Samuel Robidoux, allegedly starved to death after he stopped nursing.

If either of the two children's bodies is recovered, the agreement also prohibits any medical procedures from being performed, including an autopsy to determine a cause of death.

Two sect members not part in the immunity deal were sect leader Jacques Robidoux and his wife, Karen, the parents of the other missing boy. Another woman also is not part of the deal.

Sect members say they do not recognize the legal system and remained silent for months before a grand jury investigating the boys' disappearance.

David Corneau was one of eight members of the group jailed for refusing to respond to the grand jury's questions. He was freed last month after taking the Fifth Amendment.

Rebecca Corneau was recently held in state custody after a judge expressed concern for the well-being of her unborn child. She gave birth this month to a girl who remains in state custody until her fate is decided by the courts.