Police search for 6 people tied to online cult who vanished in Missouri last year
Authorities are searching for six people who disappeared last year and are believed to be followers of an online cult led by a convicted child molester, Missouri police said.
The Berkeley Police Department told USA TODAY on Tuesday that two children were among the group that vanished in August and are tied to Rashad Jamal, the leader of what he calls the “University of Cosmic Intelligence.” Police described the group as a "spiritual cult," which has 200,000 subscribers on its YouTube channel.
Three of the missing people are based in St. Louis, according to police: 24-year-old Mikayla Thompson, 25-year-old Ma’Kayla Wickerson and 3-year-old Malaiyah Wickerson. Gerrielle German, 27, and Ashton Mitchell, 3, are from Lake Horn, Mississippi. Naaman Williams, 29, is from Washington D.C.
“I would like to know that they’re OK so that I can get a good night’s sleep," Shelita Gibson, whose daughter and grandson are among the missing, told St. Louis-based news station KSDK. "I would like to know they’re not hungry, they’re not cold, that no one is making her do things that she would have to pay for in the long run.”
Jamal denies knowing missing people, leading cult
Jamal, whose full name is Rashad Jamal White, denied knowing the six people who went missing and leading a cult. Jamal told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch his “University of Cosmic Intelligence” is just a spiritual YouTube channel.
“I’m just giving you my opinion on a plethora of different subjects: from metaphysics to quantum physics to molecular biology to marine biology to geography to Black history to world history. I’m giving you my opinions on these things,” he told the Post-Dispatch. “That doesn’t make me a cult leader.”
Jamal is serving an 18-year prison sentence in Georgia for child molestation, the station reported.
The members were active on social media and shared Jamal’s videos, disconnected from family and friends, quit their jobs, meditated outside without clothes, and had polygamous relationships, police said. They also changed their names to honor what they believed were gods and goddesses.
Jamal's website said the “ONLINE UNIVERSITY IS GEARED TOWARDS ENLIGHTENING AND ILLUMINATING THE MINDS OF THE CARBONATED BEINGS A.K.A YOUR SO CALLED BLACK & LATINO PEOPLE OF EARTH.”
Group last seen in August at Missouri hotel
The six people were last seen on Aug. 13 at Quality Inn in Florissant, Missouri. Berkeley police said it opened an investigation on Aug. 12 into the disappearance of four adults and two children from a rental home near St. Louis Lambert International Airport.
Other members have traveled at “great lengths to live off the grid and stay with fellow cult members," police added.
In one of the last conversations Naaman Williams had with his mother, Lukeitta Williams, he told her she was not his mother, just a “shell” that brought him into the universe, police said.
“The purpose of sharing this information is to locate these individuals and bring awareness to other law enforcement agencies who investigate similar missing persons or come across sovereign citizens displaying this type of behavior,” Berkeley police said. “It is extremely troubling to the family members of all of the missing people. The level of disconnect these cult members have demonstrated with friends and family members is unfathomable.”
