Missing Suburbanites With Ties to Online Cult ‘Don’t Want to Be Found’: Report
Four adults and two young children believed to have been sucked into a bizarre online cult have gone completely off the grid since their disappearance last year, with Missouri police officers reportedly at a loss as to how to find them. Berkeley Police Maj. Steve Runge told NBC News on Wednesday that the missing people have “shut off their phones, shut off their social media, shut off everything.” Explaining that the police had “even” sent the group money on a cash app, only for it to be left untouched. “They’re just gone,” Runge said, adding, “It’s like they don't want to be found.” The adults, who were last seen at a Quality Inn north of St. Louis in August, appear to have ties to Rashad Jamal, a convicted sex offender serving an 18-year prison sentence. A self-styled spiritual guru, Jamal leads what he calls the University of Cosmic Intelligence, according to NBC News. In a jailhouse interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, he denied being a cult leader or knowing any of the six vanished Missourians.
