JUST IN: Jeffrey Lundgren Executed for Cult Murder of Family of 5 | Last Meal & Final Words….

JUST IN: Jeffrey Lundgren Executed for Cult Murder of Family of 5 | Last Meal & Final Words….

They believed it was a house of faith. Others called it madness.

Some recalled that he claimed to have visions and the ability to time travel. For a time, his followers truly believed he was a prophet. But thirty-five years ago, Jeffrey Lundgren led a cult and systematically slaughtered a family of five. Those on the inside have since revealed what life under his control was really like, noting how they began to view everything in life differently because “Dad” had to be right all the time—even if you could prove he was wrong.

The Final Steps: October 24, 2006

On October 24, 2006, in Lucasville, Ohio, the sun had barely risen when the warden walked the seventeen steps from the holding cell to the execution chamber at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility to confirm that everything was ready.

Inside that cell, Jeffrey Don Lundgren was awake. He had spent the previous night making phone calls, crying on the phone with his wife, and eating his last meal of turkey, potatoes with gravy, salad, and pumpkin pie. He had been so certain the courts would grant him another delay that he had napped through most of the morning. They did not.

At 10:00 a.m., the guards came for him. He walked those seventeen steps without his Bible. The book he had used for decades to bend people to his will, to justify murder, and to convince grown men and women that he spoke directly to God, was left behind in his cell.

On the other side of the glass, witnesses were already seated. Among them were the brothers of a woman Jeffrey had killed seventeen years earlier. They had waited a long time for this morning.

The Origins of a Prophet

To understand why the state executed the condemned, we have to go back to the beginning.

Jeffrey Don Lundgren was born on May 3rd, 1950, in Independence, Missouri. Independence was a significant city in the world of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the RLDS Church), a splinter denomination that had broken from mainstream Mormonism in the 19th century. Jeffrey’s family were devoted members. Church was not optional, scripture was not optional, and Jeffrey’s father, Don Lundgren, was not a man who offered a lot of choices.

By multiple accounts, Jeffrey’s childhood was marked by severe physical abuse at the hands of his father. Neighbors later confirmed they had witnessed the beatings. His mother, Lois, never stepped in and never defended her son. By the time Jeffrey reached middle school, he had retreated entirely into himself. He was a socially awkward loner with almost no friends, harboring a deep resentment—though he would have framed it as simply knowing he was different from everyone around him.

There was only one place Jeffrey did not feel like an outsider: church. In a world where he struggled to connect with people, Jeffrey connected deeply with scripture. He possessed a gift for memorization and could recite long Bible passages from memory in a way that made other children look at him with something close to awe. That was the first time Jeffrey Lundgren understood that the Bible could give him power over people.

The other source of power in his youth was firearms. As he got older, Jeffrey and his father spent time together on hunting trips. The abuse had not stopped, but the gun range served as neutral ground. Jeffrey became a skilled marksman, learning how to handle firearms with precision, becoming comfortable with the idea of aiming at something living and pulling the trigger.

Adulthood and Fractured Stability

He enrolled at Central Missouri State University, where, at an RLDS youth house on campus, he met Alice Keeler. Alice carried her own emotional wounds, having also suffered under an abusive father. The two deeply damaged individuals found an immediate and intense bond. They became lovers, Alice became pregnant, and they dropped out of college to marry in the spring of 1970. Jeffrey’s parents refused to attend the wedding.

Jeffrey enlisted in the United States Navy that same year, serving as an electronics technician from 1970 to 1974. After receiving an honorable discharge, he settled with Alice and their growing family in San Diego, California. They would eventually have four children together.

However, the life Jeffrey tried to build continually collapsed. He couldn’t hold a job, stole from his employers repeatedly, and lied constantly. Money was always a crisis. According to hospital records, he also became violent toward Alice; she was once hospitalized with a ruptured spleen—an injury doctors believed was consistent with being shoved forcefully into a closet door handle.

The Kirtland Temple and the Shift to Isolation

Economic pressure eventually forced the family to move back to Missouri. By the early 1980s, Jeffrey’s relationship with the mainstream RLDS Church had curdled into contempt. The church was becoming more progressive, even allowing women to be ordained as ministers. Jeffrey despised this shift, viewing it as a corruption of true scripture and a betrayal of God’s design.

He began holding his own private Bible study sessions, teaching personal interpretations and gathering a small audience of believers who found his knowledge of scripture electrifying. By 1984, Jeffrey claimed he had received a direct message from God telling him to move to Kirtland, Ohio.

This was a highly calculated location. Kirtland was one of the most sacred sites in the RLDS tradition, where Joseph Smith himself had built the first Mormon temple in the 1830s. For Jeffrey, the message felt like divine confirmation: he was a chosen instrument being moved by God toward a specific destination for a specific purpose.

The RLDS Church gave him an unpaid position as a senior temple guide, along with free housing adjacent to the temple. Jeffrey accepted. It was the perfect platform. Tourists and church members passed through the Kirtland Temple daily, and Jeffrey was the charismatic, knowledgeable man who explained it to them. Armed with an IQ of 124, he knew exactly how to hold a room.

Building the Cult

The public tour guide persona was merely a front. In reality, Jeffrey was using the position to recruit for his private classes. He developed what he called a “chiastic interpretation” of scripture—a method of reading the Bible that looked for mirror patterns and recurring structures in the text. He claimed he had invented this approach himself. He had not; chiasmus had been a recognized literary device for centuries. However, his followers did not know that.

To them, Jeffrey Lundgren had unlocked a layer of scripture no other teacher had ever found. He spoke with the absolute certainty of someone granted exclusive access to divine truth. That certainty was magnetic. People who were looking for a leader to provide absolute answers began leaving their lives behind to follow him.

Recognizing his growing influence, Jeffrey began to tighten his grip:

Total Surveillance: He forbade his followers from talking to each other without his permission. Private conversations were deemed a form of “murmuring”—a sin referenced in scripture. He would walk the halls, eavesdrop on conversations, and confront followers later with exact details of what they had said, leading them to believe he could read minds.

Financial Control: He demanded all their money. Every paycheck, savings account, and asset possessed by the families was surrendered to him. He controlled the finances entirely, dictating what each family received back.

Spiritual Manipulation: He selected women from within the group to become his plural wives, convincing both the women and their husbands that this was God’s will and that refusal was a spiritual failure. He forced women to perform ritual cleansing ceremonies naked in the wilderness.

By 1987, the RLDS Church had seen enough. Officials discovered that Jeffrey had stolen approximately $40,000 in donations entrusted to him for the temple. He was dismissed as a lay minister and evicted from his church-provided housing.

This did not break his movement; it hardened it. Jeffrey convinced his followers that the church had turned its back on scripture and that they were being persecuted for their faith. Approximately twenty people packed up and moved with him to a rented farmhouse at 8671 Chardon Road in rural Kirtland.

Targeting the Avery Family: “Pruning the Vineyard”

Among those twenty people were Dennis and Cheryl Avery and their three daughters. Dennis Avery was a quiet, hard-working 49-year-old man from Independence, Missouri, deeply devoted to his faith. He had first encountered Jeffrey’s scripture classes in Missouri in 1986 and had been captivated. When Jeffrey announced the move to Kirtland, Dennis didn’t hesitate. In April 1987, he sold his family home in Missouri, relocated his entire family to Ohio, and turned over the entire proceeds of the sale—tens of thousands of dollars—to Jeffrey.

Cheryl Lynn Bailey Avery was 46 years old. Trained as a school teacher, she was a dedicated full-time wife and mother. The three girls they had raised were:

Trina Denise, 15 years old.

Rebecca Lynn, 13 years old.

Karen Diane, 7 years old.

The Averys were exactly the kind of family Jeffrey claimed to build his community around: faithful, sacrificial, and willing. Yet, almost from the beginning, Jeffrey despised them. He found Dennis Avery weak and not forceful enough in his obedience, privately calling him “an excuse for a man.” He found Cheryl too controlling and too much of an influence over Dennis.

Worse yet, the Averys had committed specific offenses that Jeffrey could not forgive. They were the only cult members who did not live inside the shared farmhouse, maintaining a separate residence nearby—an act Jeffrey considered disloyal. Furthermore, Dennis had quietly kept a small bank account set aside for his family’s private use rather than surrendering every single cent. In Jeffrey’s world, that was a fatal sin. He began calling what he was planning to do to the Avery family “pruning the vineyard,” drawing on the scriptural imagery of a gardener removing branches that hold the vine back.

The Prophecy and the Pit

In 1988, Jeffrey’s teachings took a dangerous turn. He began preaching that the Second Coming of Christ would happen on May 3rd—his own birthday—at the Kirtland Temple. He claimed the event would require them to seize the temple by force and kill anyone who stood in their way. He had his followers digging tunnels on the property, stockpiling weapons, and conducting paramilitary training.

A neighbor noticed the activity and reported her suspicions to Kirtland police officer Ron Andolsek in April 1988. Shortly after, a former cult member came forward to warn authorities about the planned temple assault, prompting the FBI to open a domestic terrorism investigation.

When the Kirtland police chief confronted Jeffrey directly, Jeffrey called off the temple plan, claiming he had received a new message from a higher power. To save face, he adjusted the prophecy: the Second Coming was merely delayed because the group was spiritually impure. Impurity, he argued, had to be violently purged before God would act. He had already decided who that impurity was.

On April 10, 1989, Jeffrey ordered several male followers to dig a pit in the barn behind the farmhouse—six feet wide, seven feet long, and four feet deep. When they asked what it was for, he told them it was for storage. No one questioned him.

Setting the Trap

Over the following days, he set his plan in motion. He instructed Cheryl Avery to write a letter to her family in Missouri stating that the Averys had found jobs in Wyoming and were relocating, and that they would send a contact address once settled. Cheryl wrote it, trusting him completely, entirely unaware she was writing the document that would ensure no one came looking for her body.

On April 17, Jeffrey moved all of the Avery family’s belongings into the farmhouse, rented them a temporary motel room, and told them they would stay there before an upcoming wilderness trip. That evening, he hosted a farewell dinner at the farmhouse. The entire group ate and prayed together. The Avery family sat at that table feeling nothing but gratitude for their community, eating what they did not know was their last meal.

After dinner, Jeffrey led all the men—except Dennis Avery—into his bedroom. He reached into his holster, drew his gun, and asked, “Are you with me?” Every man said yes, including his 19-year-old son, Damon Lundgren, as well as Ronald Luff, Daniel Kraft, Richard Brand, and Greg Winship.

Jeffrey laid out the execution script: they would lure the Avery family members to the barn one by one, bind them, shoot them, and bury them in the pit. A chainsaw had already been set up inside the barn and left running to muffle the sound of the gunshots. The murder weapon was a .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun.

Inside the farmhouse, the women were washing dishes. Some of them knew what was happening. Two followers, Susan Luff and Deborah Olivares, stood in the kitchen and whispered, “Do you think it’s happening?” They heard the chainsaw running in the barn, and they kept washing the dishes.

The Massacre in the Barn

Ronald Luff went back into the house and told Dennis Avery that he was needed in the barn to help move camping equipment. Dennis followed Luff outside.

When Dennis entered the barn, the men tackled him to the ground. A stun gun they attempted to use malfunctioned, but they overwhelmed him, binding his hands and feet and placing duct tape over his mouth. Dennis struggled fiercely. They carried him to the pit and forced him down into the dirt. Dennis managed to scream a muffled, desperate plea through the tape:

“No. This isn’t necessary. God damn it. God damn it. God damn it.”

Jeffrey Lundgren raised the .45-caliber handgun and shot Dennis Avery twice in the back.

Jeffrey forced every man in the barn to look at the corpse to ensure they understood they were now irrevocably bound to the crime. Damon Lundgren, Jeffrey’s 19-year-old son, broke down hysterically and refused to continue. Jeffrey told his son to go outside and serve as a lookout—the only mercy offered that night.

The Remaining Family

Ronald Luff returned to the house and told Cheryl Avery that her husband needed her help. When she reached the barn, the men grabbed her, gagged her, and wrapped duct tape over her eyes. She never saw the pit or her husband’s body three feet below her. Jeffrey shot Cheryl Avery three times: twice in the chest, once in the abdomen. They placed her body in the pit beside her husband.

Next came 15-year-old Trina. They bound her hands and feet, taped her head, and lowered her into the pit. As the chainsaw roared, Jeffrey pointed the gun at her head and fired. The first bullet ricocheted off her skull. Even with her mouth taped shut, Trina cried out in agony. Jeffrey fired a second shot, killing her.

Rebecca, 13, was brought out next. She was shot once in the thigh and once in the back, placed into the pit while still alive, bleeding out in the dark over the bodies of her family.

The last to die was 7-year-old Karen. Ronald Luff went inside and took her by the hand, telling her they were going to see some horses in the barn. Karen was small enough that she accepted a piggyback ride from him. She rode on his back through the yard and into the barn.

When they set her down, the men wrapped duct tape around her small hands, feet, and face. She was visibly shaking with terror. Jeffrey Lundgren stood at the edge of the pit, pointed his gun down at Karen’s head, and pulled the trigger twice.

The five members of the Avery family were dead. Jeffrey’s men covered the bodies with lime, soil, rocks, and garbage, sealing the pit. They went back inside the house, where the dishes were finished.

Discovery and Arrest

The next morning, April 18, 1989, Kirtland police officers and FBI agents arrived at the farmhouse to follow up on the previous complaints about firearms. They walked through the barn, their boots passing directly over the fresh grave less than a foot below the surface. They asked the followers if anyone was being held against their will; everyone said no, and the authorities left.

Realizing how close the police had come, Jeffrey ordered the group to pack up immediately. Within hours, they fled to a campsite in West Virginia, beginning months of moving from state to state, living off the grid. Back in Missouri, Cheryl’s family read the fake relocation letter and did not worry.

Eight months passed. The break in the case came from inside the cult. Larry Keith Johnson had been a loyal follower, but Jeffrey selected Johnson’s wife, Katherine, to become one of his plural wives. That shattered Johnson’s loyalty. On December 31, 1989, Johnson contacted ATF agents in Kansas City, Missouri, and drew a map marking the exact execution spot in the barn.

On January 3, 1990, Kirtland Police Chief Dennis Yarbrough obtained a search warrant. Law enforcement converged on the property and began digging. On January 9, all five bodies were recovered.

Three days later, on January 7, Jeffrey Lundgren, his wife Alice, and their son Damon were arrested at a motel near the California-Mexico border, just days away from slipping into Mexico.

Trial and Justice

Thirteen cult members were ultimately charged. Jeffrey’s trial began on August 13, 1990. The prosecution presented staggering eyewitness testimony from the men in the barn, forensic evidence, and Cheryl’s forced letter. Jeffrey delivered an unsworn statement directly to the jury in an attempt to avoid the death penalty, famously proclaiming:

“It’s not a figment of my imagination that I can in fact talk to God, that I can hear his voice. I am a prophet of God. I am even more than a prophet… I cannot say that God was wrong. I cannot say that I am sorry I did what God commanded me to do in the physical act.”

On August 29, 1990, the jury found Jeffrey Lundgren guilty on five counts of aggravated murder and five counts of kidnapping. After deliberating for just two hours on September 20, they recommended the death penalty.

The Sentences of the Cult Members

Defendant
Charges
Sentence

Jeffrey Lundgren
5 counts Aggravated Murder, 5 counts Kidnapping
Death

Alice Lundgren
Conspiracy, Complicity, Kidnapping
150 years to life (Parole eligible 2092)

Damon Lundgren
4 counts Aggravated Murder
120 years to life

Ronald Luff
Aggravated Murder, Kidnapping
170 years to life

Daniel Kraft
Aggravated Murder, Kidnapping
50 years to life

Richard Brand
Murder / Complicity
15 years to life (Paroled 2010)

Greg Winship
Murder / Complicity
15 years to life (Paroled 2010)

The Road to the Gurney

Jeffrey spent the next seventeen years on death row at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, filing endless denied appeals. In September 2006, the Ohio Parole Board unanimously denied his request for clemency. His attorneys filed a last-minute lawsuit arguing that his obesity (275 lbs) and diabetes would make lethal injection unpredictably painful, constituting cruel and unusual punishment. A temporary stay was granted but quickly lifted by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene.

At 10:49 p.m. on October 23, the warden informed Jeffrey the execution was moving forward. The prison logs recorded that at 8:23 a.m. the next morning, while on his final phone call with his wife Alice, the self-proclaimed prophet broke down and wept hysterically.

The Execution Timeline

10:00 a.m. – Jeffrey is escorted from his holding cell, walking the 17 steps without his Bible. No family members or friends are present in the witness room to support him; only the prosecutor and Cheryl Avery’s brothers, Donald Bailey and Kent Kilby, watch through the glass.

10:17 a.m. – Asked for his final words, Jeffrey states:

“For my last words, I’d like to profess my love for God, my family, my children, and my beloved wife. I am because you are.”

10:17 a.m. – 10:18 a.m. – Two syringes of thiopental sodium (sedative) are administered.

10:19 a.m. – A saline flush clears the IV lines.

10:21 a.m. – Pancuronium bromide (paralytic) is injected to stop his breathing.

10:22 a.m. – Another saline flush is administered.

10:23 a.m. – Potassium chloride is injected to stop his heart.

10:27 a.m. – Jeffrey Don Lundgren is officially pronounced dead.

Aftermath

Outside the facility, prosecutor Steven Ladaret told reporters he took no pleasure in the execution, admitting he could never purge the memory of the barn from his mind. Donald Bailey, Cheryl’s brother, stated that witnessing the execution finally brought him a sense of peace and release.

A church named the New Promise Church eventually purchased the property at 8671 Chardon Road for $350,000. In November 2007, the infamous barn was completely demolished and replaced with a new building.

Investigating officers later compared Jeffrey Lundgren’s methods directly to those of Jim Jones, David Koresh, and Charles Manson, noting the identical blueprints of isolation, financial domination, and weaponizing faith to claim an exclusive path to God. Ultimately, Jeffrey Lundgren did not invent these psychological traps; he merely applied them in a rented Ohio farmhouse to steal the lives of an innocent family of five.