3 St. Louis Men Arrested after Migrant Woman Found Beaten, Tied with Ropes, and Bleeding from Her Head After Escaping Cult-Like Church

Three men were arrested this past weekend in St. Louis City after after a woman was found bound by ropes and bleeding from the head. The incident took place at Mount of Olives Ministry on Minnesota Avenue in the city.

The woman said she was held captive and was beaten by the men at the church. Inside the room police found a bottle of water and a bucket that had been used as a toilet.

According to reports when police arrived at the scene they found women described as “angels” held in a room inside the premises. When police lifted their veils the women would start screaming.

Local KSDK reported on the south city cult.

The Riverfront Times reported:

A bizarre kidnapping case that allegedly occurred this past weekend in south St. Louis got a lot stranger this afternoon at a bond hearing for one of the defendants.

Over the weekend, police were called to Minnesota Avenue in the Patch neighborhood after a woman was found bound by ropes and bleeding from the head. She later told police she had been confined against her will in a room at the nearby Mount of Olives Ministry church. Three men were charged with felony kidnapping and assault.

This afternoon, at a bond hearing for one of those men, 28-year-old Grace Kipendo, Assistant Circuit Attorney Chris Faerber described cult-like conditions at Mount of Olives Ministry.

Faerebr said in court he’d be reaching out to federal prosecutors regarding the case.

He said that officers at the scene reported that members of the church referred to women as “angels” and there was a “white room” where there were women referred to as “good angels” and wore white veils.

“Officers tried to lift their veils to check on their well-being and the women started screaming,” Faerber told Judge Heather Hays, in arguing that Kipendo should remain in the City Justice Center without bond.

Faerber quoted one of the officers at the scene who said, “If I hadn’t seen this with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

According to the police probable cause statement, the victim said that she was kept locked in a room where she was beaten and given only water. After police arrived, the victim led officers to a different room, one that wasn’t the “white room,” which had had its door knob broken off and, inside, a bucket being used as a makeshift toilet.

Police were called because the victim was “crying out to passersby who were not members of the church,” according to Faerber.