WASHINGTON/MINNESOTA
KREM
Samantha Kubota , KREM January 25, 2017
SPOKANE, Wash. — A woman from a Philadelphia filed a civil lawsuit asking for damages from former cult leaders based in the Inland Northwest after she was sexually abused by a church leader for a decade.
Lindsay Tornambe realized she was abused at a New Year’s Eve party on Jan 1, 2012 after speaking with her friends about her experiences as a child while a member of the River Road Fellowship.
The leader of the cult, Victor Barnard, originally founded his religion in Minnesota. Tornambe’s parents met him when she was just nine, and they uprooted their whole lives to move to join the church.
Tornambe said the sexual abuse began when she was 13. She was chosen, along with other girls who were a part of the religion, to be a “maiden.” The group of girls lived together for years in the compound, serving their leader, Victor Barnard.
“Whenever he talked about having sex with me, he always said that it was a way to show me how much God loved me,” she said of the abuse.
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