Six people including two young children have vanished after joining a ‘spiritual cult’ led by a convicted child molester.
Police are frantically searching for Ma’Kayla Wickerson, 36, her daughter Malaiyah, Wickerson, 2 and Mikayla Thompson, 25, from St Louis, along with Naaman Williams, 30, of Washington D.C, Gerrielle German, 27, of Horn Lake, Mississippi and her son Ashton Mitchell, 2.
The group disappeared from a rental home near Lambert St. Louis Airport according to police, who warned they had fallen under the influence of social media ‘prophet’ Rashad Jamal.
Jamal, whose legal name is Rashad Jamal White, is the leader and founder of The University of Cosmic Intelligence, an antigovernmental, polygamous ‘religious’ group which claims to enlighten black and Latino people about their ‘true’ origins.
He is currently serving 18 years in prison in Atlanta for child molestation and child cruelty. He has thousands of followers across his social media platforms where he posts bizarre conspiracy theories.
Six people including two young kids are missing after falling into a cult led by online ‘prophet’ Rashad Jamal
Makayla Wickerson, 25, and her three-year-old daughter Malayiah are among those who vanished after joining the University of Cosmic Intelligence
Gerrielle Mitchell, 28, and her son Ashton, 3, are in the group last seen on August 13 at a Quality Inn Hotel in Florissant, Missouri
Self-professed ‘god’ Jamal claims that Arizona is a gateway to Africa, birds are government drones and that humans are ‘avatars’ among other outlandish beliefs.
The missing people were last seen on August 13 at a Quality Inn Hotel in Florissant, Missouri. Prior to their disappearance, neighbors regularly spotted them meditating naked at their rental home, Fox News reports.
Family of the group say they cut off all contact prior to their disappearance and had changed their names to honor gods and goddesses.
‘Mental illness is real, manipulation is real there are a lot of things that are going on out here, we just need to be aware,’ Cartisha Morgan, Wickerson’s mom told the outlet.
Berkley Policer Department’s Major Steve Runge added that the group were often seen running around naked in the rain outside the rental home, as well as digging up items from the dirt.
Followers of the cult are encouraged to go ‘off grid’ and change their name to more spiritual monikers.
Thompson calls herself Antu Anum Ahmat, Williams uses the alias Anubis Aramean and Wickerson refers to herself as Intuahma Aquama Auntil, according to police. German goes by Anatari Anu Ariel, according to a family member.
The FBI has since joined the search with police warning the cult has encouraged a ‘total disconnection’.
The missing people were all living together at a rental home near Lambert St. Louis Airport where neighbors would see them meditating naked prior to their disapperance
Police are also searching for Naaman Williams, 30, who is among the six missing. Williams, like others in the cult, had changed his name to honor gods and goddesses which feature in the cult’s lore
Jamal believes he is a god and subscribes to a number of bizarre theories including that Arizona is a gateway to Africa and that pigeons are government drones being used to spy on people
Jamal’s website states the cult is ‘geared toward enlightening and illuminating the minds of the carbonated beings, a.k.a. your so called [sic] Black and Latino people of Earth,’, who he claims are descendants of ‘Planet Ki’.
The website offers crystal jewelry for up to $333.33 as well as the option to purchase Jamal’s lectures from $19.99.
He states that he is a god and has maintained his innocence with regards to his child molestation charges . He is currently seeking a retrial and asks for donations to support his family.
‘The only law I had broken was speaking out against oppression,’ he claims in a YouTube video posted last week. ‘The only thing I am guilty of is freeing the minds of my people and speaking out against this system, and I’ll never back down from that.’
In 2022 several of Jamal’s disciples were accused of two murders in Alabama.
Damien Winslow Washam was charged with killing his mom, but found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Cult members Krystal Diane Pinkins and Yasmine Hider were separately convicted of murdering Florida college student Adam Sinjee, 22.
Sinjee was hiking with his girlfriend in Alabama’s Talladega National Forest when Pinkins and Hider faked a car breakdown and robbed them. The killers had been living ‘off grid’ at the time of the attack.
Williams (left) was going by the name Anubis and has vanished along with girlfriend Mikayla Thompson
Family including Cartisha Morgan, Wickerson’s mom, say they cut off all communication prior to going missing
The cult is an antigovernmental pseudo religious organization which encourages followers to live ‘off grid’
In response to media reports about the missing people, Jamal took to Instagram to blast outlets using ‘fake cases’ to ‘as a means to silence me from exposing there [sic] Satanic system’.
‘This is literally being played out right before all your eyes,’ he wrote. ‘They are trying to assassinate me in front of the entire world the same way they did the Prophet Yahweh aka Jesus.
‘At this point I don’t know how much longer I will be on this material plane with you. My life is truly in danger for spreading the word of almighty God.
‘Satan is using his media and more to get me off this planet.’