Mass Suicide Fears Over Missing LA Sect

[English Noodles]

A religious sect of 13 people - including several children - have gone missing amid fears they plan a mass suicide.



Ms Chicas is among those missing in California



Authorities in southern California said they were searching a desert outside Los Angeles for the group.
The sect includes three sisters, aged 30, 32 and 40 years, a 19-year-old man and eight children, aged eight to 17.
It is headed by "cult-like leader" Reyna Marisol Chicas, according to officials.
Police were alerted after two husbands reported on Saturday that their wives had gone missing after attending a prayer meeting.
According to the Los Angeles Times, a California Highway Patrol "alert" said: "It is believed, through further investigation, that (their) intentions are to commit mass suicide.
"The letters essentially state that they are all going to heaven shortly to meet Jesus and their deceased relatives.
"Numerous letters found say goodbye to their (living) relatives."
But LA County Sheriff's Captain Mike Parker said the letters did not specifically mention suicide, although they did refer to the "end of the world".
He continued that one of the husbands believed the missing adults had been "brainwashed".
The sect consists of El Salvadoran immigrants and Chicas is a 32-year-old woman from Palmdale, in northeast Los Angeles county, Cpt Parker added.
The sect also left behind mobile phones, identification documents and deeds to property.
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore told the LA Times: "We do not think this is a hoax.
"We don't know that this is a potential suicide, but we know that it's real and we're going to find them."


LA Sect: Fears Of Mass Suicide Bid After 'Cult-Like' Group Goes Missing In California | World News | Sky News

[WujouMao]

well they're going to be mighty upset when they get to the gates of heaven and find it padlocked

brainwashed fools. adults have more brains. its the kids i feel sorry for.

[English Noodles]

its the kids i feel sorry for.

Yep. Me too.

[superman]

A frantic search for 13 members of a California 'cult' has ended today after all were found safe in a Los Angeles park.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worl...#ixzz101enUPhb

[keda]

They have the right to pray in a park, and to go missing for travel or vacation or for the hell of it, and also to take their own kids along with them. The report doesn't clarify whether the 8 kids are theirs, but we have to assume they are since otherwise there would be grounds to step in on kidnapping or related charges, if only as a holding tactic, keeping in mind that the husbands were concerned and they too have rights if any of the kids are theirs.

The cult members also have the right to commit suicide if that's what they want since a determined suicide cannot be stopped anyway. But they do not have the right to murder kids or persuade them to commit suicide, or to commit suicide in a way that may affect the kids or anyone else for that matter aside from those paid to sweep up the mess.

So, going by the rules in a free and rupturing society that places greater weight on rights over common sense, the authorities should not intervene because although they may believe something sinister is about to occur there's little they can do to prevent it without firm evidence, which may well become available only after the event.

If the authorities intervene and secure the kids on a suspicion and without 'firm' evidence of intent, they've acted hastily and will be vilified by the usual suspects both here and in the real world. If they stand by and do nothing, and kids or others are then murdered or affected, well, we know what happens then, right?

This draws a line between yuman rites and prevention of 'suspected' intent to murder or otherwise harm. So, should the authorities err on the side of caution and to hell with the consequences, or stand by to satisfy the cult's rights to do as they please?

I know what I would do, grab the kids and give the adults a car with enough gas to get them into the middle of the desert.