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Aelin Lance Lesser
This is an iHeart podcast.
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Gray Odin Schweiss
3.
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Aelin Lance Lesser
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Erica Lance
And from tried and true denim to.
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Erica Lance
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Aelin Lance Lesser
Lindsay still has photos from when she was a maiden when she lived in Alamoth and served as Lyra the the Keeper of Music in the spiritual battle they all fought together. Pictures of her in long dresses, performing music, were huddled with the maidens around Victor in a big hug. A photo of Victor kissing her forehead as she plays the guitar. Victor embracing her in front of the bridge over the pond where Jesus was supposed to find. But when she goes through her memorabilia, the photos, her diary, the thing most on her mind isn't the man who called himself an apostle, the man she obeyed no matter what, who raped her for 10 years. She doesn't think first of her parents or her siblings. When she's reminded of her childhood, one thing is always at the fore.
Lindsay
It reminds me of the maidens. And the day that our parents dropped us off was July 23, 2000. Victor did have us celebrate that anniversary every year with him.
Aelin Lance Lesser
It wasn't just the anniversary of their commitment to Victor. It was when the 10 girls found themselves bound together, living as a family for the next decade. Ten girls and women aged 12 to 23, supporting each other through everything.
Lindsay
I still miss them, you know, I don't think there's a day goes by that I don't think of the maidens. Even more so than my own siblings. I think of them as my sisters. Sometimes I just wish that I could have met them under different circumstances, you know, or that somehow we would have all gotten out and come back together, you know, and been able to share in this grieving and healing process together. And it just really makes me sad that that didn't happen either. Besides, with with.
Aelin Lance Lesser
Jess, the youngest maiden, the girl with red hair, Lindsay's best friend, who came forward with her to get Victor put away while the other maidens were still in River Road, or even visiting Victor in prison, Jess and Lindsay had each other. Through the questions, the police interviews, the media coverage, the manhunt, the plea bargaining, sentencing. It was always Jess. Three years later, in March of 2020, Lindsay was at home when she saw a post online. It was from Jess's brother. She didn't know what it meant.
Lindsay
Her brother posted something on Facebook asking to pray for her, and I immediately messaged him. What is going on? What is going on with Jess?
Aelin Lance Lesser
From Rococo Punch and I Heart Podcasts. This is the Turning River Road. I'm Alin Lance Lesser.
Erica Lance
And I'm Erica. Lance part nine. Jess.
Aelin Lance Lesser
The day of that sentencing hearing back in 2016 was like coming out of a tunnel. You can see it even now in the photos they took that day.
Lindsay
This was me and Jess after we were in court. Oh, wow. It was October 28, 2016.
Aelin Lance Lesser
Yeah, you both look really happy.
Lindsay
Oh, we look really Happy. You know when you can tell even from a picture that there's light in somebody's eyes? You can see the light. We're both smiling so big, and she's kind of in front, and I'm standing behind her, and my head is over her shoulder, and we have our heads together.
Aelin Lance Lesser
They had both dyed their hair. Lindsay's, which is usually curly brown, was straight and black. In this picture, Jess hair was short and platinum blonde, almost white. They had their survivor bracelets on the ones Jess had made. There is something about that photo where both of you just look so happy.
Lindsay
Mm.
Aelin Lance Lesser
I'm glad you captured that moment.
Lindsay
To see a comparison. I think I told you about that play.
Aelin Lance Lesser
Lindsay pulls out another picture of her and Jess. This time, they're young girls in pigtails and sailor costumes. It's from before they were maidens. When the children of River Road Fellowship put on a musical set on a ship, the community built. Jess and Lindsay had a duet together.
Lindsay
This was when early 1999, Jess and I were in the Crow's Nest singing. I had just turned 12, and she was 11.
Aelin Lance Lesser
Oh, my goodness, that's us. And you've got little sailor hats on.
Lindsay
Mm. And we were in the middle of singing. Cause our. Our mouths are open.
Aelin Lance Lesser
They were already friends, but that was the start of them really being a pair. These two little girls caught up in the bigness of singing a duet for the whole camp so long before they'd have to stand together in front of another audience in court. Years later, we are so excited.
Lindsay
We were the only ones who got to go up into this, like, huge tower that they had built. I remember being nervous, and I think she was nervous, but somehow we just helped calm each other down and climb up there and sing the song. Like a ship so far from home Wandering aimlessly alone Storm tossed by the troubles of this world Driven by the something in the mutiny of sin There I was alone A sinking man oh, man. Gosh. I haven't sang this in years. It's funny how the brain can. I can't remember the rest of the word. A really sweet memory that I have of the two of us from early on before, you know, things turned. But I look at this. This was early 1999. And by that summer, my parents are having me sleep in a camper with Victor. And I feel so sad for these little girls because, like, they don't even know that that innocence is slowly going to be ripped and torn away from.
Aelin Lance Lesser
Jess was like a sister to Lindsay at age 12 and at age 30 and that was a big deal because Lindsay's birth sisters weren't in her life anymore. They supported Victor. But after Victor pled guilty, Lindsay and Jess took that picture with their black and blonde hair and bracelets that said Survivor. They left Minnesota and went back to their homes. Jess to Wisconsin and Lindsay to New Jersey.
Lindsay
She kind of cut off contact with me.
Aelin Lance Lesser
Lindsay tried to reach her again and again. Her DMs and texts and calls went unanswered.
Lindsay
And when I didn't hear from her, I reached out to her husband. I reached out to her brother, like, hey, is everything okay with Jess? I've been trying to message her, and they'd be like, yeah, think she just needs some time to heal. And I kind of accepted that at the time. I was like, okay, maybe this is her way of moving on. Which really sucked because I wanted to move on with her. It was almost like she just kind of wanted to maybe forget. And unfortunately, that didn't include me.
Aelin Lance Lesser
It was almost four years later, in March of 2020, that Lindsay saw that post from Jess brother.
Lindsay
Her brother posted something on Facebook asking, like, to pray for her. And I immediately messaged him, like, what is going on? I think it took him, like, two days to get back to me. And when he did, that's when he said, she is on life support. And I was like, what? What happened? I am coming out there.
Aelin Lance Lesser
They'd found Jess after she tried to take her own life. It wasn't her first suicide attempt.
Lindsay
He was like, we found her. They tried to resuscitate her, but she had been dead for too. Like, brain dead for too long. And I messaged him back immediately saying, please don't take her off. I want to come say goodbye. No, he said it would be too late. There wasn't time. And I think it was like an hour later he messaged me back and said that she was gone. It didn't feel real.
Aelin Lance Lesser
Lindsay had cried many times over the previous decades. She'd had a lot to cry about. Often it was silent with tears on her face or pooling on her pillow. Tears that could have filled that tear bottle her dad gave her many times over. But that's not what happened this time. This time she screamed. Not in silence, not into a pillow. This time it was loud.
Lindsay
Just so sad, wishing I could have helped her. And that wish she would have reached back out to me. And, you know, I. We all went through a lot of similar things. And of course, we all had our own experiences being a maiden, things that others didn't that I didn't see, that she didn't see for me. I felt like I had lost the only person who really knew what I had went through, you know who I mean? Yes, the other maidens knew, but they weren't supporting Jess and I. So it was like the only true sister who we had lived through this together and she was gone.
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A treasure trove of bananas has been stolen and it's up to Donkey Kong and his buddy Pauline to get them back. This unlikely duo is going on a world smashing adventure, using DK's destructive abilities to explore an underground world and the power of Pauline singing to activate wild transformations. Donkey Kong Bonanza available now. Rated everyone 10 and up only on Nintendo Switch 2 game and systems sold separately.
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Gray Odin Schweiss
It'S hard for me every day because she was brilliant and talented and just an absolute shining light of a person. And she had so much more to offer the world.
Erica Lance
This is Jess's sister, Gray Odin Schweiss.
Gray Odin Schweiss
She genuinely just wanted to close that chapter of her life and move on. And she tried so hard to move past it and to build a life outside of it. She tried everything she could to run from her demons and she couldn't.
Erica Lance
Unlike her older sister, Gray was born into River Road Fellowship. Victor actually named her when she was born, name she doesn't use anymore. Gray was 6 when the announcement came that her sister had been chosen for something special. Jess, who was 12, would be a maiden.
Gray Odin Schweiss
Now it was all of the firstborn daughters of the head families. They were supposed to be basically like nuns for our church. Like, I don't understand. Oh, like how these people genuinely believed that none of this was nefarious. I don't. It makes me so livid, like, so angry.
Erica Lance
Of course, six year old Gray couldn't follow what was happening. But the announcement was a turning point. Once it came, she lost her big sister. They exchanged letters the first year, but then even that wasn't allowed anymore. Gray says they had no contact for six years. The only time Gray might see Jess was at big church gatherings on days like Easter or Pentecostal. But even then it was from afar.
Gray Odin Schweiss
We weren't even allowed to talk to her at those gatherings because she was one of the maidens. Like they were like the nuns and, you know, we're just the peasants. We weren't allowed to approach her. She was off limits. But there was a lot of brainwashing that first year after she left, to the point where by the time I was like eight, I didn't know who she was or that I'd even had a sister. They went through so Much like work to get me to forget her existence to the point that when she moved back when I was 12, I had no idea who she was.
Erica Lance
Who's they?
Gray Odin Schweiss
The, like, leaders in the cult, like the trustees. The elders were what we called them.
Erica Lance
Why do you think they didn't want you to know?
Gray Odin Schweiss
One of the main tactics that they used was isolation, manipulation, twisting the narrative, and I think for the maidens, because they were just terrified teenage girls. The more that they isolated them and cut them off and made them, you know, on a pedestal, the less the girls felt like they could leave, the more trapped and helpless. Like, he was their protector and they weren't allowed to leave him. I was robbed of my childhood. She was robbed of her childhood. But we were also robbed of each other.
Erica Lance
At first, when Gray and Jess were both outside the cult, their relationship was rocky. They went some periods without speaking. Gray moved to Germany for her job in the military, and Jess was back in Wisconsin. But then Jess reached out.
Gray Odin Schweiss
She said, hey, I'd like to try to be friends. I know we don't really know each other. We were robbed of being sisters, and we started to really become friends.
Erica Lance
She remembers one time they took a long drive together and told each other everything that had happened in the years they'd been apart.
Gray Odin Schweiss
And I think that was the day that we really started to actually be sisters. The next two years were just amazing. We would talk every day on the phone. We would video. We got to know each other and just bond.
Erica Lance
Jess flew to Germany for a month when Gray's daughter was born. Gray and her daughter flew home to visit Jess four months later.
Gray Odin Schweiss
And it was just a glimpse of what we could have had and what was stolen from us. And I think it made it so much harder to see the childhood that we could have had.
Erica Lance
But the time was happy because they had found each other again.
Gray Odin Schweiss
I finally got my sister back. Like, I finally had what I should have had my whole life, only to lose her two and a half years later. I think that's the most unfair part of it. Obviously, a lot of it is unfair. And how much we were robbed of, but just each other and what could have been is really hard.
Erica Lance
Gray got a message from Jess one day that things were not going well.
Gray Odin Schweiss
Because things were just. She was in a really bad place in Wisconsin, and she was like, I can't. I can't do this anymore. Like, I'm tired. I can't keep fighting. Like, this is bad. And I was like, just come out here. You can reset. Come stay with Me for a few months or indefinitely. Europe is amazing, and it has been so healing for me. And I was like, just. Just come stay with me. I'll take care of everything. Like, I got you. I will save you. We'll figure this out and face it together. And she killed herself five days before she was supposed to fly here to Germany. I thought I could save her, and it just. I couldn't save her. And it wasn't enough. And it should have been me. I have so much survivor's guilt, and I feel like I will never be even half the person that she was. I hope wherever her spirit and her energy is that she is finally happy and at peace.
Erica Lance
We've heard lots of beautiful things about Jess. That she was kind. The sort of person who helps younger kids find frogs, who gives them her books so they can fall in love with reading, too. Someone who liked tattoos and funky haircuts. Someone bold and artsy and beautifully weird. Someone with a massive Julia Roberts smile, too magnificent for the box Victor wanted to keep her in. There's some video footage of the press conference right after Victor was sentenced the day of the survivor bracelets of the photo with Lindsay and Jess's heads pressed together. The photo full of light. Watching the video, I'm always struck by how frank Jess is. She seems so genuine, like grounded and honest, the way I think we all wish we could be. In the video, a reporter asks them, why do you think Victor agreed to the maximum sentence instead of going to trial? Jess answers objectively, there seems to be.
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Nothing in it for him.
Lindsay
Why do you think he really took this view?
Gray Odin Schweiss
I think he wants to cover himself and his followers. And if we went to trial, I mean, every detail, every account, everything that.
Lindsay
We remember would be put into record and be public. Not just for us, but for him.
Gray Odin Schweiss
And for him to say, you know, that he's trying to spare us the pain of a trial. We prepared for that. We were ready to do that. We were definitely gonna go ahead with that. And so for him to say that.
Lindsay
He'S doing it to spare us, it's very cowardly.
Gray Odin Schweiss
It's offensive because we are completely prepared and want our story to be told.
Lindsay
And want the truth.
Gray Odin Schweiss
And we've had each other to remind.
Lindsay
Each other that we're strong, we're survivors.
Erica Lance
When Jess went back to Minnesota with the TV reporter who broke the story and launched the pursuit of Victor, she stood in the road outside the camp. A field of shallow snow was like a flat white frame around her face. Here Jess was back at the Shepherd's camp as an adult, and she started to choke on emotion. I don't know if I will ever get away from it, she said to the camera every day. I can't get away from it. I mean, how do you. You know? It's like you grow up somewhere and you go back to visit. Part of you is still there. That's your home. In the months after Jess died, Lindsay sort of shut down and shut others out. She knew they didn't get it, not really. No one but her could understand what she had lost by losing Jess.
Lindsay
And it was right when Covid was starting. So everything was crazy, but it was almost like I wanted to live in the sorrow of it for a little while, feel all of those emotions. I remember, like months after, just I'd wake up in the middle of the night and just like talk, you know, talk to her. Even though I know, like, she couldn't hear me. But I remember vowing, I will never let our story not be heard. I will never let this story die. I will share it with whoever will listen until the day I die. Because Jess is never to be forgotten. I will make sure the world hears of what we went through, of the amazing person you were. I am not going to let anyone forget about what happened to us. No matter what it takes. I want to be that voice and that light and share Jess is a nice story.
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A treasure trove of bananas has been stolen and it's up to Donkey Kong and his buddy Pauline to get them back. This unlikely duo is going on a world smashing adventure, using DK's destructive abilities to explore an underground world and the power of Pauline singing to activate wild transformations. Donkey Kong Bonanza available now. Rated everyone 10 and up only on Nintendo Switch 2 game and systems sold separately.
Ever start a new supplement and wonder is this really working? You're not alone. Most supplements aren't easily absorbed, which means your body might not be getting the nutrients it needs. Symbiotica takes a different approach with formulas designed for maximum absorption. Favorites like their liposomal vitamin C support a strong immune system and boosts natural collagen production. And their newest standout liquid, Colostrum is essential for a healthy gut packed with nutrients that soothe and restore the gut lining. Symbiotica's clean, bioavailable supplements help your body actually use what you take, delivering real results. And with a monthly subscription, it's easy to stay consistent. Symbiotica makes wellness simple Ready to feel a difference? Go to symbiotica.com and use code iheart for 20% off. That's C Y M B I O T I K A dot com code I I heart.
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Erica Lance
The maidens had been Lindsay's sisters since she was 13. They were her role models, her confidants, her friends. Jess was gone, but what about the others? Some of them had defended Victor after his arrest. Some were Facebook friends with Lindsay, surreal acquaintances whose lives she could watch unfold in pieces and glimmers and Facebook posts and pictures. But talking about her past with us in all of these interviews reignited something in Lindsay. She wanted to reach out to them again. She sent Facebook messages to a few former maidens, and one of them told her she'd like to meet. We'll call her Kelsey. To protect her identity, Kelsey still lived in Washington, in Seattle. Lindsay flew out there on the day of their meeting. Lindsay took for ever to pick just the right outfit. Kelsey always had a great sense of style, and she wanted to impress her. She wondered if they could be friends, or if Kelsey might resent her. See Lindsay as the person who had betrayed her and the maidens.
Lindsay
Okay, I'm walking up to the coffee shop, definitely so nervous. Had butterflies in my stomach, Freaking out kind of. But I think it's gonna be really good, hopefully. Yeah. What do you even say? Like, hello, Is that a good starter? I guess that's a good starter. Okay, I'm just gonna go for it. I'm waiting in the coffee shop, just kind of sitting there, and I see her at the corner across out the window. And I was like, oh, my gosh. And I didn't want to just stare at her, so I kind of looked away. And then she walks in the door and she's like, lindsay. We give each other a hug. You know, like some tears came, and it wasn't that awkward. We got coffee, we sat down, and.
Erica Lance
They started talking about their lives. Now, Kelsey had gotten married, had a career. Lindsay told her how she'd gone to college and had a daughter.
Lindsay
And she told me when we were meeting that the idea of travel always appealed to her. And she was telling me how back when we were maidens, she would read an atlas just for fun, to see all the places in the world. I didn't know that about her.
Erica Lance
All of the maidens had had to keep some parts of themselves secret.
Lindsay
She shared with me that once Jess and I went to the cops, things just got really crazy. People knew what was going on, but it was always hush hush. It was just rumors or maybe like if they had read a news article from somewhere being out and doing cleaning jobs or whatever. And in the beginning she's like, we did think that you and Jess, you guys are bringing on like the persecution that Victor is being persecuted. And at that time, she still wanted to remain faithful and thought she was doing the right thing. She said eventually some of the other maidens started leaving. So many of the maidens left, things were really breaking up. She said at the end it was only her, I think one other maiden there.
Erica Lance
Lindsay's mom, lived with the last two maidens at the time.
Lindsay
And so she said that she went and bought a car. And my mother went and helped her buy a car, which it's not her fault at all, but it just kind of stung a little bit that here my mother supporting her to go buy a car. When she wrote a letter to the judge and said all those awful things, I don't know, it just struck a chord with me.
Erica Lance
I'm sure that felt like a stab to the gut.
Lindsay
Yeah.
Erica Lance
Lindsay says Kelsey told her she booked a ticket to Minnesota to Visit Victor in jail.
Lindsay
She was only able to see him, I think, through a monitor. But she was like, as I sat there looking at him and hearing him, I just got such the icky feeling and knew I never, ever wanted to support this person ever again. And that was the last time she ever saw him ever, like, put any time into defending him or anything like that. She made it very clear that she loved me. And she was very thankful for what we did, I think, which is healing for me to hear.
Erica Lance
Lindsay heard back from another former maiden, too. This maiden had been 19 when the 10 of them were chosen and sort of the head of the maidens, someone Lindsay had always looked up to. Of course, Lindsay wondered how she took it when she went public with her story and took Victor down. Lindsay had last messaged her in 2020 to give her the news that Jess had died.
Lindsay
She said, at that time, we probably agree on more than you think. Finally, we were able to schedule a time to talk. Just last Friday, she called me, and I was like, hello. And she's like, lindsay, oh, my gosh, it's so good to hear your voice. And I was like, yours, too. And I think we started laughing. And she's like, it's so good to hear your laugh. You sound exactly the same. It was so good to hear her laugh again. And she said, for her own healing, she does not go back into the past at all. She's basically closed that door. She said the one thing she loves to do now all the time is laugh. She loves to laugh. And it's one thing that her boyfriend has said about her, that he loves being around her because she'll giggle at this or laugh at that.
Erica Lance
She was usually more serious when Lindsay knew her. Of course, the maidens laughed and had good times. But everything with the maidens felt important and heavy.
Lindsay
And being almost like the head of the maidens, she had to carry such a weight, Being responsible for the 10 of us to hear her. Just that feeling of lightness and happiness was really good. It made me really happy to hear that.
Erica Lance
For a long time, Lindsay has felt separate from the maidens she loves so much. She and Jess took the risk of speaking out about what happened, Breaking one of their most sacred rules. And for Lindsay, part of that sacrifice was losing the maidens. Along the way, she saw their photos, Bridesmaids in each other's weddings. She pictured the rest of the maidens still close to each other, somehow together. While she was out here alone. When she talked to these two maidens again, she thought, maybe this could be the beginning of something. But she learned in their conversations that some of them don't keep in touch as much as she thought.
Lindsay
I think in my head I was like, okay, if this goes well, we'll just go back to being how we were. Texting and maybe calling and planning. I just had this weird hope that we'd be able to reminisce on like more of the good stuff and like really bond and click and be like sisters again. Yeah.
Erica Lance
But when she talked to these two former maidens, she wasn't sure she fit in their lives anymore.
Lindsay
It could be that it's too much of a reminder of the past. It was almost like all the maidens we were made into this beautiful pot and then it all got smashed into pieces and we've had to grow individually and heal individually and we just don't fit together anymore.
Aelin Lance Lesser
Next time on the final episode of.
Erica Lance
The Turning Hey Lindsay, it's Erica.
Gray Odin Schweiss
Hi.
Erica Lance
Hey, how are you doing?
Lindsay
Good, how are you? I'm good.
Erica Lance
So what's up?
Lindsay
It's been crazy. I'm just gonna jump right into what's been going on.
Aelin Lance Lesser
The Tuning is a production of Rococo Punch and I Heart podcasts. It's written and produced by Erica, Lance and me. Our story editor is Emily Forman, mixing and sound design by James Trout. Grace Doe is our production assistant. Fact checking by Andrea Lopez Cruzado. Our executive producers are John Peratti and Jessica Alpert at Rococo Punch and Katrina Norvell and nikki itor@iheart podcast. You can follow us on Instagram at Rococo Punch and you can reach out via email. Theturningcocopunch.com I'm Aelin Lance Lesser.
Lindsay
Thanks for listening.
Commercial Announcer
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Gray Odin Schweiss
Don't let them down.
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Aelin Lance Lesser
This is an iHeart podcast.
Podcast: The Turning (iHeartPodcasts and Rococo Punch)
Release Date: August 19, 2025
Episode Theme:
This poignant episode centers on Lindsay Tornambe's relationship with Jess—the youngest Maiden of the River Road Fellowship. It explores their shared bond as survivors of decades-long abuse, the trauma and fracturing aftermath after escaping the cult, the loss of Jess to suicide in 2020, and Lindsay’s attempts to reconnect with the other "maidens" years later. Through intimate recollections, the episode examines themes of sisterhood, grief, longing, and the enduring impact of cult trauma.
(02:35–10:12)
“It reminds me of the maidens. And the day that our parents dropped us off was July 23, 2000... I don't think there's a day goes by that I don't think of the maidens. Even more so than my own siblings. I think of them as my sisters.”
— Lindsay [03:36]
“I feel so sad for these little girls because, like, they don't even know that that innocence is slowly going to be ripped and torn away from.”
— Lindsay [09:34]
(10:12–12:47)
“He said, she is on life support. And I was like, what? What happened? I am coming out there... And I think it was like an hour later he messaged me back and said that she was gone.”
— Lindsay [11:56]
(12:47–14:52, 27:55–29:29)
“I felt like I had lost the only person who really knew what I had went through... the only true sister who we had lived through this together and she was gone.”
— Lindsay [13:28]
“I will never let our story not be heard... Jess is never to be forgotten. I will make sure the world hears... I want to be that voice and that light and share Jess is and I’s story.”
— Lindsay [28:20]
(17:54–24:46)
“I was robbed of my childhood. She was robbed of her childhood. But we were also robbed of each other.”
— Gray [20:39]
“I finally got my sister back. Like, I finally had what I should have had my whole life, only to lose her two and a half years later.”
— Gray [22:49]
“I thought I could save her, and it just... I couldn't save her. And it wasn't enough. And it should have been me. I have so much survivor's guilt...”
— Gray [23:44]
(24:46–26:37)
“For him to say that he’s trying to spare us the pain of a trial—we prepared for that... It’s offensive because we are completely prepared and want our story to be told.”
— Lindsay and Gray [26:10–26:27]
(32:31–41:05)
“I just got such the icky feeling and knew I never, ever wanted to support this person ever again. And that was the last time she ever saw him.”
— Lindsay recounting Kelsey’s words [36:59]
“We were made into this beautiful pot and then it all got smashed into pieces and we've had to grow individually and heal individually and we just don't fit together anymore.”
— Lindsay [40:19]
The episode is intimate, reflective, and honest. It avoids sensationalism, instead allowing survivors’ voices and memories to illuminate the reality of life before, during, and after the cult. The tone balances grief and hope, loss and small steps towards healing, with a vivid undercurrent of longing for the innocence, bonds, and futures stolen from each child.
S3:EP9 "Jess" is a moving tribute to the enduring ties of trauma-forged sisterhood and the complexity of healing after cult abuse. Through Lindsay and Gray’s stories and direct, heart-rending recollections, the episode preserves Jess’s memory as both victim and survivor. It confronts the painful reality of mental health struggles post-trauma and the difficulty—and necessity—of speaking out and seeking reconnection, even in brokenness.