S5 E1 - What Lies Beneath

Summary

American Nightmares – Gardens of Evil: Inside The Zion Society Cult

Season 5, Episode 1: "What Lies Beneath"

Date: February 3, 2026
Podcast Network: Gamut Podcast Network
Host/Narrator: Aaron Mason
Featured Voices: Jackie and Ron Van Beekum, Mike King, Reed Richards, Erin Anderson (alias)

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Episode Overview

The gripping season premiere of "Gardens of Evil" plunges listeners into the seemingly idyllic world of Northwood, an Ogden, Utah subdivision, where meticulously kept lawns mask dark secrets. Beneath the suburban façade lay the roots of the Zion Society, a manipulative cult responsible for the largest case of ritual sexual abuse in Utah's history. Through raw survivor testimony and investigative narrative, host Aaron Mason reconstructs the chilling early days of the cult—uncovering how ordinary families like the Van Beekums became entangled in a web of deception, dependency, and emerging horror. The episode details the cult’s origins, the subtle grooming techniques of leader Arvin Shreve, and a survivor’s first, fateful step toward exposing the truth.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Neighborhood’s Illusion (02:28–06:17)

• The episode opens with an extended metaphor: “Think of a magic trick… illusions all have something in common. They are well honed tricks designed to manipulate you into believing something that is not true.” (Narrator Aaron Mason, 02:28)
• Northwood is described as a perfect, unexceptional suburb, notable only for its abnormally pristine landscaping.
  • “Those yards were such perfection… like Disneyland landscaping… indescibable.” – Ron Van Beekum (05:02)
• The Van Beekums, newlyweds and new parents, move in next-door to one of these homes and are quickly befriended by their neighbor "Charlie" and his father, Arvin Shreve.

2. First Contact and Subtle Enmeshment (06:17–14:04)

• Arvin is introduced as a community-minded landscaper, revered for his skills and generosity, but with quirks—extreme religious practices, excommunication from the LDS church, and an affinity for cultivating dependency.
  • Free landscaping, basement renovation, and shared survivalist food storage bind the neighbors into a cooperative circle.
  • “I remember coming home from work one day and bushes were planted and half my lawn was already in... That’s how that all started.” – Jackie Van Beekum (09:02)
  • “We had five or six bushes... then the next thing I know... all the sod putting in... and a fence and everything. We didn’t do a thing.” – Jackie (09:21)
• Conditions and secrecy are attached to these acts of generosity:
  • “If anyone asks you, just say that, you know, this is your stuff and I’ve got neighbors that are helping… He didn’t want his name involved in any of it.” – Jackie (10:00)

3. The Tangle Tightens: Dependency and the First Signs of Trouble (14:04–22:16)

• The Van Beekums are drawn further into the group—sharing tithe money, attending home church with Arvin as the de facto leader, and giving up independence for communal resources.

• Arvin’s eccentricities begin to escalate. They are introduced to supernatural beliefs (e.g., communicating with “sister spirits” in the afterlife via automatic writing).

  • “They would come over… Have you ever tried to write down your thoughts?... apparently you can communicate with the dead.” – Jackie (19:41)

• Red flags abound, but the Van Beekums rationalize or suppress their discomfort, largely due to material gains and social support they now depend on.

  • “All this sounds crazy, and it did to us then. But we were getting so much… that we went along with it.” – Jackie (20:42)
  • “Quite frankly. Yeah, it was greed… What the heck, you’re going to make our food storage… build our house. And he finished our basement.” – Jackie (21:00)

4. Manipulation, Isolation, and the Breaking Point (22:16–34:14)

• The cycle of dependency and manipulation breeds anxiety, illness, and greater isolation.

• Arvin exploits Jackie’s emotional vulnerability, twisting events and introducing bizarre doctrine (e.g., The “sister program” revelation involving pornographic scrapbooks, polygamy, and “threads” for sexual selection).

  • “He began talking to us about how there was a war in heaven… it was, obviously, we’re talking one man with thousands of women… and now became the women satisfying each other.” – Jackie (25:33)
  • “And then Arvin turned to the binders, which he called his volumes… each volume was packed with pages of pictures… a ‘thread’ could be anything…” – Narrator Aaron Mason (26:01–26:21)
  • “He actually would go to Salt Lake, go into these X-rated bookstores, buy hundreds of dollars worth of books, just to open up one page, tear it out and throw the rest away. He told us he’d spent nearly $40,000 in collecting his volumes of his thread.” – Jackie (28:00)

• The reveal is so shocking it “lifts the veil”—Ron recognizes Arvin’s true nature.

  • “And then I looked at him like, you are an old senile pervert. Like overnight it was like, who are you?” – Jackie (29:43)
  • Jackie recalls Arvin manipulating her grief over her deceased mother: “He stopped. When he starts to cry and he says, I want you to know that your mom is standing right up over your head… And I just think about that, and that’s pure evil. I mean, he used what was sacred to us to get to what he wanted.” (30:04)

• The Van Beekums finally confide in each other and decide to leave.

  • “We knew at that point... this has gone too far.” – Jackie (30:42)
  • "If we would not have talked, maybe we would have been part of that.” – Jackie (31:37)

5. Escaping the Cult and Its Aftermath (32:02–35:14)

• They confront Arvin, sell their home to him, and attempt to warn others through LDS channels and authorities, but meet with bureaucratic indifference.
  • “We got out when we did, but we have no clue that’s what was leading up to. I mean, obviously that place… He had 10 years to develop that community.” – Jackie (34:03)
• Their exit leaves long-term scars:
  • “It was a long time before we would get close to any neighbors after we moved out… He’s the devil, and you can’t forget the devil.” – Jackie (35:14)

6. The New Decade: The Whistleblower Steps Forward (37:09–51:18)

• The story jumps to 1991. Mike King, then a newly minted county attorney’s investigator, receives a visit from “Erin Anderson” (alias), a young woman:
  • “She very matter of factly said, my name is Erin Anderson and I’ve been involved in a cult that’s sexually abusing children. Do you have a moment to talk to me? I was absolutely blown away.” – Mike King (40:20)
• Erin’s confession provides law enforcement with the first real inside account of the Zion Society’s scope: Arvin Shreve as self-proclaimed prophet, teaching “the sexual way of life,” with sexual access to “sister councils” of women and girls, including children as young as two.
  • “The sexual way of life was a doctrine of polygamy… Arvin taught that he, as patriarch over the group, is authorized to have sex with as many women as he brings into his Sister Council.” – Mike King (47:37)
  • “Arvin had close to 30 in his, ranging in ages from 62 to 2 years old.” – Narrator (47:53)
  • The homes are heavily armed and interconnected via security measures.
  • Erin’s resolve: “She very bravely accepted that responsibility and made it very clear that the weight of the things she was involved in were so dang heavy that she personally was willing to face even criminal charges to get that weight off her shoulders.” – Mike King (43:37)

7. The Weight of the Secret & Setting the Stage for Future Episodes (52:01–52:11)

• Erin’s emotional burden is haunting:
  • “Your children are beautiful… They look safe. That’s something I denied my daughter.” – Erin Anderson (alias) (52:01)
• The episode ends with Aaron Mason laying out the horror to come:
  • “Outwardly, [Arvin] presented himself one way… But you’ll see as our story unfolds that on the inside, Arvin was a monster… He will expand his evil empire… Hidden in plain sight… Arvind Shreve was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. And he was just getting started.” – Aaron Mason (35:42)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “They are well honed tricks designed to manipulate you into believing something that is not true.” – Narrator Aaron Mason (02:33)
• “If anyone asks you, just say that, you know, this is your stuff and I’ve got neighbors… He didn’t want to landscape the whole neighborhood.” – Jackie Van Beekum (10:00)
• “All this sounds crazy, and it did to us then. But we were getting so much… that we went along with it.” – Jackie Van Beekum (20:42)
• “He used what was sacred to us to get to what he wanted.” – Jackie Van Beekum (30:13)
• “We got out when we did, but we have no clue that’s what was going to be leading up to.” – Jackie Van Beekum (34:03)
• “My name is Erin Anderson and I’ve been involved in a cult that’s sexually abusing children. Do you have a moment to talk to me? I was absolutely blown away.” – Mike King (40:20)
• “Your children are beautiful… They look safe. That’s something I denied my daughter.” – Erin Anderson (alias) (52:01)

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Important Timestamps & Segment Guide

• 02:28 — Introduction to the theme of illusion and manipulation
• 05:02–11:38 — The Van Beekums meet Arvin Shreve and the neighborhood’s strange generosity
• 14:18 — Signs of growing dependency; beginnings of isolation
• 19:41 — Introduction of occult beliefs and the “sister program”
• 25:33–28:36 — Arvin’s doctrine is revealed: pornographic “volumes,” polygamy, grooming
• 30:13 — Jackie details Arvin’s use of her mother’s death to manipulate her
• 31:37 — The Van Beekums finally confide in each other and plan their escape
• 35:14 — Long-term trauma in the Van Beekums’ lives
• 37:09–41:56 — 1991: Erin Anderson’s bombshell disclosure to Mike King
• 47:37–49:41 — The Zion Society’s doctrine and security infrastructure
• 52:01 — Erin’s emotional confession about her daughter
• 54:29 — Episode credits and resources

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Tone & Style

The episode maintains a somber, investigative, and empathetic tone, blending first-person survivor perspectives with narrative suspense and clinical detail. Frequent interruptions for survivor and expert testimony ground chilling events in real, lived experience, while Aaron Mason’s script echoes the gravity and complexity of the case.

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Summary

“What Lies Beneath” peels back the perfect suburban exterior of Northwood to expose a decade-long campaign of grooming, brainwashing, and sexual abuse orchestrated by Arvin Shreve. Testament from Ron and Jackie Van Beekum illustrates the insidious methods of cult recruitment and control. Their harrowing near-miss with the group—and the emotional toll it took—sets the stage for what will soon become a national scandal, as a young woman’s brave confession draws law enforcement into a nightmare hidden in plain sight. The episode ends with the community on the precipice of revelation, and the full scale of Arvin’s horror just coming into focus.

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Resources for Listeners:
If you or someone you know is experiencing sexual violence, contact RAINN at rainn.org or call 800-656-HOPE. Both services are free, confidential, and available 24/7.

Transcript

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Some of the subject matter in this podcast is difficult, including sexual abuse of adults and children. While the more graphic details will be left out, the specifics can be triggering. Please take care when listening.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

It's always the same thing. Money, sex, and whatever else. And he wanted it all. Man, it's craz.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Think of a magic trick. Maybe it's David Copperfield walking through the Great Wall of China, or David Blaine pulling Harrison Ford's nine of hearts out of a freshly peeled orange. Or maybe it's just your Uncle David grabbing a coin from behind your ear when you were little. Whatever it is, illusions all have something in common. They are well honed tricks designed to manipulate you into believing something that is not true. A great magician will make you doubt your own senses, and some who are more performative will make it seem as though they've tapped into something beyond themselves, something supernatural even. But trickery, as we well know, is used for much more nefarious purposes than fun and entertainment. For there are some that use deception to harm, to get what they want, often with no regard for anyone but themselves. Con artists with practice Personas who will lie to your face to gain your trust and then violate it, caring nothing about the damage they leave in their wake. Abusers, narcissists who prey on the vulnerable and exploit their weaknesses to control them, often insisting over and over again that the false reality they claim is the truth. Until their victims become worn down, disoriented and powerless. The following is a story about deception and manipulation. It's about the largest case of ritual sexual abuse in the history of the state of Utah, maybe even the country. It's about a cult that destroyed lives and decimated families for more than a decade, all while hiding in plain sight. And it's a story that has largely gone untold. Until now. Before we begin, there are two things you should know. One, there are sensitivities surrounding certain people's identities, especially those with children who could be identified today. In those cases, we'll either use pseudonyms or first names only, and I will point out when we do. Two, as often as possible, you will hear this story from the people who lived it. Some I reached out to declined to participate or didn't respond at all. And I understand wanting to put this part of their lives behind them. To those who have agreed to participate, in particular the survivors, I am extremely grateful.

[Ron Van Beekum]

Those yards were such perfection that it's hard to even describe how perfect they were. It's just like, you know, if you think of how perfect all of the Disneyland landscaping is, I mean, it's just so perfect and spotless. And it was unbelievable, really.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

At the dawn of the 1980s, in the city of Ogden, nestled up against the foothills of Utah's dazzling Wasatch Mountains, a place called Northwood was just beginning to take shape. This tiny subdivision of a dozen or so modest single family homes was mostly unremarkable, quiet, your typical suburban neighborhood in the United States at the time. But there was something about it, one thing in particular, that got people talking, something extraordinary.

[Ron Van Beekum]

These homes look like they had their grass clipped with scissors. The trees were trimmed and the bushes were trimmed, and I mean, it just looked so manicured. The place was absolutely beautiful. Can't even it was indescribable because there were several homes there. They were the best ones on the block. The homes were immaculate. The lawns were Perfect. I can't even describe it. It was just. That was absolutely beautiful.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Only two or three homes at that point in the early 80s had these yards though that number would grow. But why were they there? What did these houses have in common? It was a mystery until a young couple named Ron and Jackie Van Beekum bought their first home in Northwood and moved in right next door to one of those houses with a beautifully landscaped yard. Ron and Jackie had been married for about two years and were both 22

[Jackie Van Beekum]

years old, four months older than him.

She robbed the cradle. I know.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

In January of 1981, the couple and their toddler son moved into a brand new home on a corner lot in the growing subdivision.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

We're moving in and that neighborhood is getting built and everybody's moving in and meeting each other. And next door was this manicured, beautiful landscaped home with a big oak tree in the front, terraced stuff in the back.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Northwood was a friendly place, even if it was mostly a hi here and a boy, it sure is a hot one there. Your standard surface level, neighborly pleasantries. But the people next door, the ones with the multi tiered backyard and the flawless lawn and the big oak tree, they, they were a different story.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

They were over immediately.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Jackie said she and Ron had a lot in common with their new neighbor. Both couples were in their early 20s, married and starting to raise families. And like 2/3 of Utahns at the time, they were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, sometimes called LDS or Mormons. Ron asked his neighbor, who we're gonna call Charlie about his incredible yard.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

And then he told me about his dad being a head landscaper and said hey, you can come over and give you ideas and were like okay, great.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Charlie's dad was a 51 year old man named Arvin Shreve. Arvin was gentle and well mannered, like aggressively non threatening. His voice was soft and he spoke with a cogency and eloquence that made everyone who heard him stop and lean in. He had big square glasses and wore rumpled button down shirts haphazardly tucked into his khakis. And Arvin wasn't just any landscaper, he. He had been designing municipal gardens, beautifying parks and winning awards for his work since his early 20s. People used to say Arvind could make dirt turn green. In 1972, his display about regional agriculture won his county the grand prize at the Utah State Fair, which is a pretty big deal in those parts. No sooner had they talked than Ron found Himself a surprise beneficiary of Arvin's generosity and expertise.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

I remember coming home from work one day and bushes were planted and half my lawn was already in. And I'm like, what in the heck is going on? That's how that all started.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Over the next several days, a group of neighbors worked on Ron and Jackie's property and surprised them with a full fledged outdoor makeover.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

We had five or six bushes all the way to the end of the house. And then the next thing I know, there's all the sod putting in and then there's the big tree. Then he gets the railroad ties and he cuts the railroad ties and he's landscaping the back because it was in a corner that shaped down. And I mean, I'm like, yeah, go for it.

And then a fence and everything. We didn't do a thing.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

They didn't pay a thing either. All of it, the labor, the materials, all free. When Ron asked why, Arvin explained that sometimes he overbids for landscaping projects and there's stuff left over after the job's done, and so he can do whatever he wants with it. Doesn't cost him anything. Though. The work did come with one condition.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

He had said, if anyone asks you, just say that, you know, this is your stuff and I've got neighbors that are helping, that he didn't want his name involved in any of it because he didn't want other neighbors coming to him and asking him for expertise and help. He didn't want to landscape the whole neighborhood.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Ron was something of a landscaping hobbyist, but had always wanted to learn more about it. Now he was living down the block from basically the best in Utah. This man, Arvin, felt like a godsend, though he did have, let's call them, quirks.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

He grabbed the bush and he would just stand and stare at the hole or wherever he was going to put it, and then he would dig it. And he explained that, you know, he's just conferring with the Lord to make sure that this is the proper place to put the bush.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Arvin was very religious, or at least he grew up that way. From a young age, Arvin was extremely involved in the Latter Day Saints church involved until they kicked him out. Charlie mentioned that last fact to Ron.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

He just said, my dad, just so you know, has been excommunicated, but there's reasons behind it. He can explain it to you, so

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

can I. Excommunication is when someone's membership in a church or religious community gets officially revoked. Generally, you either have to do something terrible or repeatedly dig your heels in about a belief that's against what your religion teaches. For the Van Beekums, who were both LDS church members, learning Arvind was excommunicated was a huge red flag. So Ron talked to Arvin, who explained it like this.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

Well, I could get back into the church if I wanted to, but I don't want to because I can bring more people into the church by telling them I'm not a member of the church, so they don't walk away.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

That was his explanation, was that I'm doing this because it's actually a better

[Jackie Van Beekum]

move, a better move for me to bring people into the church.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

So even though it might look bad, if you think about it the way Arvin described it, he was actually doing the Lord's work. And although he never mentioned exactly what he was kicked out for, it seemed a good enough answer for Ron. Besides, he wasn't in any position to look a gift horse in the mouth.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

I mean, we're 22 years old and I am like, I'm a produce manager and we're trying to raise what we have as a family and their landscape in our yard. They're offering us all these other services.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Other services like sharing food storage? See, Ron had a bit of a survivalist streak and he was the kind of person who actively prepared for large scale emergencies by storing things like food and medicine. One evening while he was at Arvin's son Charlie's house, he mentioned having a wheat grinder for making his own flour. Well, Charlie lit up immediately and went to tell his dad. It turned out he and a few other neighbors had stockpiles of their own. And it wasn't long before Ron and Jackie found themselves in kind of a doomsday co op with several other Northwood residents.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

We were sharing storage. My house was basically the beans. The whole section was the red beans, the white beans, and all that protein stuff for the community or whatever you wanted to call it for our families.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

And just like with their yard when they first moved in, Arvin organized a work party at the Van Beekums that transformed their previously unfinished basement into a post apocalyptic grocery store. And then stocked it with three years worth of supplies and. And again all for free. The only condition this time was that they share what they kept with the group. Quote, when times get hard, it was

[Jackie Van Beekum]

just life is normal. And they were just our neighbors at that point. And Arvin was a big part of it then. You know, eventually more people were getting involved, but it wasn't like weird because it's just neighbors getting together and we found somebody else moved into the neighborhood and then he would help them out. So yeah, it just was normal.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

In a sense, life in Northwood was good. The Van Beekums had found a community of like minded people they could lean on for emotional support, financial stability, and to engage in religious fellowship with.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

We just thought these are great neighbors and they love us, we love them. And we weren't really biting into some of the weird things that was beginning to happen.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

We've all heard the phrase things are not always what they seem. For Ron and Jackie, the fruit is still sweet, but they're beginning to catch a whiff that something is off under the surface. The roots are beginning to rot and no one could have imagined how rotten things would eventually get. I'm aaron mason and this is gardens of evil inside the zion society cult episode 1 what lies beneath.

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[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Over their first year in Northwood, after arriving in January 1981, Ron and Jackie Van Beekum grew closer to and became more dependent on this neighborhood collective that seemed to orbit around this kindly old landscaper, Arvin Shreve. Sharing everything meant they had access to things and resources they wouldn't otherwise be able to afford. It also provided them with a sense of family, something both Ron and Jackie had lost.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

Because my dad had passed away, her mom had passed away, and so it was like, we're kind of by ourselves and now we've got these people that are coming into our house and putting their arms around us and saying, we love you guys.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

After several months, the Van Beekums stopped going to their usual services and started attending a kind of home church situation with some of the other neighbors and, and Arvin at the head, who had been a very popular teacher back in his church days. The group began pooling all their tithe money that would normally go to a church and gave it to Arvin instead, which he doled out to buy bulk foods, construction materials and other supplies. So say you wanted to do some home renovation. Well, now you had cheap material and free labor. It's not a bad gig if you can get it.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

And then it really started getting weird.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

An older couple that Arvin knew from a nearby town bought a house in the Northwood subdivision and moved in with their teenage son.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

And that guy was an extremist. And he started talking about everybody having a gun and me, I'm thinking, dude, you are like nuts old. And he was 17, 18. And I'm like, yeah, this isn't what we signed up for. We were a happy little community. And next thing he's coming in and saying, yeah, we're going to have these two houses on the corner, which is the only access in at the time. And we're going to be able to see who comes in, who goes out. And I'm like, yeah, no, you know,

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

also in that first year, Jackie had their second child. As she stayed at home to raise her boys, she would often get afternoon visits from some of the neighborhood women.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

They would come over and just talk with me and stuff. And then they would just. Have you ever tried to write down your thoughts? Just sat down and just let your mind go free and just start writing things down and stuff. And I said, no, I really didn't have time. But they said, you need to try

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

it sometime because if you do, apparently you can communicate with the dead. Jackie said they told her about one specter specifically.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

We've got a lady on the other side that she was conversing with all the time, that they know that in the hereafter she's going to be one of their sisters in the Sister program.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

The Sister program. We'll get back to that. If what's happening with these guys is raising big red flags for you, good. It should. All the free stuff seems way too good to be true. What's the catch? Also, things have gotten weird, like recruiting ghosts to be in relationships with in the afterlife. Weird. So why aren't they running for the hills?

[Jackie Van Beekum]

All this sounds crazy, and it did to us then. But we were getting so much, you know what I mean? We were getting so much from them that we went along with it. He's not escaping our yard. Let him finish doing that, you know, stuff like that. And that was wrong for us, definitely.

Quite frankly. Yeah, it was greed, you know, we're a struggling family and what the heck, you're going to make our food storage and you're going to. You're going to build our house. And he finished our basement.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Ron and Jackie aren't blind. They can see something's up. But here is where they made their biggest mistake. Although they both felt uncomfortable at times, they didn't talk to each other about it. Ron would think, well, that's weird, but Jackie seems to be into it. And Jackie would think, well, that's weird, but Ron seems to be into it. And that cycle of assumptions and under communication continued for months. The burden of having to pretend like everything was honky dory day in and day out, when things were actually getting more and more uncomfortable, overwhelmed Jackie, not just in her relationship with Ron. There were also the stresses of fitting in socially.

Peer pressure.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

You're expected to do this, and I didn't want them to come back the next day and then talk to me and say, well, you haven't done this or this or this, you know, so sometimes I'd make up and say, yes, I Have done it.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Before long, Jackie began to have some

[Jackie Van Beekum]

serious stomach issues, ulcers, and stuff like that. Just worrying about it, thinking about it, thinking that we're okay. Ron knows what we're doing.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Chronic stress will wreak havoc on just about every system in the human body. And things eventually got so bad for Jackie that Ron ended up having to take her to the hospital. A couple neighbors heard what was happening and decided to tag along with them to the error.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

And while I was in the hospital, they were taking everything and filling their bags with the things in the room. In the hospital, if it was out, swabs, whatever was out, they were tapes,

gauze, all of it was just stuck

into their purses and bags and stuff.

They would just clean the room out.

Clean it out.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

What did they tell you when you got back?

[Jackie Van Beekum]

The lord was making me sick so that we would have to go to the hospital so they could get the stuff that they needed to put into the. To our medical center.

They had a twist for everything.

Yeah, they did have a twist for everything.

It was like, hey, the lord provides. You take. And, you know, the nurse left the room, and we're taking it. And they just. We filled a whole side of a section of cabinets, and it was just stacked with medical supplies.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

While ron and Jackie benefited from life with their community in northwood, it was getting increasingly more odd. What began as an idyllic slice of suburban bliss slowly soured. They still weren't being completely honest with each other. And when they did hint at their true feelings, they were both quick to focus on the pros of their situation and kind of let the cons slide. But arvin had a plan.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

Everything seemed normal as far as what he was telling us. And it wasn't until that final month that he really ramped it up.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

The van beekums were trapped. Financially, they were dependent on Arvin, and socially, they had become isolated from most people outside of the neighborhood. It's not easy to just pick up and leave a situation like that, Especially with two very young children. But what they don't understand yet is that they are in much deeper waters than they realize. There is a shark, a predator in that water, circling closer and closer. They are being groomed by a master manipulator who smells blood and knows precisely where to strike to get exactly what he wants.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

He knew that we didn't have family, and so he hit big on that. He said, let's be family. We'll be your family, and we love you. And, you know, if you need help, we. Well, here to help you. And I could just hear his voice. Oh my gosh, just smooth and loving. And now I just think, oh, man, I'd like to punch you in the face.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

It all came to a head one night in June of 1982. Arvin planned an evening chat with Ron and Jackie. And when he arrived at the couple's home, he was carrying four thick binders full of something papers, but they couldn't really tell. As the three of them took their seats in the living room, Arvin placed the binders beside him. It was time to tell Ron and Jackie what this group of his was really all about.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

And he began talking to us about how there was a war in heaven and a third of the host of heaven was cast out. But they were all men, which left a lot of women. And he would put it as, obviously, we're talking one man with thousands of women, and there's no way that one man can satisfy all these women. So now became the women satisfying each other.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

And then Arvind turned to the binders, which he called his volumes. Each volume was packed with pages of pictures Arvind grouped together in a theme, or to use his term, a thread. A thread could be anything, quote unquote, sexy fishnet stockings, blonde hair and glasses, silk nighties.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

His thread was panties.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Whatever it was, Arvin would choose a thread for each man in the group. And that thread would be the common characteristic among the women that were supposed to be one of that man's multiple wives, either on earth or in heaven or both. A man's group of wives was called his sister program. Remember the neighbor women who told Jackie to free write and find a spirit to be in her sister program in the afterlife? This is what they were talking about. And if you're confused, don't worry, it's enough just to know that. These threads were used as a way to target women and engage with them under false pretenses.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

So when all these women that had been lost because men were all cast out in the next existence, when there's women walking around with high heels and oh, well, wait a minute, because that's my thread, these women didn't know it when they walked through the store. But look, that's how we decided to recognize each other, was buy what everyone liked.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

For example, Arvin would go to a department store with one of his wives and watch random women as they looked through lingerie. If a woman found something that he liked, he would deploy the wife to go strike up a friendly conversation with her. And if all went well, the unsuspecting woman would be invited to dinner, and then the dominoes would start falling. Back in their living room, Ron and Jackie watched as Arvin opened his first volume, Its pages full of clippings from various fashion catalogs and underwear ads.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

And he would just have them cut out and panties and girls. And then the next volume became like semi porn. And then the next volume, it was like, holy crap, full on porn. As long as they had a panty, whatever it was on. And he told us that he actually would go to Salt Lake, go into these X rated bookstores, buy hundreds of dollars worth of books, just to open up one page, tear it out and throw the rest away. He told us he'd spent nearly $40,000 in collecting his volumes of his thread.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

So a man's thread, which he collected in volumes, was how he identified women who, whether they knew it or not, could be in his sister program now and or after they died.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

When I try to tell you that, you're like, you guys are insane. I mean, this is so stupid. How could you fall for that? But like I said, it wasn't like the next day.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

It had been nearly a year and a half of grooming.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

I mean, it wasn't like, you know, one day, hey, I'm Arvin Shreve. The next day, here's my sister program, and you need to be in was a year of just grooming and telling us truths and showing us scripture and on and on and on and on.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

They say the devil will tell you nine truths, so you'll believe one lie.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

And that's what Arvind did.

And he was smooth and he acted like he cared, but I think it was for his own gain that he did.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

As they sat together going through Arvind's volumes, something in Ron changed. A veil was lifted.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

And then I looked at him like, you are an old senile pervert. Like overnight it was like, who are you?

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

But Arvin had already turned his attention

[Jackie Van Beekum]

to Jackie, and he really went big on her because of her mom.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Jackie's mother had passed away only a couple years earlier, a fact Arvin already knew.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

And he stopped. When he starts to cry and he says, I want you to know that your mom is standing right up over your head. Remember?

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

I do.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

And I just think about that, and that's pure evil. I mean, he used what was sacred to us to get to what he wanted.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Eventually, Arvind finished his presentation, grabbed his volumes, and walked out the front door. Ron and Jackie stood in their living room in disbelief. Stunned.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

We knew it at that point. And that's the point we thought, this has gone too far.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

But everything they had was in Northwood. Their home, their support system, their whole lives. And each of them thought it's what the other wanted.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

I think we were both feeling and thinking the same thing. But we failed to talk to each other about it for a minute.

And we sat in bed that night and she just started crying and said, we're out of this. This is not right.

I told Ron, I'm done.

And I'm like, but I thought you were okay with it. And she's like, and I thought you were. And I'm like, then we're out of here. We're putting the house up for sale.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Confusion is fertile soil for manipulators. But the Bambicams finally talk to each other honestly instead of assuming what the other thought. And that cleared away the fog that Arvin thrived in. Jackie dreads to think of the alternative.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

If we would not have talked, maybe we would have been part of that.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Is it possible Ron and Jackie might have drunk the Kool Aid? No one can say. People wind up in cults and other abusive situations for a myriad of reasons. But the Van Beekums knew one thing for sure. When you dodge a bullet, you don't sit around and wait for the next one. They had to get out.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

And then it's like, do we have enough courage to leave because they'll kill us? Or what if they get. What if they sit together and someone goes into a trance and then wakes up and says, we need to get rid of Ron and Jackie?

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

At this point it felt like anything was possible. If he'd gotten them to believe his bizarre doctrine, who knows what else Arvin could talk them into.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

I think he thought he had us, he had led us to this point. And I really think he over calculated himself and thought, I've got him and so now I'm going to tell them. And he came over and I can still remember he was very hesitant at first, but it was weird because as he got into the last volume, it was almost looked like he was being excited about it. Like perverted excited, that kind of excited about it. And then within a week we were gone. We were gone, we were gone.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

The next morning Ron told Arvin they were leaving.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

And I said, I know he wants my house. So I still remember I went over to his house that day and said, we're done, we're out of here. If you want to buy my house, here it is.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Arvin would often mention wanting to have more room for people to be a part of their community. That afternoon, Arvin wrote Ron and Jackie a check which they used to put a down payment on a new home. They had broken free, but on their way out, Arvin offered them some parting words.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

And I still remember him saying, listen, when you leave, you can't hurt me, but you can hurt my kids, and we just want you to leave.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

So they left. And then Ron and Jackie went to everyone they could think of within the LDS church to report on the things they had seen. But it didn't go far. Arvin was already excommunicated. What else could they do? And when it came to the cops, as far as the Van Beekums knew, nothing illegal was happening there, at least not yet.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

We got out when we did, but we have no clue that's what was going to be leading up to. I mean, obviously that place. He had 10 years to develop that community.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

10 years. The van Beekums got out when they did. But while they left, others came in, and they will keep coming. Our story is about to jump forward nearly a decade. What Ron and Jackie experienced was a cult in its infancy. And it's important you know what it was like in the beginning, because over the next 10 years, Arvin will learn from his mistakes, refine his strategies. He will use his silver tongue and sweet facade to expand his footprint in the tiny subdivision from four houses to 10. When the Van Beekums left in 1982, Arvin had four wives in his sister program. The next time we see him, he will have 30. Things in Northwood are going to get a lot more sophisticated and a lot worse. And though it was only a rough draft of what was to come, what happened to Ron and Jackie was enough to scar them for life.

[Jackie Van Beekum]

It was a long time before we would get close to any neighbors after we moved out. A long time. And it still carries with us. It hasn't gone away. We don't have a lot of friends that we do things with that we're neighbors with, because it's just there. It's just like, don't do this quite yet because we really don't know. He's the devil, and you can't forget the devil.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

I began this podcast talking about magic, and Arvin had one trick. He was really good at making you think he was someone he wasn't. Outwardly, he presented himself one way, generous and kind, concerned with your needs. He was confident, but spoke in gentle tones and would always try to make you feel special, like A good dad. But you'll see as our story unfolds that on the inside, Arvin was a monster. An abuser at a level that is nearly unfathomable. A delusional pervert who claimed to be a prophet of God and taught a bastard scripture of sex and cross cruelty. He will expand his evil empire which will come to be called the Zion Society over the next 10 years. Hidden in plain sight, inside the walls of the pretty little houses surrounded by those magnificent gardens, Arvind Shreve was a wolf in sheep's clothing. And he was just getting started.

[Erin Anderson (alias Aaron Anderson)]

Started.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

The story of the fall of the Zion Society cult begins in earnest on July 9, 1991. Back then, Mike King was living his dream.

[Mike King]

I was this young, testosterone filled 30 year old cop that was at the height of my career.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

He had recently left the Ogden City Police Department after eight and a half years.

[Reed Richards]

Mike was a police officer for the Ogden City Police Department back in the days when I was a public defender and we ran into each other off and on on various cases.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

That's attorney Reed Richards. As their careers progressed, he and Mike developed a friendship. When Richards eventually ran for and was elected Weber county attorney.

[Reed Richards]

Because of my association with Mike and I'd gotten to know him fairly well, I asked him if he'd come on and help in the county attorney's office.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

It was an easy yes.

[Mike King]

I was given the opportunity to oversee an undercover sting task force that was made up of eight investigators from across the county. And we were, we were having a blast working our way up the crime pyramid, trying to get to the real bad guys.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

When Mike says the real bad guys, he's talking about kingpins at the top of huge trafficking rings. He was going after Scarface. In fact, as Mike describes it, it almost sounds like a movie.

[Mike King]

When we would arrest, for instance, a drug dealer who had a large enterprise, we often would seize their property. And we could use those pieces of property in other investigations. In fact, I used to drive around in a little Camaro with T tops.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Mike's first year at the county Attorney's office was fast paced and action packed. If he wasn't out buying grenades and stolen Camaros, he was planning the next sting operation. His office on the seventh floor of the Ogden Municipal Building was constantly buzzing with activity. And it was no different on the morning of July 9, 1991. As he stepped off the elevator, Mike King could already hear his phone ringing on his desk down the hall. The day seemed to be starting without him. He ran to answer it, but he was too late. It wasn't long before the usual parade of investigators in and out of his office began when the phone rang again. But this time he just ignored it. They can leave a message with the receptionist and he'll get to it when he has a second. But it rang again, and then again. Mike finally grabbed the receiver and answered in a tone that not so subtly suggested, this better be important. It was the office receptionist. She had been trying to get a hold of someone, anyone really, but couldn't find an available investigator anywhere in the building. A young woman was in the lobby and she wanted to talk to someone from the county attorney's office. As he rode the elevator down to the lobby, he hoped that whatever this was wouldn't take long. Hopefully all he would have to do is gather some quick information and pass it off to another detective. As the doors opened, he impatiently stepped onto the marble floor and walked over to the front desk where the receptionist sat. She gestured toward a young woman sitting in a chair, her back against the wall.

[Mike King]

I walked out into the lobby and up to this woman who quite confidently stood up and extended her hand. I don't think I'll ever forget that first moment when I saw her, because she'd clearly taken a lot of time in getting her hair ready for the day. It was incredibly dark, jet black. She was probably around 21 years old, and she looked at me and she very matter of factly said, my name is Erin Anderson and I've been involved in a cult that's sexually abusing children. Do you have a moment to talk to me? I was absolutely blown away.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

He didn't know it yet, but Mike's life would never be the same after this moment. He stood frozen in shock. Time slowed to a crawl as he was flooded with thoughts about this young woman and what she just said. How should he respond? Is she okay? What next? Is he even the right person to be doing this?

[Mike King]

I was a property crimes investigator for the county attorney looking at stolen car cases. This thing was completely outside of my bucket of expertise.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

But he already knew he was the only person available to talk to Erin, which is not her real name by the way. As I mentioned earlier, some people in the story have children who could be identified if we disclose their parents names. So we'll be using the alias Aaron Anderson. Anyway, Mike, trying to act professionally and as if he hears this kind of thing every day, invited Aaron up to the seventh floor to have a talk.

[Mike King]

So as we neared my office, keep in mind I've got these ideas racing through my head as I'm thinking about how I'm going to conduct this interview, which I hope will be very short. Remember, I just wanted to get enough information to move this case into the hands of a more capable investigator. But then I kept thinking about her declaration she made. I've been involved in a cult of sexually abusing children. I had to consider the fact that her involvement meant that she could actually be one of the predators and not just someone who's revealing predatory behavior of others.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Mike pulled up a chair and invited the young woman to sit down. But before he could say anything, she blurted out something Mike said felt like a rehearsed statement here read by a voice actor.

[Erin Anderson (alias Aaron Anderson)]

I came to the county attorney's office because of the guilt I had been feeling for a long time. I know terrible crimes are being committed. It's been a heavy burden and I need to turn the abusers in.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Mike told Aaron that before they could continue, he needed to get some personal information from her first. She took a deep breath and exhaled, seemingly relieved that someone was going to listen. Mike wanted to make sure everything was done by the book. He read Erin her Miranda rights. He said she didn't have to talk if she didn't want to. He pointed out the locations of the restrooms and exits and said she could leave at any time. And then Mike told Erin that if she said anything that potentially showed her involvement in any kind of crime, criminal activity, which so far seemed very possible, she could be charged with a crime.

[Mike King]

And she very bravely accepted that responsibility and made it very clear that the weight of the things she was involved in were so dang heavy that she personally was willing to face even criminal charges. To get that weight off her shoulders,

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Erin was ready to begin.

[Erin Anderson (alias Aaron Anderson)]

Until a few months ago, I was a member of the Zion Society.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Mike quickly responded. Can you repeat that? He leaned in closer from the other side of the table. A member of what? Patiently she repeated, I was a member

[Erin Anderson (alias Aaron Anderson)]

of the Zion Society.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Mike had heard the rumors. Everyone had.

[Mike King]

I knew the neighborhood that she was speaking about. It was a little place called Northwood subdivision. And in that little neighborhood we had heard rumors for years about a group of people who were assembled together and practicing a kind of bizarre religion.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

County Attorney Reed Richards we have a

[Reed Richards]

lot of religious groups and cults in Utah, probably more than most places because of the nature of the creation of the state and the little shoot off groups that have come off of the LDS religion, particularly when there were changes in the polygamy rules and so forth,

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

fringe groups Splinter off from churches all the time, everywhere, in every religion. And that's all anyone knew was happening in Northwood.

[Reed Richards]

And there's certainly nothing wrong with that. We have a constitutional right to practice whatever religion we want as long as

[Jackie Van Beekum]

we don't break the law.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

The Salt Lake Tribune published an article on July 14, 1984, seven years earlier about Northwood residents who were concerned about cult activity in their neighborhood. As Arvin's group bought up more houses, all impeccably landscaped, of course, the once quiet streets began to fill up with curious onlookers hoping to catch a glimpse of the elaborate greenery and maybe some members of the weird cult rumored to live there.

[Mike King]

It was an absolutely incredible place to drive through. I remember driving through it as a patrol officer before I went to work for the county attorney.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

One neighbor got so fed up, she posted a sign in her yard that said, we're not one of them. The article features another neighbor whose daughter stopped attending nearby Brigham Young University to move in with the cult within spitting distance of her parents house. Whenever they tried to talk to her, her parents were, in mom's words, ganged up on and forced to walk away. It's like she's dead. She's got all her keepsakes here at this home, yet she won't come get them. I'm just sure she's been programmed. When her daughter suggested her father talk to Arvin, dad did. The mother said, quote, even though my husband said he knew the man was lying, he found him very convincing.

[Reed Richards]

We had had complaints about the Arvin Shreve group for some time from a variety of sources, mostly from husbands of women who had left and gone into the group. And some of them had taking the kids. And we looked at that. We had just incredible caseloads. The police department, same thing. And so when those complaints came in, we just said, you know, we don't see any crime here.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

There had been stories and rumors and even credible reports of unfortunate things happening inside the Zion Society, but nothing illegal. That all changed when Erin Anderson walked through the door. She stepped forward and gave the outside world, in particular law enforcement, its first look at what was really going on there. Aaron told Mike that the Zion Society was a group of about 60 people led by a retired landscaper named Arvind Shreve. Arvin claimed to be a prophet of God. Some in the group even believed he was God. And among his teachings was a philosophy he called the sexual way of life.

[Mike King]

The sexual way of life was a doctrine of polygamy, sometimes called Plural marriage. Arvin taught that he, as the patriarch over the group, is authorized to have sex with as many women as he brings into his Sister Council.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Arvin's term for a group of spiritual wives we heard about earlier. Sister Prince program had been updated to Sister Council in the years since the Bambicams left. We'll get into more specifics of Arvin's belief system later. But what Aaron told Mike that first day was that each man in the Zion Society had his own Sister Council of women and Girls that he was sanctioned by God to be able to have sex with whenever he wanted. Arvin had close to 30 in his, ranging in ages from 62 to 2 years old.

[Mike King]

Now, not only is he authorized to have sexual relationships with all the women in his council, but the wives themselves were instructed to have sexual relationships one with another.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

There's nothing wrong with sexual relationships between people of the same sex, even multiple people, as long as everyone involved is a consenting wife adult. But for many in the Zion Society, neither was the case. There was also their doomsday philosophy, the idea that the end of the world was coming and the group needed to be prepared.

[Mike King]

So they were busily engaged in getting things like food storage, stockpiling clothing and medications and weapons.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Aaron said everyone in the group had been taken out to a gun range by someone who acted as the the cult security officer. He taught the adults and the children how to operate the many semiautomatic rifles and handguns that were stashed in secret compartments hidden in all of the homes.

[Mike King]

She spoke about security systems and pointing out which homes had bars on the doors and windows, which homes had alarms, and how every home system was interconnected.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

That way, if anyone came into the neighborhood who potentially posed a threat to their way of life, every house could be notified at once. Then Aaron drew a map for Mike, labeling each house with who lived inside and what special purpose it had. One stored, the medical supplies, another food. There was the lookout house that sat at the opening of the only road in or out of Northwood. And there was the children's dormitory. After what had seemed like only a few minutes, Mike King glanced up at the clock on the wall. Nearly four hours had passed since he and Aaron first sat down. They were both emotionally exhausted, so Mike suggested taking a break and picking things up the following day.

[Mike King]

I almost sensed Aaron breathing a huge sigh of relief that she had somehow unloaded this burden off of her shoulders. And while she unloaded it, it had to land somewhere. And I felt this incredible darkness on myself, like holy cow. I can't even believe someone could casually talk about this. You know, I'd been a police officer for 10 years plus at this point I'd seen a lot of ugliness, but I hadn't seen organized ritual abuse like this, and it was incredibly troubling, to say the least. I found myself vacillating between this woman might be absolutely crazy and none of this happened, or we may really have something big on our hands here.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

They scheduled another interview for the next morning, but a lot could happen before then.

[Mike King]

Asking somebody to come back and continue to confess to criminal events that they've been involved in is incredibly risky for a million reasons.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

Maybe after they sleep on it, they panic and disappear. Or maybe it hits them exactly what's at stake, and then they sabotage the next interview to try and avoid any consequences. Whatever the case, it was no longer in Mike's hands, and while he collected his notes, Erin stood up to leave. As she did, she glanced around the room and paused in front of a picture of Mike and his family.

[Erin Anderson (alias Aaron Anderson)]

Your children are beautiful, she said, and

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

then stood silent and still for a moment, tears welling up in her eyes.

[Erin Anderson (alias Aaron Anderson)]

They look safe. That's something I denied my daughter.

[Narrator Aaron Mason]

If you or someone you know is experiencing sexual violence, contact the Rape, Abuse and Incest national [e-mail] that's R A I N N. O R G or call the National Sexual assault hotline at 800-656-HOPE. Both services are free, confidential and available 247 gardens of inside the Zion Society Cult was written, narrated and audio produced by me, Aaron Mason. Original Music Alison Layton Brown the voice actor featured in this episode is Laura Scott. No generative AI was used in the writing or production of this podcast. My sincere thanks to the entire Gardens of Evil editorial team. Your feedback was invaluable. Gardens of Evil is based on the book An Investigative Memoir of the Zion Society Cult by Michael R. King, available at profilingevil.com on Amazon or IngramSpark. Mike donates all of his proceeds from the book and this podcast to fund child advocacy efforts and criminal justice scholarships. Check out Mike's podcast, Profiling Evil, where he explores unsolved criminal cases from around the world and dives deep into the minds of predators. Find profiling evil on YouTube or wherever you get podcasts executive producers John Goforth and Jeremy Seinen. Gardens of Evil is a production of the Gamut Podcast Network.

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