GUILTY FL - Emon 'Moses' Harper, 2, murdered, Micanopy, 1988 *Arrest*

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http://www.wcjb.com/content/news/Micanopy-cult-leader-indicted-for-childs-murder-461417473.html
MICANOPY Fla. (WCJB) - It has taken several decades, but the murder of a little boy may now be solved. A former Alachua County resident has been indicted for murder. The woman once ran a religious boarding school near Micanopy that Alachua County deputies say had practices that were similar to a cult.
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Officials say witnesses and victims of 75 year old, Anna Elizabeth Young's abuse came forward with horrific memories. Now after a year-long investigation, she's back behind bars for one of what could be many murders.

"I think the extent of how long this took place," said Art Forgey, Alachua County Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer. "You know, going clear back to the 60s is the most shocking thing here."
A year's worth of digging revealed Anna Elizabeth Young is responsible for the torturous abuse and death of multiple children.
The matriarch of a cult-like religious boarding school in Micanopy, "Mother Anna" was charged with felony child abuse back in 1992. Young fled from Florida, but was captured eight years later. In 2001, she was sentenced to six months and 12 days in jail for bathing a 12 year old girl in a steel tub with chemicals causing severe chemical burns.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg that we know of," Forgey said.
Several people came forward within the last year accusing Young of torturing, punishing, caging, and starving children at the House of Prayer, which authorities are calling, the "house of horrors."
 

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crim...-with-murder-of-toddler/ar-BBGbBar?li=BBnbfcL
'We think there are many, many more': Florida 'cult leader' charged with murder of toddler
The House of Prayer for All People opened in 1983 in Micanopy, a town just south of Gainesville. For nearly 10 years, children arrived at the religious boarding school and into the care of “Mother Anna” — Anna Elizabeth Young. There, according to Alachua County authorities, they were tortured and abused in a religious cult atmosphere that included exorcism and chemical baths
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Late last week, Young, 75, was arrested for the premeditated first-degree murder of a child, law enforcement announced in a news release. The Gainesville Sun reported the charges stem from the death of Emon Harper in the late-1980s. Authorities say the boy was either two or three at the time of his death, but few other details have been released.

Young has not filed a plea. No lawyer for her has been identified so far.

Officials have said they believe Young — who is referred to as a “former cult leader” in a law enforcement news release — may have been involved in more crimes at the isolated Florida compound.

“We think there are many, many more. We can document other states and other missing children that we believe are tied into this,” Forgey told the Sun
rbbm.
 
It's not clear to me whether this little boy's body was recovered or if he's missing and presumed dead. If he was recovered, LE would have easy access to official records, so the vagueness about his age, death date and lack of detail on how he died make me wonder.
 
"Anna Young, 77, is accused of killing a toddler through torture and starvation decades ago. She led the cult through intimidation and fear

The trial of Anna Young, the 77-year-old woman accused of killing a toddler when she was the leader of a Micanopy-area religious cult from about 1985 to 1995, will be handled by a statewide prosecutor rather than the Eighth Circuit State Attorney’s Office.

Jamie Whiteway, an assistant state attorney who has been working on the case with colleague Sean Brewer, next month will become a statewide prosecutor and asked State Attorney Bill Cervone if she could take the case. Now, Whiteway will work on it with another statewide prosecutor, Cass Castillo.

“Jamie Whiteway has been second chair on it and has been very invested in it all along. She asked (statewide prosecutors) if they would be willing to take it and they agreed. It’s fine with me,” Cervone said. “Nothing changes other than Jamie and Cass will be specially appointed by me as assistant state attorneys here to see it through until the end.”

Cervone said key witness depositions are being scheduled for September and October, primarily those who were in the cult. Cervone said the case could be set for trial in early 2020."

Micanopy cult leader's murder trial could come early next year
 
Last updated February 2, 2019; casefile added.
Emon David Harper – The Charley Project
Emon David Harper
  • harper_emon.jpg
  • davidson_catherine_young.jpg
Emon, circa 1988; Anna Young, circa 2017
"Emon disappeared from Micanopy, Florida sometime in 1988. At the time of his disappearance, he and his family were members of the House of Prayer for All People in Micanopy, Florida.

It was a cult-type religious group that operated under a system of collectivism and Old Testament style beliefs, including adhering to a kosher diet and wearing full-length robes and head coverings. All members had to change their names upon joining, and Emon's name was changed to Moses Harper. Emon was still his legal name, however.

At its largest, the group comprised 24 members. The leader, Anna Young, was cruel to the other members, particularly after her husband died in 1988. She forced members to turn over all their savings, separated parents from their children, and frequently starved, humiliated, beat and tortured the members, especially children, for their "sins." Each beating took 33 lashes with a whip, the same number Christ had received before the crucifixion.

At one point Anna ordered a cult member to abandon a two-year-old Marcos Cruz at a church in Puerto Rico because he was "full of the devil." The toddler's ultimate fate is unknown. In 1992, she bathed a twelve-year-old child in bleach, causing severe burns, then left her tied to a bed, which exacerbated her injuries. The victim had permanent scarring.

After the girl's parents found her and took her to a hospital, Anna was convicted of child abuse. Before she could be sentenced, she went on the run with Joy, her youngest daughter, who was still a child at the time. The cult dissolved in her absence.

In 2000, Anna was located in Alton, Illinois and sent to jail, where she served six months for the child abuse charge. After her release she settled in Cobb County, Georgia and kept a low profile for fifteen years. In 2017, Joy accused her mother of having killed the toddler she knew only as Moses. She went to the police, who were able to identify the boy as Emon. He was about two years old at the time.

Other former cult members supported Joy's story, stating that in 1988 or 1989, Anna had beaten and starved Emon over an extended time period until he was found dead inside her closet. His body has not been found; witnesses report that Anna put it in a large straw hamper and burned the hamper in a fire. She told other cult members that she had given the child away to be raised by monks.

Anna was charged with Emon's murder in December 2017. Investigators believe she may have killed other children as well. A photo of her is posted with this case summary.

One man who was in the cult as a child said Anna forced other cult members to beat and torture his two-year-old sister, who subsequently died. At the time her death was classified as natural, but it is being re-investigated. Anna's stepdaughter, Catherine Davidson, disappeared in 1973 at the age of six and was never found.

Joy, who had not yet been born in 1973, told police she heard from her older sister that Anna bound and gagged Catherine and placed her in a closet in the family's home in Chicago. The other children heard scratching coming from the closet all night long, then the noises stopped. When Joy's sister looked in the closet she saw her sister lying in a fetal position, dead.

No one has been charged in Catherine or Marcos's disappearances, but they are being investigated. Anna is awaiting trial in Emon's presumed murder. Foul play is suspected in his case due to the circumstances involved."
 
Last updated February 2, 2019; casefile added.
Emon David Harper – The Charley Project
Emon David Harper
  • harper_emon.jpg
  • davidson_catherine_young.jpg
Emon, circa 1988; Anna Young, circa 2017
"Emon disappeared from Micanopy, Florida sometime in 1988. At the time of his disappearance, he and his family were members of the House of Prayer for All People in Micanopy, Florida.

It was a cult-type religious group that operated under a system of collectivism and Old Testament style beliefs, including adhering to a kosher diet and wearing full-length robes and head coverings. All members had to change their names upon joining, and Emon's name was changed to Moses Harper. Emon was still his legal name, however.

At its largest, the group comprised 24 members. The leader, Anna Young, was cruel to the other members, particularly after her husband died in 1988. She forced members to turn over all their savings, separated parents from their children, and frequently starved, humiliated, beat and tortured the members, especially children, for their "sins." Each beating took 33 lashes with a whip, the same number Christ had received before the crucifixion.

At one point Anna ordered a cult member to abandon a two-year-old Marcos Cruz at a church in Puerto Rico because he was "full of the devil." The toddler's ultimate fate is unknown. In 1992, she bathed a twelve-year-old child in bleach, causing severe burns, then left her tied to a bed, which exacerbated her injuries. The victim had permanent scarring.

After the girl's parents found her and took her to a hospital, Anna was convicted of child abuse. Before she could be sentenced, she went on the run with Joy, her youngest daughter, who was still a child at the time. The cult dissolved in her absence.

In 2000, Anna was located in Alton, Illinois and sent to jail, where she served six months for the child abuse charge. After her release she settled in Cobb County, Georgia and kept a low profile for fifteen years. In 2017, Joy accused her mother of having killed the toddler she knew only as Moses. She went to the police, who were able to identify the boy as Emon. He was about two years old at the time.

Other former cult members supported Joy's story, stating that in 1988 or 1989, Anna had beaten and starved Emon over an extended time period until he was found dead inside her closet. His body has not been found; witnesses report that Anna put it in a large straw hamper and burned the hamper in a fire. She told other cult members that she had given the child away to be raised by monks.

Anna was charged with Emon's murder in December 2017. Investigators believe she may have killed other children as well. A photo of her is posted with this case summary.

One man who was in the cult as a child said Anna forced other cult members to beat and torture his two-year-old sister, who subsequently died. At the time her death was classified as natural, but it is being re-investigated. Anna's stepdaughter, Catherine Davidson, disappeared in 1973 at the age of six and was never found.

Joy, who had not yet been born in 1973, told police she heard from her older sister that Anna bound and gagged Catherine and placed her in a closet in the family's home in Chicago. The other children heard scratching coming from the closet all night long, then the noises stopped. When Joy's sister looked in the closet she saw her sister lying in a fetal position, dead.

No one has been charged in Catherine or Marcos's disappearances, but they are being investigated. Anna is awaiting trial in Emon's presumed murder. Foul play is suspected in his case due to the circumstances involved."
Wow! I just saw this and have no words. Well, I have lots of words but most of them look like this ---> ****, *******, *****.

Where the hell were the children's parents? Did they actually fall for this Frankenstein mashup of cult/Judaism/Christianity? How could they allow this monster to abuse their children?

I'm familiar with the area and never heard a peep about the woman and her cult. It boggles my mind as Micanopy is a small, pleasant little town. I hope LE and the state attorneys fully investigate the cult and put Anna in jail to live out the rest of her miserable life. Ugh.
 
An investigation into the murder of Emon Harper began after Young’s daughter, Joy Fluker, called the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office in 2016 to turn her mother in for the crimes she committed.

Fluker said her mother began to overstep her role as a grandmother by criticizing her parenting.

“I blurted out, ‘How are you going to tell me how to raise my kids when you killed two children?'” Fluker said. “Then I saw her have a look I haven’t seen in years, since we were at the House of Prayer.”

That argument in 2016 is what Fluker said lead her to calling the ACSO

“The way this case began was back in 2016 with a phone call from Anna’s daughter Joy,” said Alachua County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Art Forgey. “It’s so unbelievable you wonder if it’s true or not.”

As detectives began investigating Fluker’s claims, they said it all began to unravel.

More witnesses came forward to form a narrative that spanned well beyond Emon’s death.

RELATED: Ex-cult leader sentenced in deaths of 2 toddlers in Alachua County

House of Prayer
It all started when the House of Prayer for All People, led by Young, opened its doors in the 1980s.

“The House of Prayer started out, supposed to be a safe haven for people who had committed wrongdoings and to change their lives around,” Fluker said.

The House of Prayer was a place for second chances, financial security and even salvation.

Nearly two dozen members joined ‘Mother Anna” over the next decade, including children attending her religious boarding school.

Fluker said new members trickling in would adore “Mother Anna.”

“As people started idolizing her,” Fluker recalled, “they started looking at her as the voice of God.”

Fluker said that power that Young possessed became corrupted. She said Young would punish victims as she saw fit for their sins.
More:House of Prayer cult members recalls stories of abuse, murder | firstcoastnews.com
 
rbbm.
February 18, 2021
Ex-cult leader in Florida gets life for murder, manslaughter of two kids
''A former Florida cult leader was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the deaths of two children, including a boy who was deprived of food and water.''

''Young, aka “Mother Anna,” was arrested in 2017 on a felony child abuse charge for bathing a 12-year-old girl in a steel tub with chemicals, causing severe burns, the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia announced. The Florida woman accused of running a “religious boarding school’ was arrested in Marietta and had been jailed since that time.''

''Emon disappeared from Micanopy, Florida, sometime in 1988, according to the Charley Project, which profiles cold case missing persons. At the time, he and his family were members of Young’s cult, which operated “under a system of collectivism and Old Testament-style beliefs” that included a kosher diet and adherents wearing robes and head coverings.


Members of the group – 24 at its peak – had to change their names and the boy was known as “Moses” Harper. Young allegedly forced members to give up their savings and separated parents from their children, while starving, beating and tortured her followers for their “sins,” according to the missing persons advocacy group.''


Harper was between the ages of 2 and 3 when his mother gave him to Young’s cult, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
 
Finally some justice for the little boy and for others...

Damm, what a horror show. Those poor people, searching for what they thought they lacked, thought they had found their leader. The slow drip, drip, drip of brain-washing under the cover of smooth talk and pseudo-religion, a la Jim Jones, David Koresh, etc., etc. Like frogs in boiling water...
Death of the innocent ones, and sadness with no end to others.
 
Double-post.
 
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Another Double-post -- am I going nutz??
 
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rbbm.
February 18, 2021
Ex-cult leader in Florida gets life for murder, manslaughter of two kids
''A former Florida cult leader was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the deaths of two children, including a boy who was deprived of food and water.''

''Young, aka “Mother Anna,” was arrested in 2017 on a felony child abuse charge for bathing a 12-year-old girl in a steel tub with chemicals, causing severe burns, the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia announced. The Florida woman accused of running a “religious boarding school’ was arrested in Marietta and had been jailed since that time.''

''Emon disappeared from Micanopy, Florida, sometime in 1988, according to the Charley Project, which profiles cold case missing persons. At the time, he and his family were members of Young’s cult, which operated “under a system of collectivism and Old Testament-style beliefs” that included a kosher diet and adherents wearing robes and head coverings.


Members of the group – 24 at its peak – had to change their names and the boy was known as “Moses” Harper. Young allegedly forced members to give up their savings and separated parents from their children, while starving, beating and tortured her followers for their “sins,” according to the missing persons advocacy group.''


Harper was between the ages of 2 and 3 when his mother gave him to Young’s cult, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Good, rot in prison lady! It's scary that such an insidious group could freely operate in a small, picturesque town like Micanopy. The 1991 move Doc Hollywood was filmed there. The town is only about 15 miles south of Gainesville, home of the University of Florida. Cross Creek, where Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wrote The Yearling is just a few miles west. Until now I had wonderful memories of Micanopy.

I hate, hate, hate! groups like this, be they fundamentalist Christian splinter groups or Hassidic Communities or just plain old End of the World wackos. So much evil goes on under the guise of spirituality. In a perfect world the law would stop protecting their "rights" and expose the abusive behavior. Bah.

Rant over. All MOO.
 
Emon David Harper – The Charley Project

Last updated February 19, 2021; details of disappearance updated.

Details of Disappearance
Emon disappeared from Micanopy, Florida sometime in 1988. At the time of his disappearance, he and his family were members of the House of Prayer for All People in Micanopy, Florida.

It was a cult-type religious group that operated under a system of collectivism and Old Testament style beliefs, including adhering to a kosher diet and wearing full-length robes and head coverings. All members had to change their names upon joining, and Emon's name was changed to Moses Harper. Emon was still his legal name, however.

At its largest, the group comprised 24 members. The leader, Anna Young, was cruel to the other members, particularly after her husband died in 1988. She forced members to turn over all their savings, separated parents from their children, and frequently starved, humiliated, beat and tortured the members, especially children, for their "sins." Each beating took 33 lashes with a whip, the same number Christ had received before the crucifixion.

At one point Anna ordered a cult member to abandon a two-year-old Marcos Cruz at a church in Puerto Rico because he was "full of the devil." The toddler's ultimate fate is unknown. In 1992, she bathed a twelve-year-old child in bleach, causing severe burns, then left her tied to a bed, which exacerbated her injuries. The victim had permanent scarring. After the girl's parents found her and took her to a hospital, Anna was convicted of child abuse. Before she could be sentenced, she went on the run with Joy, her youngest daughter, who was still a child at the time. The cult dissolved in her absence.

In 2000, Anna was located in Alton, Illinois and sent to jail, where she served six months for the child abuse charge. After her release she settled in Cobb County, Georgia and kept a low profile for fifteen years. In 2017, Joy accused her mother of having killed the toddler she knew only as Moses. She went to the police, who were able to identify the boy as Emon. He was about two years old at the time. Joy believes her mother suffers from untreated mental illness and this caused her violent behavior.

Other former cult members supported Joy's story, stating that in 1988 or 1989, Anna had beaten and starved Emon over an extended time period until he was found dead inside her closet. His body has not been found; witnesses report that Anna put it in a large straw hamper and burned the hamper in a fire. She told other cult members that she had given the child away to be raised by monks.

Anna was charged with Emon's murder in December 2017. One man who was in the cult as a child said Anna forced other cult members to beat and torture his two-year-old sister, Katonya Jackson. Katonya had epilepsy and Anna also withheld her medication. Katonya subsequently died. At the time her death was classified as natural, but after charges were filed against Anna in Emon's case, Katonya's death was re-investigated and Anna was ultimately charged with manslaughter.

Anna's stepdaughter, Catherine Davidson, disappeared in 1973 at the age of six and was never found. Joy, who had not yet been born in 1973, told police she heard from her older sister that Anna bound and gagged Catherine and placed her in a closet in the family's home in Chicago. The other children heard scratching coming from the closet all night long, then the noises stopped. When Joy's sister looked in the closet she saw her sister lying in a fetal position, apparently dead.

Joy believes her mother suffers from untreated mental illness and this caused her violent behavior. In February 2021, Anna reached a plea agreement with the prosecution and pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in Emon's case and manslaughter in Katonya's death. She was sentenced to 30 years in prison. As she was already 80 years old at the time of sentencing, it is a virtual certainty that she will die in prison.

Robert Davidson/Jonah Young died without being charged with any crimes, and no one has been charged in Catherine or Marcos's disappearances, but they are being investigated. Foul play is suspected in Emon's case due to the circumstances involved.
 

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