By David Lohr

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October 25, 2006

(Crime Library)   — If you've been reading the papers or watching Court TV lately you've heard the name Jeffrey Lundgren come up several times during the last few weeks.  These recent news pieces about Lundgren have been of particular interest to me, as I originally covered this case for Crime Library back in 2001.  In fact, it was one of the first stories I wrote for this website.  It was also the first in which I actually traveled to the scene of the crime.

It was during January 2001, when I approached Crime Library's founder and executive editor Marilyn Bardsley with the idea of covering the Lundgren case.  I've always enjoyed covering older cases and the Lundgren case in particular had long since been forgotten.  I pitched the story to Marilyn, who was at first skeptical, but in the end decided to let me run with it.  In fact I even convinced her it would be a good idea for me to travel to Kirtland, Ohio, to take photos and gather background information.

If you're not familiar with this case, you'll want to read Crime Library's feature story, as I am not going to go into very many of the details here.  To give you a little bit of background, in April 17, 1989, Jeffrey Lungren, a self-professed prophet, executed the Avery family — Dennis, 49, Cheryl, 41, Trina, 15, Rebecca, 13, and 7-year-old Karen.  The murderers were committed in a barn, behind a house Lundgren was renting in Kirtland, Ohio.  Following the murders, Lundgren and his followers fled the area.  They were eventually captured and on September 21, 1990, a jury of his peers sentenced Jeffrey Don Lundgren to death.

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See Crime Library Feature Story on The Kirtland Cult Killings

Contact  David Lohr at           pa_crime_writer@velocity.net

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