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Short filmTranscript
00:00SBS advises that the following program includes references to child abuse.
00:12Maybe the best place to go right now is Montana.
00:16While making a story about traditional wives, country music star Rory Feek sent me to meet more than 50 families living and worshipping together on a property in Greycliff, Montana.
00:28We are about just a great atmosphere for kids.
00:34But group elder Matthew Brandstadt did not mention they all belonged to a much larger group called Homestead Heritage.
00:44A fundamentalist religious movement labeled a cult by former members.
00:49People who just don't understand begin to make up stories and lies.
00:54Run from a commune in Waco, Texas, Homestead Heritage has a long and disturbing history of child sexual abuse.
01:04But an alarming number of allegations have remained in the dark until now.
01:10After the revelations in Montana, I've come to the city of Waco, an unassuming agricultural hub in central Texas.
01:31Calling itself a city to believe in, Waco is known for its ranch culture, strong Baptist community, and of course, cults.
01:43The day was icy cold and wet, rainy.
01:50The helicopters are winding up, fixing to head to the compound.
01:55They don't know that it's fixing to be an ambush.
02:00Parnell McNamara is a third-generation lawman and former U.S. Marshal.
02:04He's now the sheriff of McLennan County in Waco.
02:10And who's filming this?
02:11I am.
02:14Sheriff McNamara was at the infamous Waco siege in 1993,
02:19when authorities clashed with a cult called the Branch Davidians and their leader, David Koresh.
02:24They're underneath him, trying to shoot at him up through the ceiling.
02:28Watch this.
02:33The 51-day siege ended with Koresh burning himself and his followers alive,
02:39leaving 75 dead, including 25 children.
02:43How does it feel watching this?
02:47It just...
02:51Man.
02:52All the blood there, all of it is on David Koresh's hands.
03:04Vernon Howell was his real name.
03:06Two-bit street punk, that's all he was.
03:09And so, there's some of those Davidians that survived that came out,
03:14that for years believed that he was coming back,
03:17that he was Christ reincarnated.
03:19And what do you think of people who say that they are Christ come in the flesh?
03:25They're false prophets.
03:27They're phonies.
03:28They're frauds.
03:30We'll know for sure when Christ comes back.
03:38I'm going to be honest with you, this whole area kind of gives me the creeps.
03:41This whole area is creepy.
03:47Since the siege, Waco has promoted itself as an open place for communities to express their religious freedom.
03:53One of those groups has become quite familiar to me.
03:58I want to ask you what you think about Homestead Heritage.
04:02I do not know how they came here.
04:05They just all of a sudden showed up about 30 years ago, bought some land out there.
04:10But they're just freaking weird.
04:18Run from a ranch 15 minutes from central Waco, Homestead Heritage was founded in New York in 1973
04:26by a former Pentecostal minister named Blair Adams.
04:29We're not going to run from death.
04:33We're going to beat it head on until we reach that never ending life on the other side.
04:41Claiming to be an apostle of Christ, Adams relocated to Texas in the late 80s
04:48after attempting to establish a similar community in Colorado.
04:51We wanted to take them and plant them in a place that would be productive.
04:55As told in church literature and promotional videos like these,
05:01Adams wanted to preach and teach without government interference,
05:05envisioning a sovereign sanctuary for families rooted in scripture,
05:10communal living and a return to the land.
05:14What resulted was an experimental religious community,
05:18promoting many of the values now found in the modern tradwife movement.
05:22At the time of his death in 2021, Adams' church had grown into a multi-million dollar organization
05:32with 14 affiliate communities worldwide.
05:35But not everyone is a believer.
05:39What everybody says that has been out there, been part of it and have left,
05:44they all describe it as a gold.
05:46Homestead Heritage describes itself as one of the safest places for children in today's world.
05:56But many former members say the group's insular culture has transformed it into a dangerous cult.
06:02Do you think it's a cult?
06:05If it's not, it's very close.
06:08I've come to Homestead Heritage to see for myself.
06:13Is this a cult?
06:16No.
06:18And what I wonder is, does anyone ever answer that question yes?
06:23Probably not. Maybe they do, I don't know.
06:26After requesting an interview and sharing the nature of my questions,
06:30I was offered a meeting with the group's unofficial PR man, Dan Lancaster, and his wife, Amanda.
06:36You know, we are a church. That's kind of the heart of what we do.
06:40It's not just a collection of a club of people who like to garden.
06:44At the core of this is our faith.
06:46The Lancasters are what you might call true believers.
06:51The couple and their eight children live on the Waco property, along with around 50 other families.
06:58Their community, which they call The Garden, is much like the one in Montana.
07:04But the Waco Ranch is much bigger, allowing it to accommodate around 1,200 parishioners from the surrounding areas.
07:12It's a great place to live.
07:13Dan has lived in the community since he was a child.
07:18For Amanda, the group's head midwife, her connections run much deeper.
07:23So my parents are Blair and Regina Adams.
07:27You may have already heard of them.
07:29My dad was the founder of this community back in 1973.
07:33Amanda is one of ten surviving children of founder Blair Adams.
07:38Daddy was a devoted shepherd to this community.
07:44He endlessly talked about my brothers and how they served him.
07:48Following their father's death, I'm told no single heir took over the group.
07:54Instead, Adams left the church in the hands of a committee.
07:57So we have an eldership board that's kind of the governing body of the church.
08:04Are you on that board?
08:05I am.
08:06Very cool.
08:07Yes.
08:08Being the daughter of the founder, are you on that board?
08:10I'm not.
08:11Okay.
08:12Yeah.
08:13We really value the traditional roles of women.
08:16So a woman here would not hold an office as an elder.
08:20Instead, the all-male board of elders oversees the group's business and spiritual interests,
08:27relying on a team of around 20 ministers to help keep the church fabric intact.
08:32You'd be hard-pressed to find a church of our size that has more people on their ministry team than we have here.
08:39But these ministers haven't always kept their flock safe.
08:45In 2005, church member Bill DeLong was jailed for sexually assaulting his six-year-old daughter.
08:52Court records show that a Homestead Heritage Minister named George Clingensmith withheld DeLong's crimes
09:00and allowed him to remain in the group for a year before encouraging him to turn himself in.
09:06In the first case, we had never encountered anything like that before.
09:11And so the guy who heard it just didn't understand about reporting laws and so forth.
09:15And when that incident came to the attention of our eldership board, we turned the guy in immediately.
09:22And that's been the case with everything else we've encountered.
09:26After 2005, an alarming number of child sexual abuse cases at Homestead Heritage came to light,
09:34many involving incest.
09:36Bill DeLong's two sons were also convicted of raping minor girls.
09:41And in 2009, parishioner Joseph Ratliff received a 99-year sentence
09:48for the repeated sexual assault of an eight-year-old boy.
09:51In 2012, another parishioner was jailed for sexually assaulting a minor girl.
09:58He confessed to Dan Lancaster.
10:00This is the guy who was a former member, and he told me,
10:04what have you done? And I said, well, you know what this means.
10:06And he said, I do. And he did. He turned himself in and I reported it.
10:09So our stance is that it's absolutely unacceptable.
10:15Since 2013, no further parishioners have been charged with child sex offences at Homestead Heritage,
10:22a fact the group takes great pride in.
10:25A lot of our ministry goes to that effect, to trying to care for the congregation.
10:29Dan tells me the group's teachings, strict reporting policy, and vigilance of its ministers,
10:36has kept children here safe from abuse for a decade.
10:40But I've heard otherwise.
10:42There have been allegations of multiple sexual assaults and rapes that have happened within the Waco community
10:48that have gone unreported, that people have been encouraged to stay silent about.
10:54How do you respond to that?
10:56I'm not aware of any cases of that in the past 10 years.
11:00I've never heard of anything like that. I mean, anything we've ever heard of, we've reported.
11:04If we're talking about criminal behaviour, we've reported everything that we're aware of.
11:11So with an incidence of sexual assault, there is a zero tolerance policy?
11:16Correct.
11:17OK. And so to the best of both of your knowledge, there is no incidence of sexual assault that you can recall in the last 10 years?
11:24Correct.
11:25Despite the Lancaster's assurances, former members say a culture of repression and silence is woven into the fabric of Homestead Heritage,
11:38which can put children in great danger.
11:43In a small town not far from Waco, a former parishioner at Homestead Heritage has offered to share her story.
11:50The youngest of seven children, 23-year-old Shalome spent most of her childhood in Homestead Heritage.
12:06We joined in 2008, so I was about six, and then I was there until two months after my 18th birthday.
12:17What was Homestead like?
12:18Very strict and miserable.
12:22It was hell on earth, pretty much.
12:29Shalome's parents, both immigrants from Hungary, moved to Texas in the mid-2000s and accepted an offer to join Homestead Heritage.
12:40Shalome says she had a typical happy childhood until her family joined the group.
12:45It just became more and more of, we can't be kids anymore.
12:51You have to mature very quickly there.
12:54I remember my dad being told that we're devils and, like, we're such horrible children, and so we would get spankings for that or smacked across the face for it.
13:05After joining Homestead Heritage, Shalome says her family was required to live according to a strict fundamentalist code overseen by the Board of Elders.
13:17She claims parents were encouraged to use corporal punishment, biblical homeschooling, and unorthodox prayer rituals to help drive sin from children.
13:30Shalome believes these doctrines caused individuals, including her parents, to become radically different people.
13:39They really do get to you.
13:40They really get into your head.
13:43They just slowly poison you.
13:48Shalome left the church and cut ties with her family when she turned 18.
13:54While she admits to struggling with what she says is a repressive culture, Shalome tells me that's not the only reason she wants to escape Homestead Heritage.
14:03Around nine, my brother and I were shooting his BB gun outside.
14:11We went to the smokehouse.
14:14It was like a stone cellar, basically.
14:17So he took me inside and then proceeded to pull my underwear down, had me hold my dress up, and then he was like, don't turn around.
14:27Don't turn around.
14:28And so I just stood there, and then that's when he proceeded to...
14:34Shalome tells me her older brother, who we have chosen not to name, began molesting her around 2007.
14:43She alleges the worst abuse occurred between the ages of nine and 13, during her time at Homestead Heritage.
14:51When the worst of it was happening, how old was your brother?
14:57Around 20.
14:59So he's a fully grown man.
15:01Yeah.
15:03I didn't really know what was going on.
15:06I didn't...
15:08Sexually, I didn't really know.
15:11I told my mom, and she asked if I had told anyone else, and I said no.
15:16And she said to not tell anyone else, because if word got out, he could get into serious trouble and go to jail.
15:24But for me, as I got older, like, just going over my past and everything, I started getting PTSD, and I was considering suicide.
15:35Because the only time it would stop is when I was sleeping.
15:40While she ultimately holds her brother responsible for her abuse, Shalome believes a repressive culture at Homestead Heritage was also to blame.
15:53We weren't allowed dating.
15:56And again, no sex education, there's no talking to other girls, and so it was all just taken out on me.
16:03How widespread do you think that is at Homestead? Do you think it's rare for that to happen?
16:10No, I actually think it's much larger than any of us think. Hearing other stories, it happens too much there.
16:21Shalome claims child sexual abuse remains rife at Homestead Heritage.
16:29She believes many cases like hers aren't escalated, because parents fear disobeying church doctrine.
16:36Why do you think your mum didn't want you to say anything? Do you think that was just your family? Or was that how everyone was told to respond?
16:45That's how everyone was told. It's all swept under the rug.
16:50That's the culture, sweeping under the rug?
16:52Yes.
16:55Dateline stresses neither Shalome nor her parents reported her allegations to Homestead Heritage or law enforcement at the time.
17:03Since leaving the church, Shalome has now filed her complaints with local authorities.
17:12Given the seriousness of her claims, I went to visit Shalome's family, looking for answers, but found only tragedy.
17:20The house just recently burnt down. I knew I wasn't going to go back there again. But then seeing everything burned, it's like, confirmed. There's nothing for you to go back to now. There's really no ties to my past.
17:42Shalome's claims have not been tested in court, but Dateline has cited text messages between Shalome and her brother, in which he does not deny the allegations.
17:56We reached out to Shalome's family for a response, but did not receive a reply.
18:01Homestead Heritage disputes claims that parents like Shalome's are discouraged from reporting.
18:08A lot of the experiences from people we have spoken to point to a culture of silence around wanting to communicate with a parent, being told that this is not an issue or that they should remain silent.
18:19And so it doesn't escalate through the ranks to someone like yourself, potentially. Do you think that that representation of the culture here is accurate?
18:27I don't think that's accurate. I know it's not accurate. Do you think people speak freely here about the issues that they're facing? Yes. I mean, I think we, the whole culture we're trying to cultivate is one of relationship, one of communication. And if there have been individuals who've done that, well, shame on them.
18:50But many former members say a culture of transparency does not exist, including a former church minister turned whistleblower who's agreed to speak on camera for the first time.
19:05Do you feel comfortable driving down this road?
19:08Well, this is a public road. Sure. This is the county road.
19:13Curtis Brown was an integral part of Homestead Heritage for 29 years.
19:17Now he's their neighbor.
19:21Yes, this is the boundary between Homestead and our property.
19:26When you look out at this land versus what's happening over here, there is a big difference.
19:33Well, of course, this part of their land isn't visible by the public and Homestead is more for performance for the public.
19:40We have lots of different kinds of tea over here. You want English breakfast or herbal tea. What would you like?
19:50Curtis and his wife, Keith, raised nine children at Homestead Heritage, but tell me they left in disgust in 2018.
19:58Sugar and everything. Here you go.
19:59Curtis says he had become increasingly uncomfortable about things he'd witnessed during his time as a minister and as the group's attorney.
20:11So the law was the first one to be convicted and he's listed on line 403.
20:19As a minister, Curtis says he advised leadership regarding Build Along, the group's first reported child sex offender convicted in 2005, listed here on a group membership role.
20:33The next one, I guess, would have been Joseph Ratliff.
20:36But after 2011, Curtis says he was excluded from conversations and meetings with church elders on matters relating to child sexual abuse.
20:47We called him Joey.
20:49But he claims the problem in Blair Adams' church didn't go away.
20:54While we were still there, the leaders told the group that one of Blair's family had done something very bad.
21:04They never told us what it was.
21:07But after we left, we learned that a man named raped a minor girl.
21:17She was sent away.
21:19And that same perpetrator, tragically, raped another minor girl a few years later.
21:27And that girl was their niece.
21:35Curtis claims a relative of Blair Adams raped two minor girls at Homestead Heritage.
21:42He says the group did not report either incident to authorities.
21:46Instead, Dateline spoke with two members of the public who reported the most recent case directly to Sheriff Parnell McNamara.
21:57Despite this, the case did not progress.
22:00To understand why, Dateline requested records from the Sheriff's Department.
22:08But the release of these sealed files has now been referred to the Texas Attorney General.
22:14The alleged perpetrator and victim did not respond to our request for comment.
22:19Since leaving the group, Curtis says he has heard other allegations of child sexual abuse at Homestead Heritage, but the most recent came from much closer to home.
22:30Yes.
22:31On September 9 of last year, my oldest son called and told me that one of his sons had been sexually molested at Homestead while they were still there.
22:49The perpetrator had confessed to his dad who told the leaders at Homestead Heritage.
23:00In 2017, when Curtis's grandson was eight, he says he was molested by a parishioner at Homestead Heritage.
23:08Curtis claims the alleged perpetrator's confession to the crime, and at least one other, were escalated to church elders.
23:16According to records obtained by Dateline, elders did not inform the parties involved of their responsibility to report.
23:25Even though their top leaders knew about it, none of them ever reported it.
23:31You're saying Homestead leadership are aware of this incident?
23:37Yeah, it was the leaders at Homestead Heritage who told my son about it in the first place.
23:41If Curtis's claims are correct, the alleged perpetrator in this case is related to Dan and Amanda Lancaster, as is the family member of founder Blair Adams, who allegedly raped his own niece.
23:58Dan Lancaster said that he was not aware of any incidents of sexual assault or abuse in the last ten years at Homestead Heritage. What do you say to that?
24:10I believe it's a lie. Having lived there for 27 years and knowing their culture, I know there's no way that they don't know.
24:19During our investigation, Dateline spoke to a further nine alleged victims of child sexual assault at Homestead Heritage, who say they spoke directly with church leadership, but their claims were not reported to authorities.
24:34While current members say families in the community prosper thanks to biblical values and self-governance, alleged victims we've spoken with say these same pillars allow predators to prey in the garden of Homestead Heritage.
24:51So those were the instructions.
24:54Curtis's grandson's case was reported to authorities in 2024 by both Curtis and his son. During the subsequent investigation, the alleged perpetrator's family and minister did not cooperate with authorities.
25:09Curtis- Loyalty at Homestead is everything. You're creating a culture where people are living in fear. And when you've been programmed like that to please these people, you'll cover for them, you'll lie for them, you'll do all kinds of things that you thought you would, you realize you would never do.
25:32Curtis- During my investigation into Homestead Heritage, former members claimed a culture of loyalty and silence allowed decades of child sexual abuse to go unreported within the group. But some of the most damning claims came from an unlikely place.
26:01Curtis- This is a free call from Danny Schwinnison.
26:04Curtis- An incarcerated individual at Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility.
26:08Curtis- Danny Schwinnison is currently in prison on charges of indecent contact with a minor that occurred after he'd left the group.
26:18Curtis- Hey Danny, how are you?
26:22Curtis- Yeah, I'm doing okay.
26:23Curtis- But Danny hasn't called to speak about his crime. He wants to talk about one of the group's most notorious sex
26:31Curtis-offenders, Joseph Ratliff. Can you tell me when you first had contact with him?
26:36Curtis- I remember being maybe five or six years old and her family would come over to visit our family, stuff like that.
26:46Curtis- Ratliff was a close friend of the Schwinnison family who spent extended time with Danny and his two younger brothers.
26:53Curtis- One of the times it would be like just him and me and my little brother,
27:00Curtis- My brother would come out at night and go out into the woods and go hunting for animals, stuff like that.
27:07Curtis- By the time Ratliff was 23, he was sentenced to 99 years in prison for the aggravated sexual assault of an eight-year-old boy.
27:17Curtis- But Danny claimed that boy wasn't Ratliff's only victim.
27:22Curtis- He had been like 11 years old and it was kind of like physical touching.
27:29Curtis- Mm-hmm.
27:30Curtis- And I didn't think anything really was wrong with it at the time.
27:35Curtis- It was more like a tickle party, you know what I mean?
27:39Curtis- Where he was like more or less broke.
27:42Curtis- So it kind of was like the first sexual contact I had ever had with another person ever.
27:52Curtis- Okay.
27:53Curtis- Do you would sort of consider like priming your victim?
27:58Curtis- From that point on, Danny says Ratliff began sexually assaulting him.
28:04Curtis- What Danny alleges about Ratliff's contact with him would constitute second degree felony charges.
28:11Curtis- There was not like sexual penetration.
28:15Curtis- It was never allowed enough like alone time.
28:20Curtis- At least with me.
28:23Curtis- At the time, Ratliff had access to many young children.
28:27Curtis- His minister had placed him on a disciplinary work detail, supervising a crew of under a young children.
28:33Curtis- Danny says Ratliff would often take boys off on their own.
28:40Curtis- I did witness times where the kids would go into the room with the door closed and locked alone for a period of, I don't know, 10 or 20 minutes.
28:54Curtis- Danny provided us with the names of boys who he says Ratliff spent time with.
29:00Curtis- Dateline can now reveal that in addition to Danny, a further six children at Homestead Heritage were allegedly sexually assaulted by Joseph Ratliff prior to his conviction.
29:13Curtis- While Danny never told anyone about his claims, four of the alleged victims told Dateline they spoke directly to church ministers about their abuse, but their claims were not reported to authorities.
29:26Curtis- Because Ratliff was sentenced for the assault of one child, the judge stacked his 99 years to be served concurrently.
29:46Curtis- After serving the minimum time, Ratliff has now been approved for parole.
29:52Curtis- How did it feel when you heard that news?
29:56Curtis- I really do believe your redemption, right?
29:58Curtis- But if he's still the same person, I don't think he deserves to get out.
30:04Curtis- Joseph Ratliff's mother is still a member of Homestead Heritage.
30:10Curtis- He has requested to move to her home in Waco, within walking distance of his victims' family, including their young children.
30:19Curtis- This is absolutely unacceptable. This is wrong. I'm so many examples.
30:25Curtis- You cannot have adults abusing children and you cover it up. It has to stop.
30:36Curtis- Homestead Heritage claims it has written to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to protest Ratliff's release.
30:45Curtis- Dateline has been advised that their objections were filed too late to be considered.
30:50Curtis- Homestead Heritage has since apologised to the child Ratliff was convicted of sexually assaulting.
30:57Curtis- But for Danny, it's not enough.
31:00Curtis- It's like, anybody can say you're sorry, right?
31:03Curtis- Yeah.
31:04Curtis- Oh, we're sorry that we utterly destroyed your childhood.
31:08Curtis- But we should have to wear these scarves.
31:11Curtis- And I want people to know the truth.
31:14Curtis- Many of the elders who were in power during Danny's time at Homestead Heritage remain in the group.
31:23Curtis- Though they claim to have improved reporting of child sexual abuse, the allegations in this program suggest the group is still influenced by the teachings of its founder.
31:36Curtis- In one of his many books, Blair Adams called social services the new SS and likened government intervention in child welfare as a full-scale invasion of a brave new Reich.
31:50Curtis- While many of their stories are yet to fully unravel, former members say Homestead Heritage remains an unsafe place for children.
32:01Curtis- Give her the good laugh. There you go.
32:06Curtis- I'm almost weeping.
32:08Curtis- When I started this story, I thought I was reporting on Tradwives.
32:14Curtis- There you go.
32:15Curtis- I'm going to break the loom. I'm going to break 500 years of tradition.
32:19Curtis- But the world of Homestead Heritage weaves a far more complicated story.
32:26Curtis- Some say the fabric of this self-governed community conceals their truth.
32:32Curtis- It's not the people that I hate. It's the glue that's holding it together.
32:38Curtis- And the goal isn't to bring them down, but just make it a safer place.
32:43Curtis- For others, the covering of community is a comfort that hurts when taken away.
32:50Curtis- The most opposition that we receive, it comes from people who were associated with us and chose another path.
32:57Curtis- If you're upset with somebody, what's the worst thing you can call them?
33:00Curtis- Well, let's call them a child molester. Let me tell you how I was abused as a child.
33:04Curtis- Let me tell you about the things that I saw. I can't name anybody, but let me, you know the thing.
33:08Curtis- It's certainly not our stated ethic that we hide and cover up things. That's a convenient storyline.
33:14Curtis- At a time when America is deeply divided, Homestead Heritage promises families safety and certainty.
33:23Curtis- But the fences it has built to protect its garden may be doing more harm than good.
33:29Curtis- We joined because we thought it was a safe place to raise children, and it turned out to be a very unsafe place.
33:36Curtis- I've had to face the fact people ask whose fault it is, and I say, it's mine.
33:44Homestead Heritage leave depended on complicity of ordinary people like me, and I ask you to forgive me.
33:54Curtis- Voices of loved ones, songs of the past, Still linger round me while love shall last.
34:13Curtis- Lonely I wander, sadly I roam, Seeking that far-off home.
34:24Curtis- Far away, beyond the starlit sky, Where the love light never, never dies, Gleams a mansion filled with delight.
34:42Curtis- Sweet happy home so bright.
34:49Curtis- If you or someone you know needs support, contact 1-800-RESPECT or Lifeline.
34:55Curtis- If you or someone you know needs support, contact 1-800-RESPECT or Lifeline.
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