All language subtitles for 3hgggshtrhethtryhjdtyuurtyhry

[woman crying]

[News] Ties to a cult may have
lead to a fatal shooting

in Monroe County.

42-year-old Barbara Rogers

is charged with
criminal homicide.

Rogers said the victim
wanted her to kill him

and was undergoing a
lot of stress

due to problems with a cult
centered on aliens and rapture.

There are plenty of
scenarios where

Barbara doesn't kill Stephen.

♪

But, I don't think there are
very many scenarios where

Sherry Shriner doesn't
betray Stephen Mineo,

and drive him to the edge.

[sirens]

♪ [electronic]

♪ [electronic]

♪

♪

♪

5 years before
Stephen Mineo died,

there was another follower
of Sherry Shriner's

that had a
tragic death.

Her name was
Kelly Pingilley.

[birds chirping
& bugs buzzing]

♪ [choir singing]

It was Saturday morning,
December 29th...

a couple of kids were out,
walking around in the snow,

and they saw...

footprints leading
into the woods,

and they decided
to follow them.

♪ [choir singing]

And they walked along
where the footprints

went through the trees
and into a clearing.

As soon as they got
into the clearing,

they knew that
they'd found a body.

And, just like
in the movies,

they went running home
and told their parents that

there was a body out
there in the woods.

♪ [choir singing]

So, the police
get called out,

responding officer says
that there's only

one set of footprints
going to the body and

none coming away.
And he investigates and

he finds the empty
Sleepinal tablets.

And, she's wearing
her tank top,

and her coat is
folded next to her.

And he goes and discovers
there's a car that

was parked up the
road a little bit,

it's like 300 yards.

And then he goes
through the car,

and that's where he
finds her name and

some of her journals and
a note for her parents.

♪ [choir singing]

♪

Oh, class.
Oh, there she is.

What does it say?

"Kelly Pingilley chuckles
while doing a worksheet.

Schoolwork could
actually be fun at times."

I mean, if anyone was gonna
think schoolwork's fun,

it would be Kelly.

This is Kelly
painting a picture.

"Senior Kelly Pingilley puts
the finishing touches

on her beautiful painting."

She was so bright. Like,
she could do, like, anything.

Yeah.

God, she was so pretty.
Her black eyes.

- I love that picture of us.
- I do too.

It was me, Kelly,
Bekah, and Brittany.

We were drawn together
because I think we were all...

sort of outsiders.

Like, none of us are like
obviously, normal is a spectrum

but none of us are within that
sort of narrow normal.

We've all got our oddities
that I think are maybe a

little bit more odd than the
average 4 people

you would put together.

I'm representing Kelly,
and she always dealt.

1, 2, 3.

We played games a lot.
We had a lot of philosophical

and, like, religious
conversations and stuff.

Kelly was always very deep.

And what I loved
about Kelly, too,

was she could keep up
with my weird brain.

I have ADHD, and, like,

I'm always bouncing
all over the place.

She could keep up with me.
And we could be

talking about, like,
4 different things at, like,

one time, and be
able to be like,

"Oh yeah", and then
relate back and forth.

And would not be like,

"Wait, what are you
talking about again?"

We'd always just be able to
keep up with each other.

And, I miss that.

I have that a lot with
Brittany and Marcy too,

but, like, Kelly and I,
like, clicked the most

when it came to conversation.

Kelly, in high school,
was super smart.

I always felt like a moron when
she was talking about stuff,

but then she would also
break it down and

explain some things to me.

She was very
caring and funny and,

you just clicked with her,
and vibed really well.

You don't come across
friends like that very often.

Like, once in a lifetime.

It's been 16 years now
since I met everyone and,

I can't imagine my
life without them.

[laughing]

It really is a shame that
it's not 4 of us anymore.

♪

[Marcy sighs]

We were a unit.

♪

After high school, she often
hung out at my house,

and that's when I started
to notice a lot of the

weird things she
was looking into.

I noticed she was on
the computer a lot,

and I think that's when
she started to

look into the cult stuff.

At first, it was just
really minor to me.

You're like, oh,
that's a weird video.

But she would
have us watch...

Vigilant Citizen videos
on YouTube, like,

and to analyze like, "Oh, look
at Lady Gaga in her music video

when she does,
like, this motion."

♪

Illuminati kind of stuff.

And Kesha and her music
video, obviously, Illuminati.

And I'm like, "That's
really weird Kelly, okay."

♪

Kelly would also watch
Sherry Shriner...

videos and podcasts.

Everybody stand the ---- up!

♪

Kelly finds Sherry the way that

Sherry meant to be found.

She's looking into different
conspiracy theories.

And so, I think the
particular one that Kelly...

started with was someone
who was showing

how Lady Gaga was a reptilian.

I have always
liked to shape shift.

Or maybe, Taylor Swift is
another very popular target.

To break down her videos and

show where her eyes
look reptilian.

That was her entry,
and one imagines that

in the comments section,
she saw something like,

"No, here's the real truth
about the reptilians."

[Sherry laughs]

Brittany, Kelly,
another friend of ours,

and I were at
Brittany's house.

And, I remember
Brittany saying,

"Get ready for
Kelly to talk to you."

And, I remember her
that night asking

if I believed in the triune God.
And, at the time, I did.

I remember her
that night saying that

she thinks we're angels,
the 4 of us.

It didn't stop after that.

♪

[train horn]

♪

The first time I met Kelly,
she just seemed really happy.

She was always smiling.

And if I was
having a bad day,

I could just call her and
she'd try her best

to make me, like,
feel better.

I feel like the first time
Kelly talked about Sherry,

she did warn me.
She was like,

"Her podcasts
are out there." [laughing]

"I wouldn't blame you if you
didn't want to listen to 'em.

But just so you know,
when you go in there,

and you look up and see it,
just know this lady believes

some pretty out there stuff."
I was like, "Oh, okay."

And I went. I was like ,
"You were not wrong.

This was pretty intense.
I'll say that much."

♪

I know that Kelly was
struggling with her faith...

shortly after her
parents' divorce.

And she went
looking for answers,

and she found
Sherry Shriner.

♪

The way she
explained everything, like,

it made sense at first.
But then,

when you thought about
what Kelly had explained

from her findings,
you're like, actually, like,

let me double think
about that.

And, this is a little weird.

But then, it just became,
for lack of a better term,

Kelly's religion,
and you know,

everybody believes
something different.

♪

While she was
doing all this,

she was also so very normal,

which is why I wasn't,
like, that concerned.

I thought it was just more like
a weird hobby kind of thing.

Kelly started transcribing for
Sherry Shriner's podcast,

doing it
as volunteer work.

[Sherry] I've told you to get
super soaker water guns

with the orgone water.

That's like blasting
holy water on them.

People wanna hiss
about the orgone,

so I have spiritual warfare
prayers for you to learn.

[Tony] I cannot imagine a worse
way to spend your time.

You listen to
Sherry's radio show,

which is poorly produced
and, also, nonsense.

And then, writing it down.

And that is how Sherry
got into Kelly's head.

Sherry's other way into Kelly's
life was through orgone.

Kelly believed
in it completely.

She believed it
protected her from demons,

she believed it protected
her from night terrors,

and she believed it
protected other people,

even if they didn't think
they needed protecting.

♪

These are the
orgone pucks and

orgone rod that
Kelly gave me.

I know when
Kelly gave me, like,

the orgone pole, she told me
to envision beams of light

shooting out, like,
both ends.

And I always just thought,
you know,

"Oh, so it's like a
dual light saber, like, okay."

♪

And I know that she told me
with the orgone pucks,

you'd want to form with
the smaller ones a triangle,

since triangles are a
really structurally sound

shape in nature.

So, basically, this is
like industrial resin that,

like, holds all
this stuff together.

Those are, like,
aluminum shavings.

Then there's a
copper coil inside of it.

And in the center, usually,
is like a quartz crystal.

To me, orgone just was,
like, another spiritual symbol,

like a physical manifestation
of people's spirit,

like how Christians
have the cross,

and Catholicism
have the rosary beads.

[Tony] Just as with any
other kind of enterprise,

you have to, you have
to distinguish yourself.

And I think that one of Sherry's
greatest successes...

was incorporating
orgone into her theology.

And she Christianized it.

♪

She explained how orgone
was a weapon that

God had left for them
to fight evil with.

And, it was a tool.

♪

[Tony] So, what orgone warriors
do is they find places

where orgone energy is weak,
and they put pucks there.

And they take trips.

And it's a vocation and
a hobby, all in one.

And they get way,
way deep into it.

And when she gave
them an assignment,

she made them
part of the team.

You know, you're now
part of the army.

And, people would volunteer.

This is the
particular genius.

If I could go, but I didn't have
the wherewithal to make orgone,

they would send me orgone.

The way that worked was
people would donate to Sherry,

and Sherry would send the
orgone to the people who would

then distribute it to
wherever it was needed.

[Tony] People were clicking the
donate button on her website.

People were sending
her cheques in the mail.

And, that was happening...

enough for her
to make a living.

♪

♪

♪

Here it is.

Always kept it safe...

in this thing.

It's a bit dusty.

This one was a letter that
she wrote a year before...

as possibly the
final letter,

but something delayed
her for whatever reason.

♪

When I first got the letter
from Kelly talking about,

you know, that all the
werewolves and vampires and

such are real and all that,
I didn't know how to take it.

I didn't know how to
talk to her about it.

How do you tell somebody
what they're believing is

crazy without getting them
all super defensive?

And I didn't want to
push anybody away further.

"List of things to know and
remember 'cause your life

probably depends on it."
It talks about orgone.

"The following creatures
and beings are real.

Angels, male and female.

Vampires, which are
actually an alien hive mind,

dot, dot, dot, ew."

[Brittany] One time I went
to Kelly's house,

and she said, "Listen to
this excerpt from

this one guy who knew
Sherry Shriner."

He was very adamant
about the Illuminati and

reptilians and...

at that point, I was like,
"What are we doing?

Like, let's go watch a
movie and stop this."

♪

[Marcy] I just thought
she found some

interesting stuff
on the internet and...

Maybe believed it
a step too far, but it...

I did not think that...

suicide was in her path.

[Rebekah] I found out Kelly
quit college and quit her job.

I found out about a month
or two after she did it.

I didn't even know that she
had quit school and work.

But she would still
come out to, like,

Blue Roof and stuff,
and she would still,

like, be actively Kelly.

♪

"The worst is yet to come.

Satan gets at least 3 and
a half years on earth

when he's finally kicked,
slash, thrown down.

But the Bible never says how
long the forces of evil

are here before Satan and
his forces get here."

I highlighted things, and I was
like, what is going on?

I thought she was just trying to
reach out to me, be like,

"Hey, since I'm not talking
to you about this stuff,

here's the information."

♪

I remember at one point,
Kelly was telling me about

how she believed in
astral projection,

but through dreams.

And, Kelly was becoming abducted
by reptilians and aliens,

and they were doing
horrible things to her.

I specifically said, "I don't
know how to help you,

but I can find
somebody that will".

And, she said,
"Not right now".

♪

I was at my sister's house,
and it was rather late

when Mr. Pingilley called me.

And he said that he
had some bad news.

And he told me that
Kelly had killed herself.

And I said, "Shut the fuck up,
that's not funny."

So, I immediately denied it.
And then he said,

"No, I'm sorry.

I'm not joking.
It actually happened."

And I just started crying,
and I told him, "I'm sorry."

And he asked me
to call people.

Um, so I did.

And I just had to
say it over and over.

At some point, just started
crying hysterically

'cause
I just lost my sister.

♪

I was heartbroken.

And, like, even now,
it's been so many years.

♪

You never expect that.
Like, how...

how can you even
prepare for that?

♪

I just started bawling
and bawling and bawling.

And, I called my dad, even
though I drove myself to work,

I called my dad. I'm like,
"You need to come pick me up.

You need to come
pick me up now."

And he kept asking me
"Why, why, why, why,

why do you need to get
picked up from work?"

I'm like, "Kelly's dead!"

♪

And it was a
really rough ride home.

It's only a 7-minute drive,
but it was a terrible drive.

♪

♪

♪

I have no clue where we are.

We are on a dirt road...
in nature.

That is honestly
all I can tell you.

This is where Kelly
was found, in this area.

I don't know why
Kelly would come here.

Kelly must have
known of this place,

unless she was taking all
sorts of weird back roads,

'cause I had to do about 2 to 3
freeway changes to get here.

This must have
meant something to her.

♪

And so that night,
the snow was threatening,

and Kelly drove out
into Jackson County.

Whoa!

[Tony] And she parked at a
public parking area.

♪

And then walked
through the snow,

and down into the woods.

I'm so glad
you're going first.

♪

[Tony] And then,
she sat in the snow,

and she took off her jacket,

and she folded it,
and put it next to her.

♪

And, the next day,
a couple of kids found her body.

♪ [birds chirping]

- It's very peaceful out here.
- It is.

[Tony] So, on her way
out to the park,

Kelly had stopped at
her local CVS and

picked up some sleeping pills,

a pack of 30 Sleepinal tablets.

And, when the police
found her the next day,

it appeared that she had
taken all of the tablets.

And later, the coroner would
say they weren't certain

whether it was hypothermia
or an overdose that took Kelly,

but the result
was the same.

♪

So, near where Kelly
came into the field,

the police found a white plastic
bag filled with her journals.

And in one of those journals
was a note for her parents.

"Mom and Dad, I'm off
to fulfill my destiny.

I love you all!

Sorry I can't tell
you where I'm going.

I don't know
when I'll be back,

so I wanted to make sure you
all knew that I loved you.

Also, sorry about the car."

Signed, Kelly M. Pingilley.

The, "sorry about the car,"
is just tough.

That's, that's just the
toughest thing

I've ever read in my life.

I have daughters, my,
my youngest is 19...

so, I empathized with Kelly
more than I empathized

with anyone else in
this whole story, at all.

♪

♪ [choir singing]

I don't think she thought
she was committing suicide,

that's the hard
thing for me.

Like, she did not think
that she was dying fully.

She thought she was
going to heaven

to give Yah the key to hell.

While she was in
heaven with Yah,

she was going to be on
a panel of some kind.

And, that doesn't sound
like somebody

who's trying to die, to me.
That's like,

they're, they're on a mission.
They thought--

she thought she
was gonna come back.

So, I don't know.
I don't think it was like an,

"I want to die,"
kind of thing.

[Tony] I don't think that
Kelly thought

she was permanently
killing herself.

Once you start to look
into the things that

she was writing and the things
that she was saying,

you get the genuine
impression that

she thought she was
coming back.

It became clear to me
that Kelly

thought she was an
angel in the flesh.

I think that she believed
that she could go to heaven

and come back.

And I think that she was

literally putting
it in God's hands.

I'm not going to do
something so permanent

that God can't fix it.

I have to believe that she
knew that she could die,

but she didn't
believe that she would.

♪

It's really hard to know
what made Kelly susceptible

to Sherry Shriner because
if anyone was gonna

be able to be logical about
beliefs like this...

it seems like it
would have been Kelly.

[Tony] When you find
entrance to Sherry's world,

through whatever
conspiracy theory,

if you're a 9/11 truther,
if you're anti-government,

if you are big into the
apocalypse or

the end times theologies,
that's how you get in.

And then, Sherry explains
to you how this secret war

between good and evil that's
going on all around us,

and these are
just aspects of it.

So if you think of it as
the fight against evil,

the fight against the devil,

the war for the souls of
humanity is the keystone.

And the rest of the conspiracy
theories are tied to it.

♪

I saw a bunch of online articles
about Kelly afterwards,

and people, in the
comments afterwards,

would say like, "Well,
she was obviously sick.

Why didn't her family or friends
do anything to help her?"

I'm like, "'Cause
it wasn't that obvious."

I mean, towards the end,
I think it was more so

for her family, because
she was typing in her,

like, Live Journal all the time,

and she quit her job
and stuff.

But, like, us,
as her friends,

didn't quite see it as much.

And as someone who has
a psychology degree,

I kind of wish that

I kind of feel like I
should have, you know?

Looking back at it,

I do realize she was
in a lot of pain,

and maybe
feeling lonely,

and also completely
believing that

she's going on to
her next adventure.

But, never having experienced
anything like that before,

I just didn't know.

[Tony] When you read
the Live Journal,

absent of any
other information,

I see how you get to
schizophrenia pretty quickly.

I do know that the word was

that schizophrenia
ran in her family.

And as far as I've
been able to tell,

that isn't true.

[Brittany] Kelly was never
diagnosed with anything.

She might have
suffered from depression,

but in this day
and age, who isn't?

You know, so...

No, I don't
think she was, like,

schizophrenic or
anything of the sort.

[Tony] I feel like if Kelly
had mental disorder

beyond depression,
I feel like it would have

registered more
with her friends.

Like, her friends knew that she
was too into Sherry Shriner,

but none of them
thought that...

she was crazy.

Nobody thought that
she was unpredictable.

And that's, for me,
the disconnect.

I'm not saying that
Kelly didn't have

any mental health issues.

What I am saying is
Kelly's mental health

doesn't need to take
a front seat here

without the context of her

religious conversion
to Sherry's beliefs,

and the fallout
that comes with that.

There are passages in
the Live Journal

that are practically unreadable.

And I mean like
torture porn, unreadable.

Kelly describes in detail
going to hell,

and what it was like
to be in hell for

three years that she said
that she was there.

♪

Kelly was talking about having
been abducted by aliens,

and there was a
lot of imagery,

actual explicit talk of
sexual abuse in there.

So, she wrote that,
"These are the sad,

brutal, horrifying, and
disgusting truths about

my abduction when I was
a child of 12 years old.

About the memories
I've had to face,

and am still facing.

The worst of them are over,
but there still a few

lingering memories and
emotions to sift through.

These are also
real memories.

I've suppressed them
for 10 years,

and decided to
be courageous,

and go through the healing
process these past couple days

because I want my life back,

wholly and completely."
And then...

her very last post
talks about seeing

this mark of the beast,
this satanic symbol.

"This kingdom coming ahead
is putrid and disgusting

to the very depths of all the
abominations that could exist.

I'm sure Yahuah only gave me
the tip of the iceberg.

I guess if that's not enough
to stop people from

joining this kingdom,
nothing else would be."

So, really...

upsetting,
personal experiences,

but also tying them into
this doomsday mythology.

Often, the way conspiracy
theories can work is

they will take sort of a
kernel of personal trauma,

or personal fear, and find a
broader rationale for them.

So, if she's talking
about childhood trauma,

whether that's
real or imagined,

not looking for the
actual base of that,

but tying it into an
alien abduction theory.

It's very upsetting.

♪

According to Sherry Shriner's
writings that

I discovered online,
that they started to have

a bit of a falling out.

♪

I think that at some point,
Kelly had lost her faith in

Sherry Shriner and in
her description of

what God really wanted.

I think that Kelly decided that

she wanted to be

the one to ask God
what was going on.

I think Kelly separated
herself from Sherry because

she didn't need a medium

between her and God,

and I think Sherry had a
huge problem with that.

I think that would,
that would make it

pretty easy for Sherry to
just cut her loose.

And I think that
that's what happened.

And as I was looking into
how things went

with Stephen and Barbara,
and I started to look at Kelly,

I realized that there was
this pattern that Sherry had

of cutting people off
and attacking them online.

There is a pattern,
a clear pattern

that this is something
that happens.

Sherry had a history of

not only separating out

the people that she
didn't want anymore,

but organizing
coordinated attacks.

I mean,
that was just her M.O.

And then,
everybody turns, you know,

wounded-shark-like
on the person that

they've decided they're
going to rip to pieces,

and then they don't stop
until that person has been,

metaphorically anyway,
ripped to pieces.

This culture in
Sherry Shriner's world

of finding someone to,

literally finding someone
to scapegoat and then

scapegoating them and
sacrificing them to

the wild animals,
is part of what

makes Sherry's organization run.

It's very important to always
have an enemy from within

to complement
the enemy from without.

♪

When Kelly died,
rather than take

any responsibility for
what happened,

Sherry made a new
conspiracy theory about it.

She said that a, I believe,
NATO hit squad

took out this
20-year-old girl.

And she said that Kelly had
been ordered to kill her,

but rather than that,
she took her own life,

or she was assassinated, or
some combination of the two.

She took this young
woman's death and

she made it about herself.

♪

[Tony] I don't think there's
any doubt that

she was exploiting
Kelly's death.

For Sherry, it was just a
huge opportunity

to take advantage
of this exposure.

I think Sherry
saw this as, like,

her big chance to
get more followers.

And so,
that's how she responded.

I didn't really have
an opinion

on Sherry Shriner,
until after.

I'm sorry.

♪

I think Sherry Shriner
is a predator...

And, like,
the epitome of evil.

♪

Kelly believed
Sherry Shriner,

just without question.

And I think Sherry Shriner
took advantage of that.

[Tony] Sherry didn't
kill anybody.

♪

Sherry didn't put the
gun in Stephen's hands,

she didn't tell Kelly to
go out into that field,

but she still
is responsible.

This is, Sherry put
the person

on the path and then...

withdrew her aid.

I think that's where
these things keep happening.

It's not so much
the nuttiness,

as it is the duplicity.

The enjoying
betraying people...

the furthering your ministry
by betraying people.

That is what makes Sherry

different from just some,
you know,

lunatic who says everybody
should kill themselves.

♪

Depending upon who you ask,
Sherry is this evil cult leader,

or she's literally
the daughter of God.

Sherry was fearless.
I learned a lot from Sherry.

But then, the other side
is, who's Sherry?

What I can tell you is
the heresy that Sherry was

presenting is 100%
counter to the gospel.

[Sherry] Don't come against me,
folks. You... you will die.

Fair warning.

People come against me,
they want to hurt me,

they're gonna die.

♪