The state of Ohio executed Jeffrey Don Lundgren on Tuesday morning, ending the life of the man who led a religious cult and orchestrated the brutal murders of a family of five in 1989, a crime that shocked the nation and 𝓮𝔁𝓹𝓸𝓼𝓮𝓭 the dark underbelly of blind faith and manipulation. Lundgren, 56, was pronounced dead at 10:27 a. m.
at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville after receiving a lethal injection, bringing a final, grim chapter to a case that haunted investigators and the victims’ families for nearly two decades. He walked the 17 steps from his holding cell to the execution chamber without his Bible, the book he had used for years to justify his actions, and offered final words that professed love for his family but offered no apology to the five people he killed.
The execution proceeded after a flurry of last-minute legal appeals failed, including a federal lawsuit arguing that Ohio’s lethal injection protocol would cause undue suffering due to Lundgren’s obesity and diabetes. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a temporary stay late Monday night, and the U. S.
Supreme Court declined to intervene. Governor Bob Taft also denied clemency, clearing the way for the state to carry out the sentence. Lundgren spent his final hours on the phone with his wife, Alice, breaking down in tears just over two hours before his death, according to prison logs.
His last meal consisted of turkey, potatoes and gravy, salad, and pumpkin pie, though he declined coffee and syrup offered as part of the meal.
Lundgren’s crimes began to unfold in the late 1980s when he gathered a small group of followers in Kirtland, Ohio, after being dismissed from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for allegedly stealing $40,000 in donations. He moved his cult to a rented farmhouse at 8671 Chardon Road, where he tightened his control over members, demanding absolute obedience, financial surrender, and even selecting women as plural wives. Among his followers were Dennis and Cheryl Avery and their three daughters, Trina, 15, Rebecca, 13, and Karen, 7.
The family had sold their home in Missouri and given tens of thousands of dollars to Lundgren, believing he was a prophet. But Lundgren grew to despise Dennis Avery, calling him weak, and viewed the family as an impurity that needed to be removed from the group.
On April 17, 1989, Lundgren ordered several male followers to dig a pit in the barn behind the farmhouse, telling them it was for storage. That evening, after a farewell dinner, he gathered the men and revealed his plan to 𝓀𝒾𝓁𝓁 the Averys, using a . 45 caliber handgun and a chainsaw to muffle the shots.
Dennis Avery was lured to the barn first, tackled, bound with duct tape, and shot twice in the back after screaming through the tape, “This isn’t necessary.” Cheryl Avery was brought next, shot three times, followed by Trina, who was shot in the head after a bullet ricocheted off her skull. Rebecca was shot twice and left to bleed out in the pit, and Karen, the youngest, was carried to the barn on a follower’s back, told she was going to see horses, before being shot twice in the head.
The bodies were covered with lime, soil, and garbage, and the group fled the next morning after police searched the property but found nothing.
The murders went undiscovered for eight months until a former cult member, Larry Keith Johnson, contacted authorities after Lundgren selected his wife as a plural wife. On January 3, 1990, law enforcement dug up the barn and recovered all five bodies, each bound with duct tape and shot. Lundgren was arrested days later at a motel near the California-Mexico border, preparing to flee.
At his trial in August 1990, he told the jury, “I am a prophet of God. I am even more than a prophet,” and refused to express remorse, saying, “I cannot say that I am sorry I did what God commanded me to do.” He was convicted on five counts of aggravated murder and five counts of kidnapping, and sentenced to death.
Thirteen cult members were charged, with Alice Lundgren receiving 150 years to life and their son Damon receiving 120 years to life.
During his 17 years on death row, Lundgren filed numerous appeals, all denied, and claimed the murders were a misinterpretation of scripture. At a clemency hearing in September 2006, he spoke about his abusive childhood but the parole board unanimously denied mercy. Witnesses to the execution included Cheryl Avery’s brothers, Donald Bailey and Kent Kilby, who had waited years for this moment.
Bailey said afterward that watching Lundgren die brought him peace. Prosecutor Steven LaTourette, who secured the conviction, told reporters he could not forget the scene of the bodies being unearthed, saying, “I had hoped there would be no children as the bodies were being unburied.” Lundgren’s final words were brief: “For my last words, I’d like to profess my love for God, my family, my children, and my beloved wife.
I am because you are.” He did not mention the Averys or express any regret.
The farmhouse where the murders occurred became a site of infamy, with the barn eventually demolished in 2007 after a church purchased the land. The case has been compared to other cult leaders like Jim Jones and David Koresh, highlighting the dangers of charismatic manipulation and blind obedience. Lundgren’s execution closes a painful chapter for the victims’ families and the community, but the memory of the Averys—a family who trusted a man they believed was a prophet and paid the ultimate price—remains a stark reminder of how faith can be twisted into violence.
As the state carried out its sentence, the question lingers: what drives a person to commit such atrocities in the name of God, and how do we protect the vulnerable from those who would exploit their devotion?
