Connections: Ties Between Alleged Church

of Satan Members and the LDS Hierarchy

GO EL
DEC 21, 2023 ∙ PAID

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Over the course of a year and four months, IRA has documented multiple connections
between the LDS Church of Satan group outlined by David Lee Hamblin’s daughters
and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints leadership. Those connections
are the topic of this article.

Gerrit Walter Gong-in addition to being a member of the Quorum of the Twelve,
Gong is the son of Jean Char Gong, the “sister by affection” of Carma Rose, Belle, and
Nola de Jong, whose father Gerrit de Jong, Jr. was allegedly a CS member. Carma
Rose de Jong married Richard Lloyd Anderson, a BYU professor and expert on LDS
history and doctrine. Their daughter Roselle Anderson married David Lee Hamblin,
and their granddaughters Rachel, Eliza, and Katherine Hamblin alleged that both
sides of their family were part of a multi-generational satanic cult operating within
the COJCLDS. That cult referred to itself as the Church of Satan, or the Group.
Members held callings throughout the Church, and clustered in the Edgemont
Stakes as well as the Sharon East Stakes.

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Gerrit Gong’s mother Jean Char Gong lived with Gerrit de Jong and Carma Rose de
Jong during her time at BYU. She traveled abroad with the de Jongs. Her initial
encounter with the de Jong family was likely with Nola de Jong, whose husband
Clyde Sullivan was pursuing his doctorate at UC-Berkeley during Jean Char’s time in
the Bay Area. Jean Char’s father sent her to California for medical treatment, relying
on a friend from Eastman Kodak to board his daughter. Her father was opposed to
her membership in the COJCLDS, and hoped that sending her to California would
distance her from the Church. It was Nola de Jong who invited Jean Char to live with
the de Jong family in Provo during her studies at BYU.

Jean Char’s boarders, the Allendorf family, helped her locate a California ward so that
she could attend church services. The ward was in Burlingame, California, and met
in the Burlingame Masonic Temple. The connection between Jean Char and the LDS
would provide the foundation for a future apostle, Gerrit Walter Gong.

Despite the fact that advertising executive Gordon S. Bowen has been
excommunicated since 2003 due to his documented sexual immorality, which
included thousands of phone calls to gay escort services that were exposed during his
divorce, Gerrit W. Gong continues to maintain an ongoing association with Gordon
Bowen. Bowen is named in the Hamblin Victims Statements as the Punisher for the
CS High Council in Salt Lake City. The Church regularly consults with Gordon
Bowen on matters related to branding and marketing, despite Bowen’s failure to make
penance for his sins and obtain rebaptism.

Gerrit W. Gong is one of four Apostles who allegedly maintain an ongoing friendship
or association with Gordon Bowen. Sources indicate that Gong regularly visits
Bowen’s home and plays pickleball. Bowen allegedly molested and abused his
stepsons with ex-wife Barbara Timothy, as well as his biological children with
Timothy. The Hamblin sisters have accused Bowen of raping them on two occasions,
as well as ritualized murder and torture. They allege that Bowen is the Punisher for
the High Council, and carries out discipline on wayward CS members up to and
including murder.

It is unclear why any official within the COJCLDS would affiliate with an
excommunicated individual such as Gordon Bowen, or why they would involve an
accused pedophile and murderer in the branding and marketing efforts of the
Church. Bowen purportedly received millions from the Church to produce a film
about Jesus Christ, which was shelved after a screening for Church leaders at his
home.

Paul Rytting-Rytting is the Director of Risk Management for the COJCLDS, and the
brother in law of harpist and music instructor Lyssa Rytting. Lyssa Rytting appears in
the Hamblin Victims Statements as the harp teacher of the Hamblin sisters. The
Hamblin sisters allege that the CS places an especial emphasis on the harp as an
instrument with connections to Lucifer.

In his capacity as the Director of Risk Management for the Church, Rytting oversaw a
settlement for allegations against an Idaho dentist who raped his own daughter. The
Hamblin Victims Statements outline the presence of CS Gatekeepers throughout the
Church and the political, legal, and psychiatric establishments in Utah and the
United States.

Gary A. Stevenson-Stevenson is one of the four Quorum members who maintained a

relationship with Gordon Bowen after his excommunication and divorce. Stevenson
has been publicly confronted on at least one occasion about the allegations against
Gordon Bowen by a Church member, and informed that Bowen is likely a pedophile,
murderer, and satanist. The member became aware of the allegations against Bowen
before the Hamblin case exploded into public view in 2022. His source was an
individual with personal knowledge of the allegations of impropriety against Bowen,
and an individual who had previously warned the Church about Bowen’s proven
behavior involving male escorts, gay pornography, and the allegations of sexual abuse
involving Bowen’s own children.

M. Russell Ballard-Ballard was another of the four Quorum members who allegedly
maintained close ties and involvement with Gordon Bowen over the years. It was
Ballard who was allegedly responsible for appointing Bowen to oversee the Church’s
film project on Jesus Christ, a production that ended with a disastrous screening at
Bowen’s home in Salt Lake. Ballard repeatedly dismissed multiple warnings about
Bowen’s behavior and failure to reform. Sources indicate that Ballard viewed Gordon
Bowen as a prodigal son, and refused to sever ties with Bowen even though Bowen’s
violations of Church doctrine and covenants continued throughout the years.
Boyd K. Packer-during his time at Bonneville Communications, Gordon Bowen
cultivated a relationship with Apostle Boyd K. Packer, which Bowen allegedly
leveraged to remove his rivals in the Church’s Media Office, including Heber C.
Wolsey and John Kinnear. Bowen would be terminated from Bonneville due to his
abuse of expense accounts and an abortive attempt to get his boss fired.

Marcos A. Aidukaitis-Aidukaitis is a General Authority and the brother of Nelson

Aidukaitis, the son in law of alleged CS members Dean and Belle Van Wagenen.
Nelson Aidukaitis is named in the Hamblin Victims Statements as a member of the
Church of Satan and a participant in the abuse of the Hamblin sisters. His mother in
law, Belle Felice de Jong Van Wagenen, is the daughter of Gerrit de Jong, Jr. and the
grandaunt of the Hamblin sisters. Nelson Aidukaitis served in a variety of callings
within the Pleasant View 4th Ward within the Provo Utah Edgemont South Stake,
including as a bishop and stake executive secretary. He and his wife Julie Van
Wagenen served in a mission presidency starting in 2003. The third Aidukaitis
brother, Ricardo, served as Stake President in the Rio de Janiero Brazil Niteroi Stake.

Lincoln Kevin Kelly- Kelly is allegedly a member of the LDS Church of Satan and the
Hamblin group, with ties to Hamblin that date back to the Eighties when the
Hamblins and Kellys were both living in New York. Kelly worked under Gordon
Bowen at Bonneville, and left Bonneville with Bowen after Bowen was fired to
decamp to Ogily-Mather. Kelly and his wife Khaliel filled out affidavits detailing
Bowen’s immoral conduct, and Khaliel Kelly warned Barbara Timothy that Bowen
was a homosexual before Timothy married Bowen. Kelly served as a stake president
in the BYU 21st Single Student Stake in 2005.

John Bunting-Bunting is a former stake president for the Provo Edgemont Stake and
alleged member of the Church of Satan who is named by the Hamblin sisters as one of
their abusers. Bunting succeeded Lowell James Robison, whose tenure as a stake
president was cut short when two male relatives accused him a second time of sexual
abuse. Robison had previously been accused in the Nineties, when the victims went
to General Authority Earl C. Tingey to report Robison’s abuse. Despite this, Robison
was allowed to serve out his full term as the Mission President for the Mexico Leon
mission from 1995 to 1998. Following that, Robison was called to serve as stake
president in Edgemont, until the victims came forward again to allege that he had
committed abuse.

Robison would be accused a third time in 2018 of abusing missionaries, and he

committed suicide two months later.

Bunting succeeded him, even though the Hamblin sisters alleged that he had been a
member of the LDS Church of Satan with a seat on the Provo CS High Council. In
that capacity, Bunting oversaw the excommunication of their father David Lee
Hamblin from the CS in 1999, and at the close of that ceremony, the sisters were
raped by their grandfather Richard Lloyd Anderson and other members of the CS
who were present at the hearing, including John Bunting. Bunting served until
September 20, 2015.

Paul Larsen and Ann Fluckiger Larsen- LDS filmmaker who produced Spirituality
for the Uninsured and Chasing A Good Day to Die. Larsen is named as a child rapist
by the Hamblin sisters, a CS member, and a participant in the production of child
pornography films starring the Hamblin sisters as The Three Graces. In the film
Chasing A Good Day To Die, Larsen presents the peyote fueled sweat lodge
ceremonies of James Warren Flaming Eagle Mooney’s Oklevueha Native American
Church as a means of healing from trauma. Alleged CS member Joseph Wood
Bennion appears at 16:02 in the film speaking on his experiences in the ceremonies.

Bennion went on to conduct his own sweat lodges incorporating peyote, even though
he was a Latter Day Saint with current callings in his ward in Spring City. There is
no indication that Bennion faced formal discipline for his embrace of peyote or
apostate Native American religious teachings, which he did openly. Witnesses have
confirmed that the sweat lodges Bennion conducted involved teenagers, and they
have alleged that the participants in those sweat lodges were naked.

Larsen’s brother in law Michael T. Nelson, former president of the San Bernardino
Mission, is now the Second Counselor of the Young Men General Presidency as of
April 1, 2023. He was named by Connie Fielding as the stake president who drove
her to Midway, Utah, and had her involuntarily committed when she raised
allegations of sexual abuse against her ex-husband. Larsen was elevated to the
Second Counselor position when Elder Ahmad S. Corbitt was called to be a General
Authority Seventy.

The President of the Young Men General Presidency, Steven J. Lund, worked for
NuSkin, the MLM founded by Blake and Nedra Roney along with Sandie Tillotson.
The Roney family purchased dozens of properties throughout the neighborhoods
named in the Hamblin Victims Statements, and Nedra Roney had at least two adopted
children who were connected to sexual abuse allegations. Her adopted son River
allegedly sexually assaulted a sibling, and her adopted daughter Summer McKell
accused Nedra Roney’s husband, Summer’s stepfather, of sexually abusing her on
multiple occasions.

Robert Clark McKell eventually pleaded guilty to four counts of misdemeanor sexual
battery in connection with the abuse allegations his stepdaughter made. Before he
entered his plea agreement, McKell and his wife Nedra Roney mounted a public
relations blitz alleging that the allegations made by their adopted daughter were false.
They hired an Oregon company, US Observer, to mail newsletters to thousands of
Provo residents accusing his stepdaughter of lying in a blatant attempt to
contaminate the jury pool.

McKell and Roney also shuffled their developmentally delayed and disabled
stepdaughter around multiple residences owned by their relatives in an effort to
prevent the victim from talking to a victims advocate, and allegedly locked the girl in
basement without any means of communicating. Nedra Roney was eventually
arrested and charged with felonies related to her activities, and the attorney who
represented Roney, Michael Petro, was fired by Roney for borrowing money from her
husband Robert Clark McKell. Roney alleged that Petro had borrowed the money
after promising that he could make her charges disappear, only to offer Roney a deal
which would have barred her from testifying on her husband’s behalf during his
criminal trial for abusing her adopted daughter, while forcing her to plead guilty to a
felony.

Roney and McKell then fired Petro. Michael Petro worked for disgraced Utah County
Attorney David Leavitt’s nonprofit in the Ukraine, and he was the defense attorney
for David Lee Hamblin in his current criminal cases. Nedra Roney had previously
been convicted for illegally obtaining prescription drugs. Her co-founder at Nu Skin,
Sandie Tillotson, was accused by the male stripper she had married of being involved
in drug trafficking and money laundering.

Britton Roney was the bishop of CS matriarch Carma Rose de Jong Anderson’s ward,
and he spoke at her funeral, which was presided over by none other than Gerrit
Walter Gong. NuSkin executive Gary Garrett’s daughter Allison Roney married into
the Roney family, and like the Hamblin daughters, she was a harpist who studied
under Lyssa Rytting, the sister in law of LDS Risk Management Director Paul Rytting.
Like the Hamblin sister, Allison Roney had connections to the Mitton family as well
through the harp and Julie Mitton Staples, whose name shows up time and time again
in allegations made by additional victims outside of the Hamblin Victims Statements.

Conclusion

Investigations in Ritual Abuse continues to map out the connections between the
named individuals in the Hamblin Victims Statements and the LDS hierarchy, as well
as the families within Provo and Utah whose money, power, and status have afforded
them the ability to suppress similar abuse allegations over the years. If you have any
tips about the individuals named in this article or any of our other articles, direct
them to [email protected].

Investigations in Ritual Abuse is a reader-

supported publication. To receive new posts and
support my work, consider becoming a free or
paid subscriber.

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13 Comments
Write a comment...

Isaiah Dec 21, 2023

Excellent summary GOEL!

I fear the CS cancer that has infected the LDS church is terminal at this point. It's just a
matter of time before further investigation reveals even more church leadership with ties
to the CS.

I would like to add one more (or three if you're paying attention) to GOEL's list... GA
Seventy, RICHARD NEITZEL HOLZAPFEL. Holzapfel accompanied Apostle Gerrit Gong to
Carma De Jong Anderson's memorial last year and offered the "Tribute" to Carma. In his
tribute, Holzapfel referenced his long personal relationship with the Anderson family.
While a student at BYU, Holzapfel was in Richard Lloyd Anderson's Greek New Testament
class. He also claims to have been invited to the Anderson home at that time where he
was introduced to Carma and they became life-long friends.

Holzapfel, a former professor of Church History and Doctrine at BYU, also credits Carma,
her husband Richard and Richard's brother, KARL RICKS "Mr. Kirtland" ANDERSON with
opening "their files, hearts, offices and homes" to Holzapfel when he needed help with his
own research. (Karl gave the closing prayer at Carma's service. Oh and by the way, one of
Karl's daughters, Carol, is married to one of LDS Apostle, HENRY B EYRING'S sons,
Stuart...yeah, you can't make this stuff up).

If you haven't watched the service, you're in for a treat. Holzapfel begins his remarks
around the 1 hour mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heDgE0zLVkw&t=4303s

In addition to being close friends with such devoted members of the LDS Church of Satan,
Holzapfel also gets the "parent of the year" award for how one of his sons, Nate Holzapfel,
was able to honor the Holzapfel name with his psychopathic behavior:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-shark-tank-star-nate-holzapfel-scammed-lovelorn-
women

What a piece of work!

You know what they say, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree".
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Christa Ford Dec 21, 2023

I'm starting to tear up in thankfulness for your bravery, Warrior for Christ! For those of us
that have been touched by sexual abuse stemming from illness within the LDS church,
your work is vital and it's vital for the taking down of strongholds that are so wicked in the
heavenly places. This article tied everything together that you have been putting out this
last year, and I just want to say that I do not hold back in sharing the information that you
are compiling! Even to very specific people who remain in the LDS Church who are kept
from this knowledge, i.e. Mormon missionaries, whom, I'm sure you might know, are not
allowed for 2 years to access the internet or to contact their families and therefore are not
privy to this information. I made a total of six Mormon missionaries privy to this
information and I hope that they spread your investigations near and far as I have named
you as the one putting them together!
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