A Michigan woman who was reportedly ostracized after she left the Jehovah witnesses killed her entire family before taking her own life, police said.
Lauren Stuart, 45, fatally shot her husband and adult children in a murder-suicide last week at their Keego Harbor home, the Detroit Free Press reported.
Friends said they believe the 45-year-old mom was driven to kill after she was shunned by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the religion she was raised practicing, according to the Detroit Free Press.
The family of four reportedly left the religion more than five years ago over “doctrinal and social issues.”
Other former Jehovah witnesses told the newspaper that when people stop practicing the religion, current members including parents are no longer allowed to communicate with them.
Stuart’s friend, Joyce Taylor, said the couple left the Jehovah’s Witnesses, in part, because they wanted to send their kids to college a move that is frowned upon by the religion.
“All they wanted to do was raise their family the way they wanted to,” Taylor told the Detroit Free Press.
Taylor said her friend was in “emotional distress” and “felt alone” before she allegedly gunned down her family.
“They were shunned every way possible. If Lauren went to the grocery store, they didn’t look her in the eye,” Taylor told the newspaper.
“When you are raised a Jehovah’s Witness, they choose your friends. They choose who you associate with. And if you go against that, they will dis-fellowship you, or shun you.”
Keego Harbor police declined comment, saying only that the investigation is ongoing.
This is not the first such incident.
In 2001, the shame of being thrown out of the Jehovah witnesses drove former Michigander Christian Longo to murder his wife and three young children in Oregon. Authorities said his financial troubles triggered his expulsion from the religious group, which then triggered the killings.
Also In 2014, a family of four was found dead in their South Carolina home in a murder suicide carried out by the father, who was a devout Jehovah’s Witness. All four were shot in the head.
