Mocobizscene – Grace Kipendo, Mmunga Fungamali, and Pasi Heri face kidnapping and assault charges after a woman was discovered bound and with a head wound on February 21, 2024, in St. Louis. She informed the cops she was being detained against her will at the Mount of Olives Ministry Church.
According to reports, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department arrested three people after discovering what investigators described as a cult-like church where women with veils on their faces were being held captive.
Grace Kipendo, 28, Mmunga Fungamali, 25, and Pasi Heri, 32, face kidnapping and assault allegations.
A woman was discovered bound with ropes and bleeding from the head shortly before 1:30 a.m. on February 21, according to a probable cause statement from St. Louis police. She informed investigators that she had been imprisoned against her will in a room in a church on the 300 block of Marceau Street. The woman claimed she was given only water and was abused. She had an “obvious wound” on her head. The cops went to the chapel, and she showed them the room where she was being confined.
According to the affidavit, the room had a bottle of water as well as a bucket filled with feces and urine. Officers then detained Kipendo, Fungamali, and Heri, who were inside the church, and transported them to the St. Louis City Justice Center, where they are being held without bond.
According to the Riverfront Times, Kipendo’s bond hearing on Monday revealed additional crazy revelations. Assistant Circuit Attorney Chris Faerber reportedly referred to the Mount of Olives Ministry church as cult-like. According to Faerber, the churchgoers referred to women as “angels,” and the “good angels” donned white veils in a “white room.”
“Officers tried to lift their veils to check on their well-being, and the women started screaming,” the report stated.
Faerber informed the judge that one of the responding cops stated, “If I hadn’t seen this with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it,” according to the local news website.
One of the women fled and flagged down a bystander, who contacted the police.
Kipendo’s attorney, Chris Combs, reportedly stated at the hearing that he sympathized with the victim but that his client was not involved in any kidnapping or assault. He claimed Kipendo and the other two men were detained due to a linguistic problem. He stated that church services are held in Swahili. Several church members, including the victim’s mother and sister, gathered to support the accused.
Faerber stated that the victim’s family had recently moved her from Kansas City to St. Louis for mental health treatment. They put her in the church for “healing,” according to Faerber.
A judge ordered Kipendo to be jailed without bond. The other two suspects’ bond hearings will take place when a Swahili interpreter is available, according to court records.
Pastor Danny Stephen told the Riverfront Times that one of the women was slapped, but not by any of the three men detained.
“Why are you holding these three innocent people?” he asked, according to the story.
If there was anything illegal going on inside the church, as is claimed, neighbors did not seem to notice until the woman was discovered and a strong police presence arrived.
“They attended services on Sunday.” I heard singing and kids playing outside, so it didn’t seem like anything was unusual,” one neighbor told local NBC station KDSK. “That is unfathomable.” “I can’t believe that happened so close to my house.”
Another neighbor told the media that the church was sold to the current owners roughly three years ago.
“They do not talk to us,” she told KDSK on Monday. “They’ve washed their clothes and hung them on my garden fence, and I’ve asked them to stop, but they don’t talk to us. I know there are people there all the time, and they are always outside, so the fact that they aren’t there this afternoon is unusual.”
