The Strange Disappearance Of An Australian Cult Family

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Video: The Strange Disappearance Of An Australian Cult Family

Video: The Strange Disappearance Of An Australian Cult Family
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The Strange Disappearance Of An Australian Cult Family
The Strange Disappearance Of An Australian Cult Family
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As the police continued to investigate the case, it was revealed that Simon Cadwell had long been the leader of the Doomsday cult called the Brotherhood of Truth. This society believed that the 75-thousand-year cycle of mankind had almost come to an end

Strange disappearance of an Australian sectarian family - cult, sect, conspiracy theory, disappearance, family, Australia
Strange disappearance of an Australian sectarian family - cult, sect, conspiracy theory, disappearance, family, Australia

At first glance, a man named Simon Cadwell led the most ordinary life.

He lived in a modest home in the remote town of Nunnul, Australia, with his wife Chantelle McDougall and their common little daughter Leela. A longtime friend of the family lived in a van next to their house. Tony Popik, which became like a native to them.

At first glance, the family seemed to be prosperous, they were sociable and very friendly people. But behind this façade, something dark lurked, which ultimately led the family to disappear without a trace.

When Simon, Chantelle, Leela, and Tony arrived in the town of Nunnul in 2004, everything seemed to be fine with them, but after a few months, neighbors began to notice that something was wrong. First of all, Simon, for some unknown reason, stopped sleeping at night and slept during the day.

Then Tony Popik began to behave in such a way that the neighbors tried not to intersect with him once again. He seemed mentally ill to them.

So a year passed, then the second, the third. Each time Simon Cadwell became more and more like a "weirdo." He often talked about UFOs, aliens, and then switched to the fact that the government irradiates everyone, and especially his house, with the help of electromagnetic waves.

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Gradually, Simon got to the point that he began to openly accuse the authorities of building vile conspiracies against his family in order to kill all his relatives and kidnap him.

“Simon was extremely paranoid about electromagnetic fields. He was always ranting and raving about them, up to the point that these fields allegedly caused him a rash, and his face looked like it was about to burst, it was so red.

This went on for four months. Simon started burying a bunch of magnets around his house because he believed they were diverting those rays away from him. I went up there one day and saw him shouting at Tony (Popik) who was digging in the backyard trying to find these magnets.

The second time I saw him, he was covered in severe hives. He said that this rash and rays were killing him and his daughter, and then he went to the doctor to get some medicine, said one of the neighbors of the strange family.

It is curious that Simon's roommate Chantelle seemed completely normal to the neighbors, but she did not part with her roommate, and in the end their whole family gained a reputation as extremely eccentric people.

And on July 13, 2007, all four suddenly disappeared from their home and it is still not known what happened to them. They were not found either alive or dead.

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Their disappearance became known only a few days later, because their friends and relatives were worried that they did not call them. When the police entered Cadwell's house, they found that the inside was full of family members' personal belongings, including all credit card wallets. There were dirty dishes in the sink.

Everything in the house was in its place, everything was in perfect order, clean and without any traces that the family could be attacked by bandits or that there was some kind of conflict.

The only clue was a tiny note that read "Left for Brazil".

All this seemed very unusual, given that the family had left almost all their belongings in the house, but then there were eyewitnesses who assured that on the day of their departure they saw Simon and Chantelle selling their cars for cash, and also sold their own dogs.

Then an eyewitness was found who told that Simon told him that he decided to take the whole family to a remote secluded spiritual community somewhere in Brazil. At the same time, the police checked the family's bank accounts and found out that the money had not been withdrawn from them.

As the police continued to investigate the case, it was revealed that Simon Cadwell had long been the leader of the Doomsday cult called the Brotherhood of Truth. This society believed that the 75-thousand-year cycle of human existence had almost come to an end, and when it ended, their souls would move to a higher level of consciousness.

It turns out that Simon Cadwell even wrote a book about this called "Servants of the Divine Plan", which his followers (numerous enough) considered holy scripture. The followers of this cult gathered on a forum on the Internet called "Gate".

Further, the relatives of Chantelle McDougall said that Chantelle did not believe in all this, but Simon brainwashed her, after which she unquestioningly obeyed his demands.

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And then it was revealed that the name Simon Cadwell was not even the real name of this person, in fact, his name was Gary Feltham and he was a native of England. Before starting a family. he traveled extensively throughout the United States and India, posing as a mystic and shaman, before moving to Australia and creating his own cult there, acquiring a partner and daughter along the way.

At first, it was assumed that the entire family simply left the country to actually go to Brazil, as they said, but the immigration authorities had no information that these people were leaving Australia.

All this, as well as Cadwell's dark past and position as a cult leader, soon led the police to suspect that he could do something terrible to himself and his family. This was backed up by a member of the online cult mentioning that Cadwell had previously spoken of suicide, but no real evidence was found.

Police later learned that the woman Cadwell dated in 1993, an Australian named Deborah, also went missing after traveling to India with him, but there was no concrete evidence linking the two or pointing to any foul play.

Another hypothesis was that they may have gone offline and hiding somewhere in the Australian wilderness under new names. After posing as a fake identity before, it was relatively easy to do so again.

However, there was no conclusive evidence at the time to point to any of these various theories.

In the end, this case was closed, and over the following years, only occasional reports of alleged sightings of Simon Cadwell and his family in various places were received, which did not lead to anything.

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In 2013, a promising lead emerged. Investigators found that the man using Tony Popik's ID had come by train to Perth and stayed at the Northbridge Underground Backpackers on July 15, 2007.

The same person then rode several bus and train routes to Northcliff, a forest town 350 km south of Perth, and Kalgoorlie, about 600 km east of Perth, before disappearing again.

It seems that on this trip he was alone, and the police thought that he may have done something with Simon, Chantelle and Leela and is on the run, but no further information could be found, and all the fuse dried up.

At the moment, nothing new has been reported in this case. One of the investigators in the case, Sergeant Greg Balfour, put it this way:

It really is a mystery. It's such a strange story, and today we know as little of their whereabouts as we did in 2007 when they disappeared. There is no evidence that they are dead, just as there is no evidence that they are alive.

We know that Tony was very protective of Chantelle and Leela, but we also know that they were obedient and submissive to Cadwell. He had a very convincing manner of speaking, and I think if he offered to do something with himself, they would agree with it.

Remember that he successfully isolated Chantelle and Leela from their relatives, so it is possible that they are alive and living offline somewhere in Australia or overseas.

After all, there are other ways to leave the country, they could have left by boat or yacht. There are so many possibilities, so many uncertainties. Even the facts raise more questions than answers."

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