JUST IN: Jeffrey Lundgren Executed for Cult Murder of Family of 5 | Last Meal & Final Words….

KIRTland, Ohio — The state of Ohio executed Jeffrey Don Lundgren on Tuesday morning, ending the life of a man who convinced a small group of devoted followers that he was a prophet of God, then used that authority to murder an entire family in a barn. The execution was carried out at 10:27 a. m.

at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, bringing a final, clinical conclusion to a case that had haunted investigators, prosecutors, and the surviving family members for nearly two decades.

Lundgren, 56, was pronounced dead after a lethal injection of three drugs. He had been convicted in 1990 of the aggravated murder of Dennis Avery, 49, his wife Cheryl, 46, and their three daughters, Trina, 15, Rebecca, 13, and Karen, 7. The family was lured to their deaths on the night of April 17, 1989, in a barn behind the cult compound they had moved into just two years prior.

The murders were not a crime of passion, but a calculated act of what Lundgren called “pruning the vineyard,” a twisted scriptural justification he used to eliminate a family he deemed a spiritual impediment to his group’s divine mission.

The execution proceeded after a series of last-minute legal challenges failed. On Monday night, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a temporary stay of execution that had been granted earlier in the day. The United States Supreme Court declined to intervene, and Governor Bob Taft denied clemency.

The final decision came just hours before the scheduled execution, forcing Lundgren and his legal team to abandon hope of a reprieve. He had reportedly napped through much of the morning, confident that the courts would grant him another delay.

Witnesses to the execution included Cheryl Avery’s brothers, Donald Bailey and Kent Kilby, who had waited 17 years for this moment. Bailey stood at the window of the execution chamber, making direct eye contact with the man who had ordered the killing of his sister and nieces. He later told reporters that he felt a sense of peace, a final release from the grip of a tragedy that had defined his life for nearly two decades.

Also present was Steven Lattaret, the former prosecutor who had secured the conviction and who had personally witnessed the grim recovery of the Avery family’s remains from a shallow pit in the barn in January 1990.

Lundgren’s final moments were marked by a brief statement. He professed his love for God, his wife, and his children. He offered no apology to the Avery family.

He did not mention the names of his victims. He did not acknowledge the five people whose lives he had taken with a . 45 caliber handgun in a dark barn on a spring night.

His last words, spoken just before the drugs began to flow, were a final assertion of his own self-image, a man who saw himself as a servant of a divine will, not a murderer of children.

The path to that execution chamber began decades earlier. Born in Independence, Missouri, in 1950, Lundgren grew up in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a splinter denomination. His childhood was reportedly marked by severe physical 𝓪𝓫𝓾𝓼𝓮 at the hands of his father, a fact that shaped his understanding of power and judgment.

He was a loner, socially awkward, but possessed a remarkable gift for memorizing scripture. This ability gave him his first taste of power, allowing him to command awe from his peers and, later, unquestioning obedience from his followers.

After a failed stint in college and a short, unremarkable career in the Navy, Lundgren drifted back toward the church. By the early 1980s, he had developed his own interpretations of scripture, a method he called chiastic analysis, which he claimed unlocked hidden truths in the Bible. He began holding private Bible studies, attracting a small but devoted following.

In 1984, he claimed God told him to move to Kirtland, Ohio, a sacred site in the RLDS tradition where Joseph Smith had built the first temple. The church gave him a position as a senior temple guide, a platform he used to recruit followers.

The group that formed around him was isolated and controlled. Lundgren demanded total financial submission, requiring followers to turn over all their assets. He forbade private conversations, calling them “murmuring,” a sin.

He eavesdropped on his followers and then confronted them with details of their conversations, convincing them he could read their minds. He took plural wives, telling the women and their husbands that it was God’s will. He created a world where obedience to him was indistinguishable from obedience to God.

The Avery family was drawn into this world in 1986. Dennis Avery was a quiet, hardworking man who was captivated by Lundgren’s teachings. He sold his home in Missouri and moved his family to Ohio, turning over the proceeds to Lundgren.

But from the beginning, Lundgren harbored a deep contempt for the family. He found Dennis weak and Cheryl too influential. He resented that they maintained a separate residence and a small private bank account.

In his mind, they were a liability, an impurity that had to be removed before God would act.

The plan for the murders was set in motion in early 1989. Lundgren had been preaching about the second coming of Christ, which he predicted would occur on his birthday, May 3rd. When a police investigation into a planned temple assault forced him to abandon that plan, he told his followers the event was delayed because the group was not spiritually clean.

The Avery family, he said, was the source of that impurity. On April 10th, he ordered several male followers to dig a pit in the barn, telling them it was for storage.

On the night of April 17th, the group held a farewell dinner for the Averys, who believed they were preparing for a wilderness trip. After the meal, Lundgren gathered the men in his bedroom. He drew his gun and asked, “Are you with me?”

Every man said yes. The plan was simple. They would lure the family members to the barn one at a time, bind them, shoot them, and bury them in the pit.

A chainsaw was left running to muffle the gunshots.

Dennis Avery was the first to die. He was lured to the barn on the pretense of moving camping equipment. When he entered, the men tackled him, bound his hands and feet, and taped his mouth.

He fought, but there were too many of them. As he was forced into the pit, he managed to scream through the tape, “This isn’t necessary.” Lundgren shot him twice in the back.

He then made every man in the barn look at the body, ensuring they were all complicit in the act.

Cheryl Avery was next. She was told her husband needed her help. She walked into the barn and was immediately grabbed, gagged, and blindfolded.

She never saw the pit or her husband’s body. Lundgren shot her three times. Then came the daughters.

Trina, 15, was bound and lowered into the pit. The first shot ricocheted off her skull, and she cried out. The second shot killed her.

Rebecca, 13, was shot twice and left to bleed out in the dark. Karen, 7, was carried to the barn on the back of Ronald Luff, one of Lundgren’s followers, who told her they were going to see horses. She was shaking as they taped her hands and feet.

Lundgren shot her twice in the head.

The bodies were covered with lime and dirt and garbage. The group fled the next day, just hours before police and FBI agents searched the property, their boots passing directly over the shallow grave. The Avery family’s remains lay undiscovered for eight months.

A letter Cheryl had been forced to write, claiming the family had moved to Wyoming, kept relatives from searching. It was only when a disgruntled cult member, Larry Keith Johnson, came forward after Lundgren took his wife as a plural wife, that the authorities learned the truth.

The bodies were recovered on January 9, 1990. The following day, Lundgren was arrested near the California-Mexico border, days away from disappearing into Mexico. His trial was swift and decisive.

The evidence was overwhelming, including eyewitness testimony from the men who had participated in the murders. Lundgren took the stand in his own defense, delivering an unsworn statement in which he told the jury, “I am a prophet of God. I am even more than a prophet.”

He expressed no remorse, saying he could not be sorry for doing what God commanded. The jury deliberated for just two hours before recommending the death penalty.

Lundgren spent the next 16 years on death row, filing a series of appeals that were all denied. In his final clemency hearing, he spoke of his abusive childhood and claimed he had changed. The parole board was not convinced, unanimously denying his request for mercy.

In his final hours, he was offered a last meal of turkey, potatoes, gravy, salad, and pumpkin pie. He declined the coffee and syrup. He spent his last phone calls with his wife, Alice, who is serving a 150-year sentence for her role in the conspiracy.

He wept on the phone with her just two hours before his death.

At 10:00 a. m. , he was escorted from his holding cell.

He walked the 17 steps to the execution chamber without his Bible, the book he had used for decades to control and manipulate his followers. He left it behind in the cell. As the drugs were administered, he lay still.

The warden announced his death at 10:27 a. m. The curtain was closed.

The state of Ohio had carried out its sentence.

The aftermath of the execution was somber. Steven Lattaret, the prosecutor, told reporters he took no pleasure in the event. “I can’t get the scene of the murder out of my mind,” he said.

“I had hoped there would be no children as the bodies were being unburied.” Donald Bailey, Cheryl’s brother, said he felt peace. The farmhouse at 8671 Chardon Road still stands, though the barn was demolished in 2007.

A church now occupies the land. The pit is gone, but the memory of what happened there remains a dark stain on the community.

This case is a chilling reminder of the power of charismatic leadership and the dangers of unchecked devotion. Lundgren was not a madman in the traditional sense. He was methodical, intelligent, and deeply manipulative.

He used religion as a tool to gain power over vulnerable people, isolating them, controlling their finances, and demanding absolute obedience. He convinced grown men to participate in the murder of a family, including a seven-year-old girl who was carried to her death on a man’s back, thinking she was going to see horses.

The question that lingers is not whether Lundgren was guilty, but how he was able to command such loyalty. Dennis and Cheryl Avery were not foolish people. They were sincere, faithful individuals who were looking for something real.

They found a man who spoke with certainty, who offered answers to their questions, and who promised them a closer connection to God. They trusted him completely, and that trust was weaponized against them. The tragedy of the Avery family is a testament to the destructive power of blind faith and the ease with which a predator can hide behind the language of the divine.

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