Deadly Cults

I get a phone call

- I get a phone call from our dispatch center.

There's a homicide in the trailer behind the house.

want to find out who would want to kill Dan Jess and why?

Dan was a low-key person.

He wouldn't do anything to hurt anybody.

- Chris Turgeon founded a group that

called itself the Gatekeepers.

- He kind of offered answers to some people

who really just felt like they needed some answers.

We were told that Dan

had been involved with this religious group.

- Chris's ideology was starting to become

less Bible and more paranoia.

- They were the radical Christian cult.

God told us to do this

and God's never gonna let me go to jail.

- It was classic apocalyptic fire and brimstone,

coupled with armed lifestyle.

- We're, like, just about to grab him,

but now we're gonna get pulled back and let him get away.

I felt that there is a devil.

- Mountlake Terrace is in Washington state.

It's a beautiful place.

You have Puget Sound to the west.

You have the Cascade Range to the east.

Most folks go to work at blue collar jobs.

Many people commute into Seattle.

It's a great place to be.

- In the 1990s, Mountlake Terrace

was a great place to live because the commute

from Mountlake Terrace to downtown Seattle

back then was about 15 minutes.

Homicides in Mountlake Terrace were very rare.

We averaged a homicide about once every 12 years.

- March 29, 1998. It was a Sunday.

The people in Mountlake Terrace

were awakened by gunshots.

- I get a phone call from our dispatch center.

There's a homicide in the trailer behind the house

on a quiet residential street.

We responded to the scene,

and I could smell the smell of blood.

Then I went in the backyard.

The trailer door was already open.

The body was on the ground. The victim is a white male.

- There were no signs of forced entry.

- It appeared the victim was asleep

when there was knock at his door.

He opened the door

and he was shot numerous times.

That's how we found him.

My first impression was, I want to find out

who this guy is, and why he's dead.

They were interviewing

anybody that possibly could know

who the victim was.

Neighbors told us the homicide victim was Dan Jess.

It's really important to learn

all you can about Dan.

Talking to family, friends,

neighbors, guys he worked with,

all helped kind of paint a picture of Dan Jess.

Dan was a low-key person.

He wouldn't do anything to hurt anybody.

Nicest guy in the world.

Early to bed, early to rise.

Very nice man.

- The neighbors said that Dan Jess was kind of a loner.

He kind of worked by himself most of the time.

- Dan Jess had worked as an arborist.

Basically, a tree-trimmer.

He had been a Marine before that.

He was 40 at the time of his death.

He was a deeply religious person.

- When I spoke to Dan's father, he was devastated.

He was very sad that somebody would do this to his son.

It's emotional as heck,

because you're also dealing with family,

and the personal aspect is pretty sad.

I want to find out who would want to kill Dan Jess and why

to give the family some peace, also.

We collected everything we could at the scene.

We have a body, we've got shell casings,

we've got blood.

So we sent the casings

to the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab.

He told us the type of gun was a Glock 19.

And really, that's the extent of what we have at the time.

Mountlake Terrace Police

say Jess appeared to have no enemies.

They don't have a motive.

- Every one of us was scratching our heads.

We did not have any fingerprints of anyone

other than the victim's.

We don't have any DNA. We had no clue.

- We talked to a couple of witnesses.

One of the guys that was awakened from this incident

was a renter in the house where the trailer was parked.

And I remember he was telling us that

he woke up to the sound of gunshots.

He's looking out the window and he sees a white male.

He ran right by his window

and then disappeared from there.

- Another witness said that they piled into a car

and the car drove away,

and it looked like there was a white guy driving it as well.

And then, we were told that

Dan had been involved with this religious group.

- The neighbors were convinced that this group

the Gatekeepers was possibly involved in this homicide.

And they told us they're a Christian cult,

and that there were eight members.

There was the four men and then their wives,

and then children.

- In 1991, Chris Turgeon founded a group

that called itself the Gatekeepers.

And it was a deeply religious organization,

but it began as a Bible study.

One day, Chris believed

that God spoke directly to him,

and told Chris what Chris needed to do

and what he needed to get other people to do.

And he convinced many of his followers

that that was the case.

- His mentality was that they were called

to the be the Keepers of the Gate,

which was kind of in reference to gate to salvation

and the gate to the answers that Chris believed he held.

And the group was being called to be the gatekeepers to that.

- My mom was a part of the group when I was a kid.

About 1993,

we had moved into the apartments that Chris managed.

Soon after we had moved in,

Chris had invited my mom to attend a Bible study.

In those early days, what really drew my mom

and people like Dan Jess

and the rest of the group to Chris

was he kind of offered answers to some people

who really just felt like they needed

some answers in life.

Dan Jess initially was a part of the Gatekeepers

and somebody that came to the meetings.

He was a real fun guy

and loved making the kids laugh.

I just remember him being just a real nice guy.

I remember being really happy.

I remember it just feeling like a family.

- Chris Turgeon had an incredible grasp of scripture.

He was able to find a Bible verse for every purpose.

He could find the dark part of your soul

that was just screaming for somebody to help,

and he'd be the guy that would step up.

And he'd say, "I've got the answers for you."

Chris Turgeon also believed

that he was God's law enforcement person.

Chris Turgeon told people that he was the modern-day Elijah.

- Over the years, he had developed

quite a reputation in the Puget Sound area.

They would go to other churches and basically say,

"Look, God's telling me that you're damned."

And it was unusual.

The investigation was focusing on who knew Dan Jess,

who might have a reason to be angry with Dan Jess,

and the Gatekeepers were the folks

who knew Dan Jess best, so the police by then

had a pretty good idea that they were gonna get

the answers to why Dan Jess was dead

if they could get people in the Gatekeepers to talk to them.

- So in talking to the neighbors,

we started learning the names

of all the people involved in this group.

We had a witness that saw a white male run past his window.

So we put together photo montages

of the four male members of the group.

- The police brought basically a six-pack of photos

to one of the witnesses to the shooting.

And they showed this montage, and they said,

"Do you recognize anybody in there?"

And the witness said, "I can't be sure,

but this looks like the guy."

He was a member of the Gatekeepers.

He can be really charismatic,

but there was this sinister part of it

that's like, "Whoa."

- They were totally unaware of us surveilling them.

People that are committing crimes

are going to commit more.

- The mentality was that it was the end of the world,

and we are the only ones saved,

and that everybody else was evil.

- The police brought basically a six-pack of photos

to one of the witnesses to the shooting.

And the witness said, "I can't be sure,

but this looks like the guy."

And the guy he was pointing at

a member of the Gatekeepers.

- So now we have a suspect identified, Blaine Applin.

But we don't know anything about his background,

where they're at.