BERKELEY, MO – A sextet of Missouri residents, unaccounted for since August, are believed to have been seduced into a cult, as per local law enforcement. The cult is purportedly headed by Rashad Jamal, a man with a child molestation conviction, currently incarcerated for 18 years in Georgia. Jamal, formerly a rapper, has reinvented himself as a spiritual mentor, operating an online entity known as the University of Cosmic Intelligence.
Local police are of the opinion that the missing six have become acolytes of Jamal. His online venture claims to be a beacon for “enlightening and illuminating the minds of the carbonated beings, a.k.a your so-called Black & Latino people of Earth.”
Family members of the missing are in a state of anxiety and fear. Shelita Gibson, who has lost a daughter and a grandson, voiced her need to know they are safe. Gibson’s 26-year-old daughter, Gerielle German, and her 3-year-old grandson, Ashton Mitchell, were last spotted in August at a hotel in the company of the other four missing persons.
The group, also comprising Naaman Williams, 29, Mikayla Thompson, 23, Ma’Kayla Wickerson, 25, and her 3-year-old daughter, Malaiyah, were cohabiting in a leased house in Berkeley before they vanished. Wickerson’s mother, Cartisha Morgan, suspects her daughter was grappling with postpartum depression, making her susceptible to the cult’s influence.
Jamal, however, rejects the idea of being a cult leader. In a recent conversation, he dismissed the charges, asserting that his online lectures are impersonal and he lacks any intimate knowledge of his followers. He also insists that the molestation charges were a result of a child custody conflict.