ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — The families of six people who went missing from Berkeley want to know their loved ones are okay after police believe their mysterious disappearance is part of a religious or spiritual cult.
Cartisha Morgan is pleading for someone to come forward with information about her 25-year-old daughter, Ma'Kayla Wickerson.
The Berkeley Police Department said Wickerson is one of six people who were influenced by a cult leader and disappeared from north St. Louis County in August. Berkeley Police believe they are following the teachings of a man named Rashad Jamal.
Morgan said her daughter stopped working, stopped all communication and abruptly moved out to a home on Graham Lane. She believes her daughter is dealing with a severe mental illness.
"She was probably suffering from postpartum depression. Meeting these people online, and they just preyed for her weakness," Morgan said.
Among those missing are Wickerson, her 3-year-old daughter Malaiyah and four others. Gerrielle German and her son Ashton Mitchell as well as adults Naaman Williams and Mikayla Thompson are also missing.
German's mother Shelita Gibson said her daughter and grandson left their hometown in Mississippi very suddenly with little explanation only that they were going to Missouri during a brief conversation she remembers vividly.
"And I said to her, 'You don't know where you're going. I just got a bad feeling about this. Something just doesn't sit well with my spirit. you need to rethink this. This is like you're just walking away from your whole life, that you just created. You got children, you got a significant other, like, really? What's going on?' So then she was like, 'Well, I'm leaving,'" Gibson said.
Before her abrupt departure, Gibson said German was acting strange, meditating on a blanket outside and mentioning the teachings of Rashad Jamal.
"She was saying things about high frequency, low frequency and cosmic husbands. And she was kind of acting a little weird, but I really didn't pay any attention to it at the time," Gibson said.
Gibson said she abandoned her 4-year-old daughter as well as the rest of her family.
"I would like to know that they're okay so that I can get a good night's sleep. I would like to know they're not hungry, they're not cold, that no one is making her do things that she would have to pay for in the long run," Gibson said.
She said German's daughter keeps asking for her.
"I would like for her to have a conversation with her daughter, who wakes up at night screaming for her mom. Who asks why her mom isn't here, who has started to tote around a picture, talking to this picture as if it's her mom. I don't know how to fix that. I don't know how to fix me right now. My world is forever changed," Gibson said.
Major Steve Runge with Berkeley Police said key behaviors of Jamal's followers include: changing their name to a spiritual god or goddess; a very active social media platform that displays videos on conspiracies; the sharing of Rashad Jamal videos; a total disconnection from family and friends; quitting their job; living off of credit cards; going "off the grid"; disconnecting from cell phones and social media; embracing sovereign citizenship; polygamy; meditating in the nude in the front and rear yards with neighbors present; making, selling or wearing copper wrapped stones, decorative key chains and necklaces; and referring to their mother as a shell that brought spirit into the universe.
Dr. Steven Hassan, a mental health professional and expert on cults, said all of these signs are classic traits of cult recruitment.
"When someone is getting unduly influenced or brainwashed into following a person or a group, one of the critical variables is always to isolate them from family, friends, or anyone that might talk them out of it," Hassan said.
He said people who fall into cults feel like they're chosen, "and they're special and they're finally realizing their purpose or their higher nature. They're made to feel like the world is on their shoulders and that they need to do the right thing to save the planet or to save their family and loved ones."
He said he knew how they might be feeling from his own experience in a cult. He was deprogrammed in 1976.
"It's ironic, but I believed that I was loving my family by leaving them because I would save them later after we took over the Earth. I would save them in the spirit world. It is just totally twisted. But in my mind, as a Moonie, I didn't feel brainwashed and I didn't think I was in a cult. I totally believed that the moon was the Messiah and that the world was controlled by Satan and demons were everywhere. So I was doing thought-stopping. I was sleeping three to four hours a night. I was working seven days a week, 18 to 21 hours a day to make money or to recruit for the cult," Hassan said.
Berkeley Police said the alleged cult leader, Rashad Jamal, has thousands of followers on social media, has been recently convicted of various crimes in the State of Georgia and is facing time in prison.
Hassan said upon observing some of Jamal's videos on YouTube he was able to get a gist of what he is teaching.
"I've developed a model called the BITE model of mind control. It stands for behavior control, information control, thought control and emotional control. So it's very common for people to disappear when they get recruited, and it's very common for them to be given phobias, irrational fears and to believe that their family isn't good or they're satanic or demonic or low frequency or whatever. In other words, in the person's mind, their loved ones are no longer viewed as loved ones. And that's part of the mind hack that happens," Hassan said.
Jamal has denied being a cult leader on his Instagram and has been critical of the news surrounding the six missing people, claiming the government is out to get him.
According to police, Naaman Williams met Mikayla Thompson over the Internet, and she drove to Washington D.C to bring him back to St. Louis. Police said Williams began his 'spiritual journey' around September 2022.
Keri Roberts is a neighbor and witnessed the nude meditation of the adults and children. She told 5 On Your Side she knew Ma'Kayla Wickerson.
"From beginning to end, it was totally different. She cut all her hair off, and she started growing dreads," Roberts said. "Her baby used to come and play with my nephew. They used to play together all the time, and all of a sudden, she stopped letting the baby come over here."
Meanwhile, Morgan is pleading that her daughter and the others to just let the family know they're okay.
"I know that people have many different opinions of things, but if it was their family member, everybody wants to know that their family members is ok. If she (Ma'Kayla Wickerson) chooses to stay or not I just want to know that her and my granddaughter are safe. If she can just contact us and let us know," Morgan said.
Anyone with information about the missing people or their whereabouts is asked to call the Berkeley Police Department at 314-524-3311.