A 44-year-old man was arrested in Tennessee this week in reference to the killing of a lacking member of a “cult-like” non secular group within the Inland Empire, authorities mentioned.
Ramon Ruiz Duran Jr., 44, was captured in Nashville on Jan. 12 and booked right into a San Bernardino jail on suspicion of homicide and conspiracy to commit homicide in reference to the 2023 disappearance and demise of Emilio Ghanem, based on a information launch issued from the Redlands Police Division. Duran Jr. will seem in a San Bernardino courtroom on Wednesday, information present.
Ghanem was a longtime member of “His Approach Spirit Led Assemblies,” a spiritual group based mostly in Colton and Hemet that has been linked to numerous deaths and disappearances. State and native authorities have arrested 5 members of the group in complete, together with its two leaders, in reference to the killings of Ghanem and a 4-year-old boy named Timothy Thomas.
It was not instantly clear if Duran Jr. had authorized illustration. Authorities didn’t describe his alleged position in Ghanem’s demise.
Ghanem joined the non secular group greater than 20 years in the past and helped launch a pest management enterprise overseen by the group known as Fullshield Inc., his sister Jennifer Ghanem beforehand informed The Instances. Ghanem left the group in April 2023 and moved again to Nashville, the place he began his personal pest management firm, she mentioned.
In Might of that 12 months, he returned to the Redlands space to try to community with former shoppers however was served a cease-and desist letter that accused him of stealing enterprise from the non secular group’s pest management firm, Ghanem’s sister mentioned. Seventeen days later, he vanished.
Final summer season, Redlands police mentioned they discovered the truck Ghanem was final seen driving and served search warrants on two of the group’s properties, the place they recovered ghost weapons and computerized rifles.
Shelly Bailey “Kat” Martin, 62, and her husband Darryl Muzic Martin, 58, have been described because the group’s leaders. Shelly Martin and one other group member, 43-year-old Rudy Moreno, have additionally been charged in Ghanem’s demise.
The Martins and former group member Andre Thomas, 48, have additionally been charged with the killing of 4-year-old Timothy Thomas, who was discovered lifeless of septic shock attributable to a ruptured appendix at one of many group’s properties in Colton in 2010. The boy was within the care of the Martins on the time, police mentioned.
Police believed neglect performed a task within the boy’s demise, however struggled to get cooperation from members of the non secular group because of the in depth management the Martins held over their followers, authorities mentioned.
A number of members have since parted methods with the group and revised their statements to police, saying that their unique testimony was made underneath duress from the group’s leaders, based on Colton Police Sgt. Shawn McFarland.
The group additionally has been named in reference to the 2019 disappearance of member Ruben Moreno in Claremont, based on native police.
