Dragged Into the Light

A prophet. A dysfunctional romance. A gunshot.

A decade before QAnon mushroomed into the headlines, Ohio housewife Sherry Shriner was tilling the same fertile soil. She attracted thousands with feverish conspiracy theories concocted from the New World Order, shape shifting reptilian overlords, and end times Bible prophecy.

She kept them hooked by playing into their fears of persecution and she made a tidy living out of it. But paranoia was rampant among her followers, and expulsions from the online cult were common.

In the early morning of July 15, 2017, police in Pennsylvania responded to a 911 call and charged Barbara Rogers with the murder of Steven Mineo. Mineo had been one of Shriner’s favorites. But Shriner had prophesied his destruction at Barbara’s hand. And now he was dead.

Journalist Tony Russo follows Shriner’s cult, digs into its bizarre beliefs, and reports on the shredded lives and reputations surrounding an Internet evangelist who claimed to be God’s mouthpiece on Earth.