Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News (b)
Murderous Mother Anna
After Cathy’s disappearance, her stepmother Anna Young reportedly adopted extreme religious beliefs and started a cult in Alachua County, Florida, in the early 1980s. Separately, investigators from both the FBI and Alachua County began looking into mysterious deaths and disappearances within this cult. Several cult members reported extensive abuse and beatings of the members, particularly of the children.
When members joined the cult, Young forced them to surrender their children to her oversight. The stories of abuse were vast, with Young physically hurting under the pretense of “beating the devil out” of them.
In one case, Young beat 2-year-old Katonya Jackson and deprived her of her seizure medication, which led to her death. In another case, Young beat 5-year-old Emon Harper and then placed him in a hamper as punishment, without food or water, until he was later found dead by another cult member. Young directed cult members to burn his body in a barrel, and she collected Social Security benefits for him for several years as if he was living.
Young also ordered cult members to take one young child to Puerto Rico and abandon him there—he has never been located. And when Young bathed a 12-year-old child in harsh chemicals and scalding water to “burn the devil out” of her, the child was left with severe permanent injuries and disfigurement.
In 1992, Young left the cult she created, changed her identity, and spent the next nine years on the run after being charged for the abuse of the 12-year-old child.
In 2001, law enforcement found her hiding in Illinois, but it wasn’t until 2017, after an extensive investigation by FBI and Alachua County, that Young was arrested for the deaths of Emon and Katonya. In 2021, Young pleaded guilty to their murders and was convicted. She was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison and died a month later in March 2021 from COVID-19.