Six people, including two children, missing from Missouri since the summer of 2023, are believed to be in a cult

March 05, 2024

Six people, two of which are children, missing from Missouri since the summer of 2023, are believed to be with a cult.

Mikayla Thompson, 25, Naaman Williams, 30, Gerrielle German, 27, Ma’Kayla Wickerson, 36, Ashton Williams, 2, and Malaiyah Wickerson, 3, have been missing since August 2023.

The group were residing in a rental home near St. Louis Lambert International Airport for several months before they disappeared. The group were last sighted on 13 August 2023 at the Quality Inn Hotel on Dunn Road in Florissant. It appeared they had left the hotel as if they intended to return, leaving behind several pairs of expensive shoes, uneaten food, and laundry still in the washing machine. The group did not come back for their belongings, nor have they been seen since.

The missing cult members cut off contact with their friends and families before disappearing, some maxed out credit cards and abandoned their jobs.

Images of the missing sitting cross-legged in mediative poses on the front lawn of their rental home in St. Louis have emerged online. Neighbors from the area described how the group appeared to worship the sun, and run around in the rain, sometimes in a state of undress.

Family members of the missing group say that they were part of an online spiritual cult, led by a self-proclaimed prophet and rapper named Rashad Jamal White. At the time of writing, Jamal has 98K Instagram followers, including thousands more across other social media platforms. Jamal is the leader of an online cult- the “University of Cosmic Intelligence.”

His Instagram profile reads: “Free Your Mind. Poet / Messiah / Revolutionary / Luminous Being. EXIT EARTH ENTER REALITY.”

He refers to himself as a "Black activist, scientist, author, philanthropist” who is “working hard to raise the vibration of the collective consciousness," and denies being a cult leader.

The University of Cosmic Intelligence has been said to promote polygamy, anti-government sentiments, New Age mysticism, and living off the grid. Videos show Jamal sharing conspiracy theories, and in one such video he shares his belief that winter does not exist, and is a weapon manufactured by the government, or “Sub-zero technology.” Jamal goes on to say in his video that the government simulates winter using fake clouds and ice crystals that he claims are activated by “fake 5G towers.”

Jamal also believes that Reptilians live amongst us, and help people in power control the human population.

Birds sitting on powerlines, Jamal shared, are actually government drones “powering up,” and believes birds are actually government surveillance equipment.

Jamal and his followers also believe that they get their energy from the sun and are gods and goddesses, and that other races of people are not originally from Planet Earth.

Websites linked to the cult sell crystals, as well as Jamal’s records online.

Rashad Jamal White is currently incarcerated in Georgia after being sentenced in August 2023. He is currently serving out an 18-year sentence for one count of child molestation and one count of cruelty to children in the first degree. The child in question was the child of his ex-girlfriend, Darshell Smith. The pair also had a son of their own. Smith has allegedly been harassed by Jamal’s followers.

The University of Cosmic Intelligence YouTube channel is host to lectures and rap music videos pertaining to Jamal’s fringe beliefs.

Followers of Jamal refuse to believe their leader if guilty of the convictions, and instead petition his innocence, claiming he has been incarcerated to quell his “spiritual outreach.”

Following his conviction, Jamal said: “The only law I had broken was speaking out against oppression. The only thing I am guilty of is freeing the minds of my people and speaking out against this system, and I’ll never back down from that.”

In 2022, two University of Cosmic Intelligence members, Krystal Diane Pinkins and Yasmine Hider, were involved in an attempted robbery and murder.

While driving down a road in the Talladega national forest nature reserve, two University of Central Florida students, Adam Simjee and his girlfriend, Mikayla Paulus, were ambushed by the cult members after stopping to help them.

Yasmine Hider, allegedly held the pair at gunpoint in an attempted robbery. Hider allegedly demanded the students walk into the nearby forest, when Simjee pulled out a pistol of his own and the pair shot at each other, leaving Simjee fatally injured. When police arrived at the scene, they searched the forest to find a makeshift camp with signs that people had been living there. A five-year-old boy, later identified as Pinkins’ son, approached the officers holding a loaded shotgun. Both Hider and Pinkins were arrested and charged with murder, kidnapping and robbery.

Another member, Damien Winslow Washam, was arrested for allegedly attacking his family members with a samurai sword, killing his mother.

His family were aware that he had been consuming videos and lectures on the University of Cosmic Intelligence YouTube channel. His father, Hubert Washam, later told Vice in an interview: “I tried to look at some of these videos and I can’t even listen to them, it’s so dumb. Lizard people and aliens.”

Families of the missing six are worried about the wellbeing and whereabouts of their loved ones.

Cartisha Morgan, the mother of missing Makayla Wickerson and her 3-year-old daughter, described the situation as a nightmare.

She has not heard from Wickerson since March 2023, and warned other parents to watch out for signs of their relatives being lured into cults: “If you see something that’s off, please take measures to get them help as quickly as possible. I would have never imagined that I’d never have known where my daughter and granddaughter are right now,” she told the Independent, UK.

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