Loretta Frey took Gromer children because she said divorce wouldn't be fair.

August 21, 1989

A woman accused of abducting her children from Bourbonnais nearly 10 years ago after joining a controversial religious group said she took her two sons because she believed would be unfairly denied custody by Illinois courts.

"I left because I wasn't getting a fair divorce," Loretta Gromer told The Times Argus, of Barre-Montpelier, Vt.

Mrs. Frey's husband, Gerald Gromer, was reunited with his sons Luke, 14, and Mark, 11, in early June after police found the family living inVermont.

Mrs. Frey, who now lives in Woodbury, Vt., with her new husband, Terry, is awaiting extradition on an Illinois charge of child abduction.

She belongs to Christ Covenant Ministries, which is believed to be an outgrowth of a Kankakee group known as His Community. Although the group has been described as a cult by some people, Mrs. Frey and others have denied the allegation.

Louise Bigott, a Kankakee attorney representing Mrs. Frey, told The Times Argus that she believes people "are much too free with the label, and I think they use the label because it excites attention and it gets people's interest."

Rick Ross, a nationally known deprogrammer hired by the Gromers to work with Luke and Mark is one person who has described the organization as a cult and described members as being under the control of Mrs. Frey's cousin, David Mulligan, who headed up both His Community and Christ Covenant Ministries.

Mrs. Frey said Gromer did not adequately care for the boys while they were in Gromer's custody before their divorce was completed, but refused to elaborate other than to say, "I felt like they needed their mother."

Mrs. Frey said as their marriage deteriorated, Gromer said she could have custody of the boys. However, she said while the couple was separated, Gromer came by to take the boys to the zoo and hours later she received a court summons from Gromer - who sought custody of the children.

"People think it's so awful that I took the children, but he did it first," she said. "We had an agreement and I trusted him."

Mrs. Frey said she believes the Illinois courts would not have awarded her custody of the children because of her membership in His Community. Shortly before Christmas 1979, Mrs. Frey told her husband she was taking the children to a party and left. Although most of the members of His Community went from Kankakee to Kentucky, Mrs. Frey said she fled witht he children to the state of Washington.

"They were my life," she said. "That's why I took 'em."

The Freys describe themselves as simple people, who liked to swim, camp and attend church functions. When the children were home, the couple said they would all play board games, tell stories and sing around the piano.

Ross, however, has said the boys were also taught that their natural father was evil and that people who left the group or whose family was in the group "were very evil, even satanic people, that should be avoided."

Ross said from all indications the Freys are nice people, but believes they are also victims of the religious group to which they belong.

"Lorrie Frey is not a bad woman. She is a very kind and sweet woman, I'm sure," said Ross. "From everything I've heard about her she appears to be a very nice person. Unfortunately, nice people get caught up in very awful cults."