The daughter of Tony Alamo's alleged enforcer John Kolbek was turned away from her father's funeral Friday in Fouke, Ark., by a group of Alamo loyalists that included her mother.
John Kolbek, 51, managed to elude authorities for more than two years before his death from heart failure Jan. 13 in rural Lawrence County, Ky. Officials in Arkansas were seeking Kolbek for a Sebastian County battery charge while federal officials wanted to arrest him for unlawful flight from prosecution.
Friday, a viewing and funeral service were held at the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries sanctuary at the group's Fouke compound.
John Kolbek's daughter, 19-year-old Desiree, was taken as a wife by Alamo when she was 8. Her testimony during Alamo's July 2009 criminal trial helped lead to a conviction on all 10 counts listed in a federal indictment accusing Alamo of bringing five women he'd wed as children across state lines for sex.
Desiree Kolbek said she wanted the chance to say goodbye to her father and mourn his death with family. Desiree said she was pained when her own mother told her she had to leave.
"She said that if I want my family back I have to say that I was a happy kid," Desiree Kolbek said. "Basically if I wanted to be there I had to recant."
Desiree Kolbek's mother, Jennifer Kolbek, was raised in Alamo Ministries. She testified on Alamo's behalf at his criminal trial.
"I love her because she's my mother but she's being so stupid," Desiree Kolbek said.
John Kolbek joined Alamo Ministries as a young man and was known as Alamo's enforcer. Featured on "America's Most Wanted" television program, Kolbek was accused of beating ministry adults and children with a 6-foot-long wooden paddle at Alamo's direction.
John Kolbek's brother, sister and brother-in-law, who have never been affiliated with Tony Alamo, arrived at the service with Desiree Kolbek.
They were permitted to attend but Desiree Kolbek was not.
After an Alamo Ministries member recognized Desiree Kolbek, several of the group approached her with hired security guards and told her she had to leave.
"I asked the guards if they knew why I was being told to leave," Desiree Kolbek said. "They didn't so I told them: ‘Because I helped see their leader to prison for hurting little girls.'"
Desiree Kolbek said the security guards threatened to call the police if she didn't leave the property and that one said he would "detain" her if she wasn't gone in "two minutes."
Fouke Mayor Terry Purvis said he spoke to a representative of the security company and asked to see a license.
"It appeared to me they weren't licensed in the state of Arkansas," Purvis said. "We turned it over to the state police."
Tears welled in Desiree Kolbek's eyes when she remembered the difficult afternoon, "They didn't have the decency to let a daughter attend her dad's funeral."
Desiree Kolbek said she clings tightly to memories of times she spent with her father when she was a very young child, before she began her life in Alamo's house. John Kolbek, who lived on ministry property in Fort Smith, Ark., was sent to Fouke to punish his daughter at Alamo's bidding more than once after she left her parents' home at 8, Desiree Kolbek said.
"I want to remember being daddy's little girl," Desiree Kolbek said. "That was such a long time ago."
