Cultists maintain low profile in Denver hotel

Topeka Capital-Journal/February 1, 1999
By Charlie Brennan

Denver--They come and go now with hardly anyone taking notice, like tourists with plenty of time and money to burn.

Three weeks after being deported from Israel, where they were accused of plotting to hasten the second coming of Christ by starting a gun battle with Israeli police, 14 cult members still call the Downtown Denver Holiday Inn their home.

Some have equipped themselves with cell phones. They often splurge for room service, hotel staff members say.

With a media stakeout long since abandoned, the eight adult and six child members of Concerned Christians have settled into life in four rooms on the 18th floor of the downtown hotel.

Hotel staff members will say nothing publicly about the 14 cultists, saying they deserve privacy. They have confided, however, that the cult members plan to stay "into February."

Family members and cult experts familiar with the group think they are waiting for travel instructions from their leader, former Denver resident Monte Kim Miller. He disappeared with his Colorado-based flock in late September.

Miller has claimed to be one of two end-time witnesses destined to die in the streets of Jerusalem at the end of this year, according to his interpretation of the Bible's Book of Revelation. His whereabouts aren't known.

"It's hard to second-guess Kim Miller, but I think he wants them out of this country," said Mark Roggeman, a Denver police officer who tracks the group in his spare time.

Norm Smith's son and daughter-in-law, former Eagle, Colo., residents Terry and Vonnett Smith, and seven other relatives are among those at the Holiday Inn.

He left Terry Smith a note last week to call his mother. She has heard nothing.

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