Free Republic

DUNDEE, Ky. (WFIE) - Kentucky State Police recently arrested three family members who ran a boarding school called Pilgrims Rest Ministry and Reconciliation in Ohio County. Kelly, Jonathan and Amanda Vanderkooi are each facing abuse charges. After their arrest, former Pilgrims Rest students are speaking out about the abuse they say they endured in their time at the school. Ezekiel Umali spent more than a year at the private boarding school. He says the school’s founder Kelly Vanderkooi regularly got physical. “He grabbed him by the neck from the front, then he picked him up and he slammed him,” Umali...

OHIO CO., Ky. (WFIE) - We’re learning more about the case involving three people in Ohio County who Kentucky State Police say ran a boarding school in Dundee and were arrested on child abuse charges. As we’ve reported, 52-year-old Kelly Vaderkooi and 28-year-old Johnathan Vanderkooi are facing charges including Criminal Abuse of a Child and Assault of a Child. 27-year-old Amanda Vanderkooi is charged with Sexual Abuse. Kentucky State Police say they’ve been running Pilgrim’s Rest Ministry, which has been in operation for about 15 years, with the help of about eight other people. Troopers tell us this case involves...

Kentucky State Police responded to a first-degree criminal abuse complaint Oct. 24 at the Pilgrims Rest Ministry of Reconciliation, an Ohio County boys boarding school affiliated with the fundamentalist Baptist faith. Details of the incident are unclear. Both KSP and the state’s Department for Community Based Services (DCBS) have declined to provide information about the case — citing an ongoing investigation into the facility. “Premature disclosure of records generated in the course of this active investigation of alleged physical and sexual abuse of juveniles, at this early stage, would do irreparable harm to the investigation,” said KSP’s official custodian of...