Suspect arrested in 1988 religious cult slayings

HOUSTON FBI Special Agent Shauna Dunlap said a tip led to the capture of Jacqueline Tarsa LeBaron on Thursday.

LeBaron, wanted since 1992, will appear before a federal magistrate Friday, Dunlap told The Associated Press. The FBI website lists the charges against her as conspiracy to commit murder for consideration; murder for consideration; conspiracy to tamper with a witness; tampering with a witness; use of a firearm during a crime of violence; conspiracy to obstruct religious beliefs; obstruction of religious beliefs; and racketeering conspiracy.

LeBaron, 44, is accused in the shooting deaths of three former sect members and the 8-year-old daughters of one of the adults in Houston and Irving in 1988.

LeBaron's father, Ervil LeBaron, was the leader of the Church of the Lamb of God. Investigators say the elder LeBaron ordered the executions of rival polygamists in the 1970s. In 1972 he was convicted in Utah of ordering family members to kill his brother, who was said to have disobeyed church laws.

Ervil LeBaron, who reportedly ordered the killing of disobedient church members, died in the Utah state prison in 1981.

Jacqueline LeBaron was among six family members charged in the June 1988 murders.

Three were convicted in 1995 and sentenced to life in prison. Another was convicted of ordering the deaths and was sentenced to 45 years in prison. The youngest, who was 16 at the time of the killings, pleaded guilty to the child's death and served five years in prison.

The victims were brothers Mark and Duane Chynoweth, killed in Houston, and Ed Marston, slain in Irving. Duane Chynoweth's daughter, Jenny, was also killed in what investigators believe was an effort to eliminate her as a witness.

Copyright © 2024 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.