The parents of an 8-year-old girl who died after they withheld her insulin, encouraged by members of a small Christian sect who believed God would save her, have been sentenced to at least 14 years in prison.
Elizabeth Struhs died in January 2022 on a mattress on the floor of her home in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, five days after her father Jason Struhs, 53, declared that she no longer needed medication for Type 1 diabetes.
Her mother, Kerrie Struhs, 49, encouraged Elizabeth’s father to withhold her insulin, as did 12 other members of a Bible-based sect known as “The Saints,” who were also found guilty of manslaughter.
Sect leader Brendan Stevens, 63, was handed a prison sentence of 13 years by Justice Martin Burns in the Queensland Supreme Court on Wednesday. Eleven other members of the sect, who sang and prayed while Elizabeth died, were also due to be sentenced.
It’s not the first time Jason and Kerrie Struhs have been prosecuted for failing to give Elizabeth medical care.
In 2019, Elizabeth, then 6, was hospitalized for a month after becoming gravely ill from undiagnosed and untreated diabetes. At the time, her father rejected the sect’s insistence that God would heal her and eventually took his daughter to hospital.
That time, Jason Struhs pleaded guilty to “failing to provide the necessaries of life to Elizabeth” and was given a suspended sentence after testifying against his wife. Kerrie Struhs pleaded not guilty and was given an 18-month sentence.
What happened next all but sealed Elizabeth’s fate.
While Kerrie Struhs was in prison, her husband’s 17-year opposition to the sect crumbled, the trial heard, and he became “baptized” as its newest member.
Elizabeth died just three weeks after her mother was released from prison on parole, telling her parole officer that she’d withhold her daughter’s treatment again, if given the choice. She also said she wouldn’t intervene if anyone tried to help Elizabeth – but no one did.
A ‘miracle’ recruit
The couple at the center of the case had a long and often combative relationship.
Jason Struhs told police that his wife wasn’t very religious during the first few years of their marriage, but that changed when she met sect leader Brendan Stevens and his wife Loretta in 2004.
As Kerrie Struhs grew closer to the Stevens family, she began to reject medical treatment. Jason Struhs remained a staunch non-believer, who insisted that their eight children be vaccinated.
The couple’s conflicting beliefs caused friction in the household, and for a time Jason moved to the garage to “escape the tension.” He worked night shifts and preferred to stay away from the house, either working or playing golf, he told police, according to court documents.
Kerrie Struhs told police her husband was an “angry man” who didn’t believe in God, and that she was planning to leave him after her release from prison in December 2021.
But she changed her mind after she discovered that Jason had joined the church, describing him as much calmer, like a “new person.”
“The change in him has been unbelievable,” she told police.
Jason Struhs told police he had a “mental breakdown” after Kerrie went to prison and sought support from sect members.
To the church, the conversion of someone once vehemently opposed to their teachings was something of a “miracle” – proof that God had cured his anger.
A small home-based sect
When Jason Struhs declared in early January 2022 – just five months after joining the sect – that Elizabeth no longer needed insulin, church members were elated.
Their campaign to convince him that Elizabeth could be cured by God had worked.
Within days her condition deteriorated, and even as she lay dying with the insulin in the cupboard, no one gave it to her or suggested they seek medical help.
As Elizabeth became sicker, vomiting then unresponsive, Jason Struhs seemed to waver in his conviction, but church members rallied around him, encouraging him to follow God’s will.
They sat at Elizabeth’s bedside, singing and praying. “Whatever the Lord’s plan is for us, we will follow it,” Stevens later told police.
Elizabeth died on January 7, 2022, of diabetic ketoacidosis, a complication caused by a lack of insulin and medical treatment for diabetes – the same condition she had in 2019.
The sect continued to sing, dance and pray around her body for 36 hours before Jason Struhs said it was time to phone police.
For years, the sect’s beliefs were reinforced by their leader, Brendan Stevens, who taught his followers to reject modern medicine but denied any responsibility for Elizabeth’s death.
In 2022, as Elizabeth’s condition deteriorated, Stevens told her parents, “This is just a little trial to prove that you all are truly faithful to our faithful God,” according to court documents.
Stevens’ wife Loretta, 67, and six of their adult children – Therese, Andrea, Acacia, Camellia, Alexander and Sebastian Stevens, ages 24 to 35, were also convicted, along with Elizabeth’s older brother Zachary Struhs, 22.
The others included Lachlan and Samantha Schoenfisch, a married couple aged 34 and 26, and Keita Martin, 24, who went to school with the Stevens children and moved in with the family when she was 17. During the trial, their family members told the court they’d become increasingly concerned about their extreme religious beliefs.
But not all were taken in by Brendan Stevens.
Jayde Struhs, Jason and Kerrie Struhs’ eldest daughter, gave evidence against her parents. She left their home at age 16 for fear she’d never be accepted as gay.
In a victim impact statement read in court, Jayde Struhs said: “These people only wanted to control my family and everything they did. All for the sense of power … so they could play God.”
All 14 defendants represented themselves during a 9-week judge-only trial in 2024, however none gave or called any evidence. Speaking on their behalf, Brendan Stevens called the trial a “religious persecution.”
Jayde Struhs told Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC, that Stevens instilled an Armageddon-style fear in his followers.
“The main … messaging that Brendan puts out there is that the world’s going to end and Jesus is going to come back and save us … if you’re not absolute in the walk of God, you’ll go to hell forever,” she said.
Cult expert Raphael Aron, director of Cult Consulting Australia, says Jason Struhs would have been under “immense” pressure to join the group and follow their beliefs.
He said prison is unlikely to change the beliefs of “The Saints,” and if members are allowed further contact with each other, it could further entrench their ideology.
“I don’t know if any group has fallen apart because the leader went to jail; he’s just seen as a martyr, basically a replica of Jesus on the cross,” said Aron. “There’s all sorts of other ways of justifying it, and they keep going.”
He said he hopes Elizabeth’s death acts as a “wake up call” to anyone who may be questioning the legitimacy of people influencing themselves or a loved one.
A major red flag is the rejection of conventional medicine, Aron said, as it allows the group to conceal abusive behavior.
“The one area in life where the groups can actually be held accountable will be through the medical world, because that practitioner has a responsibility to do something about what’s going on,” said Aron.
Sect leaders also often ban members from accessing the internet because if they did, they might find damning testimony from former members, he added.
Small groups with extreme beliefs are all but impossible to detect unless people come forward, Aron said – but in Australia, unlike the United States, there are few avenues to report them.
He’s advocating for a regulatory body with the power to investigate complaints.
“The problem is, if you go to the police and no crime has been committed, they can’t do anything, and by the time the crime has been committed, it’s too late.”