Did missing partygoer join a 'CULT' that sells energy bars, granola and soap? Fears Michigan man, 28, who went missing from music festival has joined a Christian sect that 'recruits drunk and stoned youths at concerts'

  • Kevin Graves, 28, of Highland Township has been missing since early July
  • He was last seen at Electric Forest music festival in Rothbury
  • Graves' family has launched a desperate search for him using the internet
  • Tips from people who were at the festival have poured in
  • Some say Graves may have ended up with Christian sect known as Twelve Tribes 
  • Secretive group has been branded a 'racist and misogynistic' cult 

The family of a Michigan man who disappeared from a music festival three months ago believes he may have joined a cult.

Kevin Graves, 28, of Highland Township went missing after he attended the Electric Forest music festival in Rothbury in July.

Investigators with knowledge of the case and one person who was with him at the festival believe that he is still alive, according to MLive.com.

‘It's hard for us to believe, because he's not the type of person to just up and disappear that way,’ said his sister Kellie Farley.

Kevin Graves, 28, of Highland Township went missing after he attended the Electric Forest music festival in Rothbury in July
Kevin Graves, 28, of Highland Township went missing after he attended the Electric Forest music festival in Rothbury in July

Kevin Graves, 28, of Highland Township went missing after he attended the Electric Forest music festival in Rothbury in July

Investigators with knowledge of the case and one person who was with him at the festival believe that he is still alive

Investigators with knowledge of the case and one person who was with him at the festival believe that he is still alive

Graves' sister said her brother, a mechanic, was on good terms with his family the day he disappeared. ‘Everything is good,’ he texted to Farley on July 1 - the last time there was communication. ‘I love you the most’

Graves' sister said her brother, a mechanic, was on good terms with his family the day he disappeared. ‘Everything is good,’ he texted to Farley on July 1 - the last time there was communication. ‘I love you the most’

Farley, 34, has been searching for her brother using the internet.

She says scores of people have left messages saying that it’s possible Graves joined a secretive religious group known as Twelve Tribes.

The group is a Christian sect that is reported to recruit new members at concerts and music festivals.

Twelve Tribes reportedly targets young people who are either inebriated or under the influence of other drugs, according to The New Yorker.

The group has been known to seek new recruits at Bob Dylan and Grateful Dead concerts.

Twelve Tribes is said to travel around a double-decker brown and white bus known as Peacemaker.

The sect, which has been branded a ‘cult,’ has been accused of indoctrinating its members with racist and misogynistic beliefs.

In June officials in New York state announced they were opening an investigation after a video emerged showing a six-year-old boy picking potatoes at an upstate farm run by Twelve Tribes.

Tipsters who were at the music festival have told his family that they believe Graves may have ended up with Twelve Tribes, a Christian sect that is reported to seek new recruits at music concerts. The group is known to operate double-decker buses like those seen above

Tipsters who were at the music festival have told his family that they believe Graves may have ended up with Twelve Tribes, a Christian sect that is reported to seek new recruits at music concerts. The group is known to operate double-decker buses like those seen above

The video also allegedly showed other young children being put to work at a cosmetics factory operated by members of the sect.

Michigan police say that as of yet they have seen no evidence to indicate that Graves has joined Twelve Tribes.

Twelve Tribes operates Bear Creek Farm, a small commune and organic commercial farm in Marshall, Michigan that sells energy bars, granola, and soaps.

‘People had messaged me that were at the festival and said, “Oh, yeah, I saw one of those (buses) up there”,’ Farley said.

‘My gut was like, this is it.’

Farley said she researched Twelve Tribes and contacted an ‘extremely nice gentleman’ who said he was based in Denver.

According to Farley, the man called around other Twelve Tribes communities and said that nobody with Graves’ name turned up.

A Twelve Tribes member reached by MLive.com told the site: ‘Just so you know, when people come in, they don't disappear off the face of the Earth.

‘They can communicate with their relatives.’

Farley was initially of the opinion that the Twelve Tribes group may provide a clue as to her brother’s whereabouts, but now she is not sure.

She said her brother, a mechanic, was on good terms with his family the day he disappeared.

‘Everything is good,’ he texted to Farley on July 1 - the last time there was communication.

‘I love you the most.’ 

A CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY? OR A 'RACIST, CHILD-BEATING CULT'? WHO ARE TWELVE TRIBES?

The Twelve Tribes is a community of some 3,000 members scattered across a number of locations in New England and Canada.

In addition, the group also claims to have followers in Australia, Argentina, Brazil and Germany. 

It calls itself 'a confederation of twelve self-governing tribes, composed of self-governing communities.'

Twelve Tribes was founded in the 1970s in Chattanooga, Tennessee. 

The group later moved to Vermont, then expanded to locations around the world.

Members live and work together and home-school their children.

In Plymouth, Massachusetts, the group also runs a grocery store and has a compound-style property in the historic district, where the Pilgrims first settled.

On its website, Twelve Tribes says it has 2,000 to 3,000 members who live a 'tribal life' in different geographical areas of the world, 'so as to be a demonstration of how God has always wanted His people to live.'

But former members have come forward with disturbing allegations that have prompted the authorities to investigate.

In 2016, messages began to appear on Facebook accusing the sect's members of disciplining children with a cane or a wooden stick — on the open palm or bare buttocks — sometimes dozens of times each day at a bakery that it owns and operates in Plymouth. 

The messages also implied the sect was racist and endorsed slavery. 

The poster identified himself to The Associated Press as Kayam Mathias, 21, a former bakery worker who says he left the sect in 2011.

'I saw many kids beaten as "discipline," many times out of anger. The idea is to drive out the evil one from as early as possible,' he told the AP.

Lev Bryant, 41, a sect member who manages the bakery, denied the allegations of child abuse and racism.

'There’s no child abuse here - period,' he said. 'We’re trying to deal with this fraudulent issue.'

Bryant confirmed that Mathias was a member of the sect and worked at the bakery.

A Twelve Tribes commune in Island Pond, Vermont, was raided by police in 1984 after allegations of child abuse. 

More than 100 children were removed but were returned hours later after a judge said the raid was illegal.

In 2015, an elder from the sect in southern Germany was convicted in Noerdlingen state court in Bavaria of causing bodily harm by hitting a child in his care with a 4-foot switch.

Twelve Tribes has been reported to seek recruits among young people who attend concerts and music festivals.

Those who have attended shows reported seeing its trademark double-decker buses known as Peacemaker.

On its web site, Twelve Tribes boasts of the 'maroon-and-cream double-decker buses' that make the trek to 'many concerts' so that it can 'make many friends.'

'We still bring our buses to many events hoping to help others and find more people who desire to bring peace to this dying world,' the group says on its web site.

The buses have followed tours by artists including Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead.

                                                              Sources: Associated Press, The Twelve Tribes  

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