Friends Say Shunning by Jehovah's Witnesses Drove Mother to Murder-Suicide

A married mother of two in Keego Harbor, Michigan is suspected of killing her husband, her kids, [...]

A married mother of two in Keego Harbor, Michigan is suspected of killing her husband, her kids, and then herself, and her friends say it's all because the family was expelled from their religion as Jehovah's Witnesses.

Lauren Stuart, 45, had been raised a Jehovah's Witness, as had her husband, 47-year-old Daniel Stuart. They had two adult children — Steven, 27, and Bethany, 24, both of whom had been raised in the religion up until about five years ago.

According to friends of the Stuart family, they had been subjected to the Jehovah's Witnesses' practice of expulsion, or shunning. Other former members of the church spoke to the Detroit Free Press, and said they have little doubt that it played a part in Lauren Stuart's alleged crimes.

"They were shunned every way possible. If Lauren went to the grocery store, they didn't look her in the eye," said Joyce Taylor, who had also been shunned from the church. "When you are raised a Jehovah's Witness, they choose your friends. They choose who you associate with. And if you go against that, they will dis-fellowship you, or shun you."

The church has been heavily criticized for the practice, where even family members of the shunned who want to remain in the church can't communicate with them. Taylor told reporters that she believed the Stuarts had been expelled for sending their children to college, which is against the doctrine of their branch of Jehovah's Witnesses.

"All they wanted to do was raise their family the way they wanted to," Taylor said. She speculated that Daniel Stuart was going through a bout of depression, and the couple was having a hard time dealing with it without the support of the church, which they'd relied on their whole lives.

"She worshiped Danny. Danny worshiped her. They were like hand in glove. But she was very concerned about Dan. He was prone to depression and she was always worried about him," Taylor said.

"She was in emotional distress," she added later. "She felt alone. I was her lifeline."

Taylor said she had seen Lauren Stuart just a week before the family passed. She said they would often get together and help each other adapt to their shunned lifestyle.

"She came over to my house. we had tea, coffee and talked," Taylor said. She told reporters that her friend gave no signs that she was capable of such a crime. Taylor, incensed by the loss of the Stuart family, went uninvited to a Kingdom Hall meeting in Union Lake.

"Excuse me everyone, My name is Joyce Taylor ... Two days ago, four people died as a result of your shunning process," Taylor said, fighting off church officials trying to remove her from the room. "Five years ago you people pulled your support from this small family, the only support they had was you people. You turned them away and you shunned them."

"For what?!!," she reportedly screamed. "Because they wanted to raise their children as they saw fit."

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