Ricky Rodriguez - Adulthood and Murder-suicide

Adulthood and Murder-suicide

When Rodriguez grew to adulthood, he married Elixcia Munumel, and together they separated from TFI in 2001. Shortly after this, Rodriguez wrote an article on the Web site MovingOn.org in which he described David Berg's deviant sexual activity involving a number of women and children.

In September 2004, after separating from his wife, he moved to Tucson, Arizona, and worked as an electrician. According to accounts by his friends and relatives, he moved there because he heard his mother had visited and he wanted to find her, her location being secret even to him, because he had spoken out about his childhood.

In January 2005, he arranged a meeting with a former associate of his mother's who was involved in his childhood sexual molestation, Angela Smith (formerly Susan Joy Kauten), and stabbed her to death in his apartment. He then drove to Blythe, California, where he shot himself in the head. He released a video to be distributed to friends, family and former members explaining his actions. According to an article in the New York Times, in the video, "he said he saw himself as a vigilante avenging children like him and his sisters who had been subject to rapes and beatings". "There's this need that I have", he said. "It's not a want. It's a need for revenge. It's a need for justice, because I can't go on like this".