'Soldiers of Christ' Cult Killing Shakes Korean Community

33-year-old Sehee Cho was tortured and killed during the group's "initiation" process."

In Georgia, members of a Korean religious cult were charged in the murder of a 33-year-old woman who was killed during the initiation process into a group that called itself Soldiers of Christ. Police say Sehee Cho was held captive for weeks, tortured and starved her until she died.

Officers discovered Cho's decaying body in the trunk of a car, left in the parking lot in metro Atlanta's busy Korean business district. Video evidence shows the group beating Cho with a belt and putting her in ice baths. Seven individuals, including the group's leader Joonho Lee, face charges of felony murder, false imprisonment, tampering with evidence and concealing the death of another.




Cho had apparently been brought to the Lee family home to "find God" and "ease her depression."

Lee, 26, told investigators that Cho went through the initiation voluntarily, according to prosecutors. Cho’s mother knew Lee’s mother in South Korea and brought Cho to the Lee family home on July 21 to “find God” and ease her depression, Gwinnett County police Det. Angela Carter said at the hearing.

Messages the defendants exchanged, however, show Cho tried to quit the training almost immediately after it began, but the group would not let her go, prosecutors say. “There is no quitting this program,” the 15-year-old defendant, Junyeong Lee, told investigators, according to police.

Prosecutors have charged him as an adult. He, Joonho Lee and a third defendant whom police have also described as a leader of the group, Joonhyun Lee, 22, are brothers. Their mother, Mihee Lee, 54, was arrested about a month after they were taken into custody in September.

Prosecutors say Joonho Lee, the founder of Soldiers of Christ, wanted 12 disciples. According to other defendants, Lee received instructions directly from God. These instructions apparently included beating and torturing people in order to recruit them into this group.

More here: 'Soldiers of Christ’ killing unsettles Korean Americans in Georgia and stokes fear of cults

I tell you, nobody does religious cult shit quite like Koreans.