189. Looks Like It Wasn't Xenu - The Murders Of Penelope Edwards And Troy Dunn

Penelope Edwards had all but put her life back together in March 2012.  After years of struggling with addiction and psychological problems – so bad that she had turned temporary custody of her two children over to her sister Gloria – Penelope was now sober, working  through therapy, had her children back and even had a new boyfriend – Troy Dunn.  By all accounts, Penelope, Troy and the two kids were living a happy life in Prescott Valley Arizona.  But on March 16, 2012, evil visited that happy home – when Kenneth Thompson, the husband of Penelope’s sister Gloria – after driving 25 miles from his home in Missouri, took a hatchet to both Penelope and Troy in an attempt to “rescue” Penelope’s children from what Thompson believed to be a dangerous environment.  Dangerous how?  Well. It seems that Penelope not only had herself in therapy – her daughter was also seeing a therapist  and her young son, who had been suffering with a severe psychological disorder, was under both therapeutic and medical treatment.  And all of that was working – and contributing to the healing and happiness in the Edwardsd/Dunn household.  Um.  Again: Dangerous how?  Turns out it was dangerous solely in the mind of Ken Thompson – who decided on his own that because the niece and nephew of his wife were being exposed to psychiatry and psychotherapy, they were being, effectively, brainwashed and damaged.  Because that was Thompson’s interpretation of his religion’s belief.  And his religion was The Church of Scientology.  Fortunately, both of Penelope’s kids were away from the house when Ken Thompson made his deadly visit, but her murder, and that of Troy Dunn – who had vowed to raise Penelope’s children as his own, changed those kids’ lives forever.  Join Melissa as she traverses this difficult case of an evil man fraudulently using his religion as a defense against the horrible act he himself committed – and an examination of Melissa’s own experience as a friend of a Scientologist and the question of religious freedom versus religious advocacy.