Netherlands - Dutch family living in basement 9 yrs, Ruinerwold, Drenthe Province, 15 October 2019

[Amonet]

When I first read an article about this it portrayed the children as locked in a basement unaware that anyone else in the world existed. I'm not sure if it's translation or just horrible sensationalistic reporting. But at this point I'm taking it all with a grain of salt. The oldest had a FB account and was easily able to go to a pub for beer. And now none of the kids have any serious psychological problems according to psychologists? These things just totally contradict each other.

I read it as saying that the siblings don't have any serious medical problems as opposed to psychological problems?

One thing I was relieved by was that there weren't any reports of babies being born there.

 

[beatrixpotter]

I read it as saying that the siblings don't have any serious medical problems as opposed to psychological problems?

One thing I was relieved by was that there weren't any reports of babies being born there.

I had to go back and find what I read and realize I misread it. I read it as psychologists (that they'd just mentioned) found them not to have any major problems. But they actually did say it was a doctor who found that.

 

[ZaZara]

Privacy settings

Police money dog deployed in search of banknotes in Ruinerwold farm

A police money dog searched the farm in Ruinerwold this morning for banknotes. The specially trained sniffer dog didn't find anything, the Public Prosecutor's Office confirms.

According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the deployment of the dog has to do with an earlier discovery of large amounts of cash on the grounds. The search for possibly more hidden notes was unsuccessful.

In recent days, several tens of thousands of euros have already been found in the hiding place where a family with six children was isolated from the outside world. Father Gerrit-Jan van D. (67) was arrested on Thursday and, in addition to deprivation of liberty, is also suspected of money laundering.

It is still a big mystery where all the previously found money comes from. According to the Public Prosecution, this is now part of the investigation. It also remains unclear why the family and tenant Josef B., the other suspect in the case, continued to pay rent for years for an empty building in Zwartsluis.

In recnte months, the eldest son of the family, Jan (25), has also given orders to a design company in Haarlem for thousands of euros to create a website for the companies of Josef B.

The farm has been the focus of police investigation for days. The site was meticulously mapped out using special VR techniques. As part of the investigation, the airspace is temporarily closed above the site.


BBM


It's a rocking horse, not a chair!

 

[ZaZara]

Privacy settings


Zwartsluis especially remembers one son of the Ruinerwold family.

Zwartsluis is painfully affected. How is it possible that a family lived in the village for years and afterwards turned out to have many more children than the neighbours knew? They knew at most three of them, not nine.

According to a statement issued last night by Gerrit-Jan van D.'s family, there were nine children in the family, some of whom lived in solitary conditions in a farm in Ruinerwold. Eight years ago three of them, two sons and a daughter, fled the parental home, according to the family.

In Zwartsluis, where the family lived for several years, the facts hit like a bomb. The innkeeper in Zwartsluis can only remember a son and a daughter. "She was a very normal girl, did an internship at the flower shop and went to school at the Agnieten College,'' says the innkeeper, who doesn't want his name in the paper. "She always walked with their dog."


He also liked the son. "He had a girlfriend, went out on weekends." The owner of the pub lived near their house. He never saw young children. "What I did find very strange is that the father always backed up the alley to the door with his van. Maybe the children would get in and out? I don't know."

Gerwin van Dalfzen once played football with Gerrit-Jan's son. "A very nice boy, who suddenly went through a remarkable transformation. At first he had that long hair and wore weird clothes. But suddenly he cut off his hair and looked quite normal. He went to the gym, played in a band and was a totally different boy." According to Van Dalfzen he only talked about a brother and a sister, never about other brothers or sisters. "It was clear to me that he didn't like to be home."

Colleagues of this son heard this week from himself at work in Meppel that the family found in Ruinerwold were his father, brothers and sisters. It was an emotional explanation, says a colleague. Then the man called in sick. His employer doesn't want to say anything about it.

In the past he regularly visited a family in Zwartsluis - this family doesn't want to be named in the newspaper either - as a friend of the son of the house. "A very sweet, quiet, caring boy,'' the mother says. "He ate here quite often. It was obvious that he was not accustomed to eating at the table."

According to the couple, you could tell he wasn't from a warm family. He was very independent, clearly had to take care of himself. Father: "He thought it was strange that we read from the Bible, because he had never heard of a church. He didn't know what that was and asked a lot of questions and we thought: how odd he doesn't know."

In conversations with him about his home he would never reveal what he was truly thinking. His mother had died, they knew as much. "He told our son that he had a brother and a sister. He also told his father had to go to Austria, because he was ill. He absolutely could not get along with his father and left at the age of 14. Later he told us that he was going to live with his uncle Josef in Meppel. I have taken him there regularly. And then he never wanted me to drop him off at the door. It was on an industrial estate."

The couple looks at each other with painful eyes. "The fact that we now know that there must have been six other children is very tragic. This boy must have been walking around with that big secret all this time."

According to the couple, he didn't tell his girlfriend, with whom he got involved from the age of eighteen, anything about his background either. When he was twenty he had a daughter. At that time they used to live with the girl's mother. Later they lived together on a houseboat in Meppel and another son was born.

The son had no contact with his own family. Father Gerrit-Jan never saw his grandchildren. Last year the couple divorced. The parents of the friend call it deeply saddening. "He must have had a very heavy heart."

Likewise D.'s father Gerrit-Jan never spoke about the children in the village. Paul van Enk has a business next to the father's boarded up shop. He saw father Gerrit Jan often. "He was an amiable and smart man, very kind. He told enthusiastically that he was busy with straw insulation and loam. He made beautiful toys, truly of good quality. He did look special, with long hair and a beard. But he was absolutely no freak."


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

The Daily Mail has some 'revelations' about the family.
I have checked the most extreme ones and I cannot find any confirmation in the Dutch MSM or the not so MSM. Perhaps that is why they call it an 'exclusive'. No sources are mentioned, except for 'a source', once.

IMHO one should take the following with a quite a few pinches of salt:

Dutch police probing doomsday father find 'weird' markings that may point to 'Satanic' practices | Daily Mail Online

Dutch police probing the case of a family who were locked away on an isolated farm for nine years are examining possible satanic links.

A large white board found pinned to a wall at the farmhouse in Ruinerwold, sixty miles north of Amsterdam, has become a key part of the probe by police who are examining claims that the van Dorsten youngsters had been brainwashed into believing the end of the world was coming.

The drawing board had a series of mystery drawings and numbers.

The scribblings, in black felt ink, have been taken away by detectives for analysis and forensic examination.

The rescued youngsters are said to be barely able to speak and walking around in circles as they are kept in care and provided with counselling and medical support.

Well, eeeh.... ......probably not.

 

[ZaZara]

Het laatste nieuws uit Nederland leest u op Telegraaf.nl

"There is an ongoing war between the spirits"

AMSTERDAM - Gerrit Jan van D., the father of the ghost family in Ruinerwold, believed in an invisible spiritual war between good and evil spirits. He speaks at length about his religious beliefs in a video, which is in the possession of De Telegraaf. "The final verdict has already been announced."

While smoking a pipe and drinking coffee, Gerrit Jan van D. - a wild grey beard, glasses, a grey sweater - lectures on matters such as God, money, happiness, justice and sickness in Dunglish [ Dutch-English, indicating bad English spoken by the Dutch]. The film was made on 5 April 2006 in his shop for wooden furniture and toys in Zwartsluis.

Van D. announces that he wants to make a book or video series entitled 'Nothing but God's ideal'. De Telegraaf has received confirmation from several persons, independent of each other, that the man in the video is actually Gerrit Jan van D..


The video was probably made some four years before he withdrew with six children to the farm in Ruinerwold, rented by the Austrian woodworker Josef B. Like Gerrit Jan van D., the latter is said to have a deep distrust of the outside world, the government and the power of large companies.

Yet Van D. says that it is not necessary to turn away from society by living like a hermit and not using money. "There is no point in returning to the Stone Age. I use a computer, I use a camera, I sit on a chair, you have to buy it with money, there is nothing wrong with that."


It is remarkable that Van D. also talks about the importance of family. "What if you hurt your parents, maybe your brothers and sisters as well. If they feel bad about something you have taken away from them. Is that happiness? Do you feel happy?" At the time of his words, Van D. had broken up with his family for about twenty years.

And about his children: "Are you happy when you are a parent who does something that is good for you, but that hurts your children?" He ends with: "Like this. My pipe is empty. Anyway, my lighter is empty."

Van D. talks about 'a great war in the spirit world'. Thoughts about such an invisible spiritual battle between God and evil spirits are common in evangelical or Pentecostal churches, for example. "The war is not yet completely over, but God has already announced the victory and the final judgment in the spirit world. Most of the spirits have now been defeated."

Bad luck and accidents are not a coincidence, but the result of 'hidden causes'. "Often from the spirit world or certain energies that are set against you there."

Even getting sick never happens by God's will, the speaker argues, smoking. "God does not make you sick. It is not a punishment from Him." At the same time, he also indicates that he does not believe in coincidences. In later years, Van D. himself seems to have become very ill. Son Jan indicated on social media that the family 'lovingly cares for father every day'.

Gerrit Jan van D. spent years pondering on the perfect location to lead a completely anonymous life with the many children he had, says a farmer near his farmhouse in Staphorst.

He says he has seen Gerrit Jan many times. "He was always there with children. In any case, a boy of about fourteen years old and two girls of about eight years old." They mainly played and cycled.

He sometimes asked Gerrit Jan 'who belongs to whom', because some girls looked about the same age. "Then he said: there were also girlfriends. Or he talked about 'adopted children'."

Jan, the son who asked a bartender for help, previously let it be known that his mother died in 2004. This may be consistent with official documents held by De Telegraaf, which state that the ghost father is married to the Korean Moon Hye-Jin, which also states that the marriage has ended since October 2004.

However, it is very doubtful whether Hye-Jin is the woman who lived with Gerrit Jan for many years. No one who has spoken to De Telegraaf can remember anything about an Asian woman, let alone children with oriental features.

The farmer goes on to say: "He had a lot of comments on the government. He said to me: 'I don't agree with this society. This society is worthless." He suggested, the man remembers, going to Romania. "He told me that he had connections there."

In the end the contacts between the farmer and Gerrit Jan deteriorated. According to the farmer, the man felt betrayed. He apparently thought that the man had informed the municipality of his plans.

The father will appear in court on Monday.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

I tried to copy the video here, but that does not work.
Also, I notice that many of the links I use are in fact Premium or behind a paywall, so they may not be accessible to everyone. Fortunately often the first few articles are free.

The contents of the video have been amply described in the previous post. The description of Gerrit Jan's spoken English is spot-on.

 

[ZaZara]

In zijn boerderij in Ruinerwold schreef Gerrit Jan van D. aan zijn eigen evangelie op internet

In his farm in Ruinerwold, Gerrit Jan van D. wrote his own gospel on the internet

From the farm in Ruinerwold, where Gerrit Jan van D. withdrew with his children for years, he developed his own gospel. As John Eagles, Van D., who is being brought before the magistrates today, wrote thousands of articles about it on the internet.

An older man with a full, grey beard bends, pulls, stretches very evenly. The rowing machine is finished', writes one 'John Eagles' in an explanation below the film. It works very well and offers good training for many parts of the body.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1054300701248700

In the background a harmonious clarinet sounds, a wooden fence further obscures the view. The white walls with green doors were often seen last week on drone statues from above the farm in Ruinerwold. In the picture, the dog that the neighbours always heard barking sniffs.

Today Gerrit Jan van D. (67 years old) is brought before the examining magistrate. He is suspected of complicity in the deprivation of liberty of his six children, money laundering and 'damaging the health of others'.

Gerrit Jan van D. is John Eagles.

A greater paradox does not seem conceivable: the man who kept himself and his children out of the sight of the authorities and local residents for nine years, as became known last Tuesday, puts video footage of his daily physical exercise on Facebook. Under a pseudonym, but still. Online, it turns out, he was an open book. A very thick open book. Because the Facebook page, on which he even posts cat pictures, is the tip of the iceberg.

John Eagles lives in a digital eagle's nest: Eagle Rock Wiki. This is not a page of its own on Wikipedia, but a completely private online encyclopedia. Eagle Rock Wiki offers training and study courses in a wide range of subjects, aimed at creating a better world for everyone', the introduction says. And the responsibility says: 'Working on this website is a way to build a lasting relationship with God.'

Earlier it became clear that Van D. was seeking a self-sufficient existence in nature. Now it turns out that his faith is also homemade. The wiki contains thousands of self-written English lemmas: Spiritual and religious principles, Building a better world, Meeting God, The principles of economic recovery, The workings of the human mind, The end of evil, Divine physical exercise.

But also: Starting a vegetable garden, weed control and the art of making good compost ('Important in getting good compost is the right mixture of materials').
No aspect of existence has been overlooked.

This is modern monastic work, the testimony of a parallel digital universe, the administration of an Other Order. This is the miraculous gospel of Gerrit Jan van D.

Very extensive is the 'garden diary', an instruction illustrated with own photos for sowing and growing all kinds of fruit and vegetables. From strawberries to turnips, from parsley to cabbage. There are also photos of turkeys, chickens and geese.

On some days, the genesis of the wiki teaches us, John Eagles made more than hundreds of postings per day. He starts in December 2011. According to the mayor of De Wolden, the family might already have been living secretly in Ruinerwold for a year. The children (now 18 to 25 years old) are then aged from 10 to 17.

John Eagles studied psychology, he says. Just like Gerrit Jan van D., we know from data of a deed of sale from the Land Registry. The texts about the 'house as a mini-cosmos' are the same as those on the now disappeared website of the toy shop Natural Homes in Zwartsluis, which Van D. owned in the period 2004-2008. Old acquaintances recognize him in photographs. Asked about his connection with John Eagles, an American Facebook friend says that he has known 'Gerrit van D. and his family' for over a decade. The last few days he was in shock when he heard about the arrest.

Remarkable: the work on the digital eagle's nest stops in 2016. Gerrit Jan's son, Jan, told the café in Ruinerwold that his father suffered a stroke 'three years ago'. This corresponds to a statement made by John Eagles on Facebook. A stroke I had on 3 August 2016', he writes. There are more links between son Jan and Eagles' profile. Earlier this year, Jan posts the same film of chicks hatching from an egg as John Eagles placed three years ago. Self recorded on the farm, it says.

John Eagles' religion is a religious potpourri. He invokes classical elements of Old Testament Christianity, such as God as Supreme Being, patriarchs as Abraham and angels. But there are also Buddhist influences and new-age-like lemmas about auras and wheels of energy, about chakras and tai chi.

According to the pseudonym of Van D., uniting world religions is one of the possibilities. His writings also contain traces of the ideas of the Korean Moon sect and the Verenigingskerk. Van D. was a member of this group for a short time in the eighties.

The nickname John Eagles probably wasn't chosen by Gerrit Jan van D. out of the blue. John shows resemblance to Johannes, an apostle of Jesus and evangelist of his walk. The eagle was John's symbolic figure, according to the Book of Revelations. In his gospel, the words take flight (philosophically), and with his sharp eye he can see through God's secrets. Eagles also often quotes Pueblo Indians, for whom the eagle - the zenith - oversees everything from above.

The texts do not show that Van D. saw himself as a messiah, more as a messenger. It is striking: a secluded existence or isolation is not a theme. He does not proclaim the 'end of time', for which the family is rumoured to be hiding, anywhere. He does, however, casually claim that he once received '52 revelations in less than three weeks' time' from 'leading angels'.

This is consistent with the story of the Church of Friends, which stated last week that Van D. believed that he had received supernatural messages. His former acquaintances thought he had gone mad.

His own gospel has hardly any followers outside the family. About 'Divine physical exercise' and gardening he keeps well followed Facebook pages. But his spiritual blog has only 21 followers, and the Eagle Wiki has seven almost passive contributors besides him. Three people from his digital circle of friends were active in distributing Eagles' writings with podcast, video or facebook pages.

The mention of one 'Joseph Greenwood' as co-author in the section 'Making cupboards' is striking. Together with Van D., the 58-year-old Austrian furniture maker Josef B. was arrested. He was the tenant of the farm in Ruinerwold. Is he also in the picture of two men with beards in the outdoor pool? We don't know.

The gospel of Gerrit Jan is universal. There are no references to his own children or Ruinerwold. Even the word 'Netherlands' appears only once in the immense encyclopaedia: in an extensive description of the cultivation methods of Kapucijner peas.

On Facebook, John Eagles is a bit more personal. His long hair, he says, refers to 'old tribes with a heavenly mission, long ago'. He is regularly active in the picture. If you sit too much behind your computer screen, do this exercise in between', he writes in a film of an abdominal muscle exercise.

He also tells us that he swims in the former manure cellar of the old stable, in which they have made an underground indoor swimming pool of 11 by 3 metres. Partly intended for our students, when the training centre is ready. Eagles offers all kinds of courses digitally: Divine Principles, mental guidance, martial arts, gardening, natural building. I have been preparing this for the past thirty years'.

The school history of his own children is discussed on his blog, in a plea for home education according to the principle of the Home Church. His children once went to a 'kind of private school' in the neighbourhood, writes John Eagles. He became involved in the maintenance of the school garden, and was later even asked to chair the parents' board. Until the inspectorate 'forced teachers to act in accordance with official government regulations'. Van D. then took his children out of school.

Archival records show that after the turn of the millennium, the Education Inspectorate criticised the 'weak' free school in Meppel. The current director of the free school, Harry Drenthe, confirms that Gerrit Jan van D.'s eldest three children attended the school at the time. They later fled the family, the family announced last week.

In the outside world, the neighbours never heard any children's voices at the farm in Ruinerwold. Even in the digital world, the children remain almost invisible. His accounts do not contain any photos of his family. However, he has made some sketches of children in a yoga pose. They do exercises that he can no longer do. In response to a question from a Facebook expert, he writes that in 'his house, an old farm', he gives training to 'a few people'. Later he states that he prefers to work within 'family structures'.

In another report, Van D. writes more extensively about raising children. If you want a fruit tree to grow nicely and give it abundant fruit, you have to fertilise it exuberantly and often. You have to prune the tree many times, but you don't cut off the wild shoots when they shoot. You wait until winter, when the tree is at rest, and then you only prune what is most necessary. Each tree develops in its own way. Raising children is the same.

Jan, Gerrit Jan's son, was 25 years old when he had the police call last week.


BBM


Link: http://eagle-rock.org/

 

[ZaZara]

Het laatste nieuws uit Nederland leest u op Telegraaf.nl


The father of the family living in isolation with six children for years in a farm in Ruinerwold, is staying in the penitentiary hospital in Scheveningen. The examining magistrate of the court extended his pre-trial detention by fourteen days on Monday. He is in restriction, which means that he can only have contact with his lawyer.

Neither the Public Prosecutor's Office nor the court can say what exactly is the matter with Gerrit Jan van D.. The NOS reports this. He has "a certain medical condition", according to a spokesman for the court. However, it is known that Van D. may have had a stroke three years ago.


BBM

 

[bears10]

I’m sorry, but the Facebook video of the “ghost dads” exercises made me laugh out loud.

Thanks @ZaZara for posting all those links!

 

[MsGazette]

Het laatste nieuws uit Nederland leest u op Telegraaf.nl

Three children fled ghost family in 2011

The brothers and sisters of Gerrit Jan, the father of the family from Ruinerwold, have stated in a letter that three of the husband's children had fled the family eight years ago.

The three of them then contacted their father's family, who were unaware that Gerrit Jan had already had more than three children. The family expressly stated that they had not been aware of where he lived. "Mr. G.J. van D. severed all ties with his immediate family in the eighties of the last century. He urged us not to make any effort to trace his whereabouts."

Van D.'s mother died in 2017. At the time, notaries were unable to trace the man's whereabouts. Van D.'s father is still alive, but is suffering from dementia and lives in a closed institution. "The family has learned of the events in Ruinerwold with consternation. (...) We will give the regional police all the information they need to clarify the background to this tragedy."

Why the three of them no longer wanted to have anything to do with the family has not been made public. It is unclear where these children are now. On Thursday, RTL Boulevard announced that in addition to the three children who had escaped, a fourth also left the family. It would be a 40-year-old man who left in the eighties.

The father was arrested on Thursday. He is suspected of complicity in unlawful deprivation of liberty, ill-treatment in the sense of damaging the health of others and money laundering. Earlier, Josef B., the tenant of the property, was also arrested. The Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) suspects him of the same thing as the father. 58-year-old B. has now been brought before the examining magistrate and will remain in custody for at least the next two weeks.


BBM

I was wondering if you would be looking at this one and here you are! Thank you!

 

[MsGazette]

In zijn boerderij in Ruinerwold schreef Gerrit Jan van D. aan zijn eigen evangelie op internet

In his farm in Ruinerwold, Gerrit Jan van D. wrote his own gospel on the internet

From the farm in Ruinerwold, where Gerrit Jan van D. withdrew with his children for years, he developed his own gospel. As John Eagles, Van D., who is being brought before the magistrates today, wrote thousands of articles about it on the internet.

An older man with a full, grey beard bends, pulls, stretches very evenly. The rowing machine is finished', writes one 'John Eagles' in an explanation below the film. It works very well and offers good training for many parts of the body.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1054300701248700

In the background a harmonious clarinet sounds, a wooden fence further obscures the view. The white walls with green doors were often seen last week on drone statues from above the farm in Ruinerwold. In the picture, the dog that the neighbours always heard barking sniffs.

Today Gerrit Jan van D. (67 years old) is brought before the examining magistrate. He is suspected of complicity in the deprivation of liberty of his six children, money laundering and 'damaging the health of others'.

Gerrit Jan van D. is John Eagles.

A greater paradox does not seem conceivable: the man who kept himself and his children out of the sight of the authorities and local residents for nine years, as became known last Tuesday, puts video footage of his daily physical exercise on Facebook. Under a pseudonym, but still. Online, it turns out, he was an open book. A very thick open book. Because the Facebook page, on which he even posts cat pictures, is the tip of the iceberg.

John Eagles lives in a digital eagle's nest: Eagle Rock Wiki. This is not a page of its own on Wikipedia, but a completely private online encyclopedia. Eagle Rock Wiki offers training and study courses in a wide range of subjects, aimed at creating a better world for everyone', the introduction says. And the responsibility says: 'Working on this website is a way to build a lasting relationship with God.'

Earlier it became clear that Van D. was seeking a self-sufficient existence in nature. Now it turns out that his faith is also homemade. The wiki contains thousands of self-written English lemmas: Spiritual and religious principles, Building a better world, Meeting God, The principles of economic recovery, The workings of the human mind, The end of evil, Divine physical exercise.

But also: Starting a vegetable garden, weed control and the art of making good compost ('Important in getting good compost is the right mixture of materials').
No aspect of existence has been overlooked.

This is modern monastic work, the testimony of a parallel digital universe, the administration of an Other Order. This is the miraculous gospel of Gerrit Jan van D.

Very extensive is the 'garden diary', an instruction illustrated with own photos for sowing and growing all kinds of fruit and vegetables. From strawberries to turnips, from parsley to cabbage. There are also photos of turkeys, chickens and geese.

On some days, the genesis of the wiki teaches us, John Eagles made more than hundreds of postings per day. He starts in December 2011. According to the mayor of De Wolden, the family might already have been living secretly in Ruinerwold for a year. The children (now 18 to 25 years old) are then aged from 10 to 17.

John Eagles studied psychology, he says. Just like Gerrit Jan van D., we know from data of a deed of sale from the Land Registry. The texts about the 'house as a mini-cosmos' are the same as those on the now disappeared website of the toy shop Natural Homes in Zwartsluis, which Van D. owned in the period 2004-2008. Old acquaintances recognize him in photographs. Asked about his connection with John Eagles, an American Facebook friend says that he has known 'Gerrit van D. and his family' for over a decade. The last few days he was in shock when he heard about the arrest.

Remarkable: the work on the digital eagle's nest stops in 2016. Gerrit Jan's son, Jan, told the café in Ruinerwold that his father suffered a stroke 'three years ago'. This corresponds to a statement made by John Eagles on Facebook. A stroke I had on 3 August 2016', he writes. There are more links between son Jan and Eagles' profile. Earlier this year, Jan posts the same film of chicks hatching from an egg as John Eagles placed three years ago. Self recorded on the farm, it says.

John Eagles' religion is a religious potpourri. He invokes classical elements of Old Testament Christianity, such as God as Supreme Being, patriarchs as Abraham and angels. But there are also Buddhist influences and new-age-like lemmas about auras and wheels of energy, about chakras and tai chi.

According to the pseudonym of Van D., uniting world religions is one of the possibilities. His writings also contain traces of the ideas of the Korean Moon sect and the Verenigingskerk. Van D. was a member of this group for a short time in the eighties.

The nickname John Eagles probably wasn't chosen by Gerrit Jan van D. out of the blue. John shows resemblance to Johannes, an apostle of Jesus and evangelist of his walk. The eagle was John's symbolic figure, according to the Book of Revelations. In his gospel, the words take flight (philosophically), and with his sharp eye he can see through God's secrets. Eagles also often quotes Pueblo Indians, for whom the eagle - the zenith - oversees everything from above.

The texts do not show that Van D. saw himself as a messiah, more as a messenger. It is striking: a secluded existence or isolation is not a theme. He does not proclaim the 'end of time', for which the family is rumoured to be hiding, anywhere. He does, however, casually claim that he once received '52 revelations in less than three weeks' time' from 'leading angels'.

This is consistent with the story of the Church of Friends, which stated last week that Van D. believed that he had received supernatural messages. His former acquaintances thought he had gone mad.

His own gospel has hardly any followers outside the family. About 'Divine physical exercise' and gardening he keeps well followed Facebook pages. But his spiritual blog has only 21 followers, and the Eagle Wiki has seven almost passive contributors besides him. Three people from his digital circle of friends were active in distributing Eagles' writings with podcast, video or facebook pages.

The mention of one 'Joseph Greenwood' as co-author in the section 'Making cupboards' is striking. Together with Van D., the 58-year-old Austrian furniture maker Josef B. was arrested. He was the tenant of the farm in Ruinerwold. Is he also in the picture of two men with beards in the outdoor pool? We don't know.

The gospel of Gerrit Jan is universal. There are no references to his own children or Ruinerwold. Even the word 'Netherlands' appears only once in the immense encyclopaedia: in an extensive description of the cultivation methods of Kapucijner peas.

On Facebook, John Eagles is a bit more personal. His long hair, he says, refers to 'old tribes with a heavenly mission, long ago'. He is regularly active in the picture. If you sit too much behind your computer screen, do this exercise in between', he writes in a film of an abdominal muscle exercise.

He also tells us that he swims in the former manure cellar of the old stable, in which they have made an underground indoor swimming pool of 11 by 3 metres. Partly intended for our students, when the training centre is ready. Eagles offers all kinds of courses digitally: Divine Principles, mental guidance, martial arts, gardening, natural building. I have been preparing this for the past thirty years'.

The school history of his own children is discussed on his blog, in a plea for home education according to the principle of the Home Church. His children once went to a 'kind of private school' in the neighbourhood, writes John Eagles. He became involved in the maintenance of the school garden, and was later even asked to chair the parents' board. Until the inspectorate 'forced teachers to act in accordance with official government regulations'. Van D. then took his children out of school.

Archival records show that after the turn of the millennium, the Education Inspectorate criticised the 'weak' free school in Meppel. The current director of the free school, Harry Drenthe, confirms that Gerrit Jan van D.'s eldest three children attended the school at the time. They later fled the family, the family announced last week.

In the outside world, the neighbours never heard any children's voices at the farm in Ruinerwold. Even in the digital world, the children remain almost invisible. His accounts do not contain any photos of his family. However, he has made some sketches of children in a yoga pose. They do exercises that he can no longer do. In response to a question from a Facebook expert, he writes that in 'his house, an old farm', he gives training to 'a few people'. Later he states that he prefers to work within 'family structures'.

In another report, Van D. writes more extensively about raising children. If you want a fruit tree to grow nicely and give it abundant fruit, you have to fertilise it exuberantly and often. You have to prune the tree many times, but you don't cut off the wild shoots when they shoot. You wait until winter, when the tree is at rest, and then you only prune what is most necessary. Each tree develops in its own way. Raising children is the same.

Jan, Gerrit Jan's son, was 25 years old when he had the police call last week.


BBM


Link: http://eagle-rock.org/

well, that was an...interesting...video.

 

[ZaZara]

Het laatste nieuws uit Nederland leest u op Telegraaf.nl

Mysteries surrounding the ghost son: "I was in Canada this year."

Jan, the son of the ghost family from Ruinerwold, who asked for help at a village café a week ago, may have left the farm where the family stayed hidden much earlier and more often. According to reports on social media, which he later deleted, he was in Canada at least twice.

De Telegraaf found reports on Facebook about the runaway son of the ghost family. If the 25-year-old Jan is telling the truth, it supports the image that he, and perhaps also the other children, were not being held captive in the Drenthe farmhouse.

Jan claims to have been in the Canadian city of Toronto at the end of November 2015, and to have started a new job there. "On an aunt's farm," he states, clearly delighted. Although he also admits honestly that he did not exactly work hard there. "Sixty percent chatting with aunt, thirty percent drinking coffee and eating cake with aunt, and ten percent working."

Toronto is the city that is still on his Facebook page, as the location where he has been. In May and June of this year, at least according to his own reports, he reappears there. He reports that he has been to Rouge National Urban Park. "A very beautiful, quiet place to think and calm down."

During this period he recommends a certain Justin on LinkedIn, with whom he claims to have worked well. On this medium he also follows the Toronto International College. It is also mentioned that in this city he would work for Native Creative Economy, the company that is registered in the name of Josef B., the Austrian tenant of the farm in Ruinerwold, who was arrested just like father Gerrit Jan.

That he was abroad, he previously told entrepreneur Sander Kuiper from Almere, whom he had approached to discuss 'matters'. "He wanted to make an appointment. 'But that will probably take a while,' were his literal words. He indicated that he was abroad. His status was set on Toronto."

Internet connoisseur Danny Mekic tells us that Jan's location indication on social media can be authentic. "But it can also be fake. These are customizable location fields." It remains unclear whether Jan has a passport with which he could go to Canada.


BBM


The article goes on to suggest that the reason Jan wanted to leave might be his sexual orientation that conflicted with his father's sermons. True or not, IMHO it is none of our business. It remains to be seen if a crime has been committed at the farm, and if so, what that crime would have been. There are MSM with half a dozen reporters on this 'case'. The fascination of the media with this family is bizarre and the Dutch LE also seems have lost the plot. They're really not that eager in other cases.

 

[katydid23]

tYou just can't make this stuff up! I'd have had a six pack of beer if I was that "escaped" guy.

Special thanks ZaZara for all the information. At first I thought "Preppers" then saw the Moon sect. Light, and healing to all involved. Ya never know. Ya just don't.

O/T. Filly? Is that you? Where ya been? lol I was worried about you.

 

[ZaZara]

Ongeloof bij collega's over verdenking tegen Josef B.

Disbelief among colleagues about suspicions against Josef B.

A nice fellow, a professional and a hardworking man. These are words that a total of six fellow entrepreneurs use to describe Josef B.

A colleague had already said yesterday that he couldn't imagine Josef B. holding people against their will. Today, this image is confirmed by other colleagues.

Josef B., alias the handyman, was arrested last week during a raid on the farm in Ruinerwold, where a family had been living in solitary confinement for nine years. He is suspected of deprivation of liberty, harm to the health of others and money laundering.

Colleagues cannot imagine him capable of this. "I was totally confused when I heard it and I have been upset for days. I thought: do I have such a poor knowledge of people that I did not notice anything?" a colleague from the ship's carpentry department says.

He has known Josef B. for almost twenty years and has worked with him a lot over the years. "In all these years, we may have had one disagreement and that was about the work."

Whatever the outcome, "he can come back to work for me anytime" according to the ship's carpenter.

At least Josef B. will be detained until next Thursday. The multiple chamber decides whether the evidence against him is strong enough to hold him longer.


BBM

 

[ZaZara]

Privacy settings


Ruinerwold-father Gerrit Jan van D. was the ideal parent at Vrije School Zwolle: 'He was a role model'

Gerrit Jan van D., the father of the hidden family in Ruinerwold, was a board member and volunteer of the Free School Foundation in Zwolle for many years. Four of his children would have attended school there and he was in charge of the vegetable gardens. Gerrit Jan was a role model for the school with his way of upbringing.

Between 1998 and 2000 Van D. was a member of the board of Foundation Vrije School Zwolle on the Bachlaan, according to data from the Chamber of Commerce. At that time he also worked for years as a volunteer in the vegetable gardens of the school. Van D. lived with his wife and children in Hasselt at the time. He was always there for everyone," according to Jolanda Stots, who worked a lot with Van D. at the Free School.

"He was an ideal person who was a role model for the school with his way of raising his children," Stots continues. "A super informed and particularly loving figure who had time for everyone and especially also for his children. He cared for them super well. He was a kind of idea figure for me."

Van D., together with other parents, formed the board of the school. The shock that Van D. would be the father of the family in Ruinerwold hit Stots hard. "I immediately recognize him in the photo. I just can' believe it."

Stots remembers that four of the family's children were in school. It is not known whether these are the children who have fled the family before. She also met the mother of the family once. It is believed that she died from bowel cancer in 2004, as her neighbors in Hasselt earlier stated. "I met her once. A quiet woman. At some point she was seriously ill, but Gerrit Jan always took very good care of her."

One day Stots went with Gerrit Jan to a number of plots of land that he owned in Staphorst. They were beautiful gardens and he also had tents there. They lived there a lot. He was working on a therapy for people who wanted to find themselves. I said then: why don't you go and live there, because it was so beautiful. Gerrit Jan told me that it was not allowed to live on the land. A wheelbarrow was not even allowed there."

Dick Kocken, at the end of the 90's treasurer of the school and husband of Stots, saw that Gerrit Jan was positively involved in the education at the school. "He had a clear vision about how education should be done and he expressed that in a very pleasant and quiet way."

Kocken remembers that the school was in a transition period at that time. The government increasingly interfered with the Free School. "I can well imagine that Gerrit Jan left at that time, but I can't remember that very clearly." Kocken knew Van D. as someone who was very self-supporting. "Gerrit Jan was always busy with his vegetable gardens. If someone could live in seclusion on a farm that way, it was him."

In 2009 Gerrit Jan wrote on his blog about the time when he was a board member of 'a school', most probably the Free School in Zwolle. Under the pseudonym John Eagles, Van D. says he wants to have influence on how his children were educated. That's why he decided to become active at the school himself.

Van D. says that he also became active in school administration and experienced how the school came under stricter supervision of the government. Teachers were forced to do things differently and his vegetable gardening lessons were also cancelled. "I decided to focus on other areas of life and take my children out of school."


BBM

 

[claudianunes]

Weird. The first 3 kids leaving. Lots of people not even knowing about the kids that were now found. Weird stuff.

 

[ZaZara]

Het laatste nieuws uit Nederland leest u op Telegraaf.nl

Ruinerwold - The 'ghost children' that Gerrit Jan van D. hid in the Ruinerwold farm, fully participated in social debates online. They have been well educated within the walls of the remote farmstead, they speak excellent English and were preparing themselves for their future.

De Telegraaf has seen protected Facebook posts of the children, and spoken extensively with Charles, the very best friend of 'sect father' Gerrit Jan. He seems to be the only person with whom the father, who is still imprisoned, discussed his deepest feelings. This American appears to be better informed than anyone about what happened in their lives. He now tells extensively, because he hopes that the Netherlands will get a better picture of Gerrit Jan.

For example, the friend from California tells us that the children were already being prepared for a life outside the farm. "Gerrit Jan lived in the farm with four daughters and two sons. The youngest is a girl", he says about the members of the family. Jan, who ran away from the farm and called in the police, is the oldest at the age of 25. According to Charles, Jan is not his real name. "He was called Israel."

Israel was already busy with his life outside Ruinerwold, established business contacts and was full of ambition. For the other children, even though they formed a close and harmonious family together, it was certainly not the intention that they would stay in the shelter forever.

Indeed, Gerrit Jan wanted them to stand on their own two feet, as Charles knows. "That they were going to get married and have children. That was the intention. They would all find their true other half, their father was convinced of that. He would help them with it, was willing to do anything for his children, but on the other hand he was also determined: they have to find their own partner. He doesn't think that's his responsibility."

The question is how the four girls and two boys, without being registered anywhere, could continue their lives. "I'm sure he would have found something on that. And if you really love someone, you can find a solution for that."

Gerrit Jan himself has been married to three women, according to the American. His first marriage took place before he came into contact with the Verenigingskerk, or the 'Moon sect'. His entry into the religious community led to the divorce of his wife, who had little interest in the sect of Korean origin. The couple already had a son by then.

The second marriage was concluded in the Unification Church, as the international name of the Verenigingskerk reads. The couple had two sons and a daughter, who all decided years ago to go their separate ways and recently claimed in a statement that they had never heard from their father again.

The last marriage took place after Gerrit Jan left the cult. It ended sadly in 2004, when the woman died of intestinal cancer, Charles confirms. On official government documents she is registered as Hye-jin Moon-van D., but the American claims that she is not a Korean woman at all. This in turn corresponds to statements by local residents in Hasselt - where the family lived in the past - that the woman did not look Asian.

"Hye-jin Moon is no more than an assumed name", Charles explains. The name is exactly the same as that of a daughter of cult leader Sun Myung Moon who died after only a few days. He says he doesn't know what the woman's origin is.

Gerrit Jan's children were very intelligent according to Charles, who regularly chatted with them. "They were not only very healthy, but also well educated, well developed, well informed about what was going on in the world. I talked to them about a lot of subjects, really from A to Z." Because of the privacy of the children, and the difficult situation they are in now, he doesn't want their names to be mentioned.

The 'ghost children' also gave their opinion on a Facebook discussion page, in which they were called 'outerhouse trainees', literally translated as 'country house trainees'. In it, one of them, in fluent English, elaborates on the Ottoman Empire.

Charles is very worried about Gerrit Jan, whom he considers to be his best friend. The physical condition of the man who is currently in the prison hospital in Scheveningen was already fragile. The American confirms that the father had a brain haemorrhage.

"On August 3, 2016. Since then, he has been half paralysed and can hardly talk anymore. It was serious, he only barely survived. I also had contact with him afterwards, but it was not like before. It was much more difficult for him to express himself. I think his children still understood him well."

According to the American, Gerrit Jan has been suffering from aphasia since the severe stroke, a linguistic disorder caused by brain damage, and as a result he is no longer able to make himself understood, while his mental faculties have not changed. Son Jan, or Israel, indicated earlier on social media that he, together with the other children, 'lovingly cares for his sick father'.

The friend has mixed feelings about him. "I am disappointed in him. Apparently he drinks plenty of beer, while the life of his father, brother and sisters is completely upside down. Gerrit Jan always allowed the children to go out if they wanted to, but did he have to go to such extremes?" The eldest son ordered five beers in one go at café De Kastelein, where he asked for help.

Charles doesn't think that the supposed homosexuality of the boy, who has a rainbow flag to his name on social media, has anything to do with all events. "I can't imagine. Gerrit Jan wasn't homophobic, he loves all his children."

Nevertheless, the 'ghost father' spoke out loud about men's love. The American thinks he meant differently. "I have asked him this several times. He spoke in terms of energy. Positive and negative energies cannot flow well together. He didn't see his eldest son as a bad spirit either. Maybe as someone who was influenced by bad spirits. Gerrit Jan thought that someone then, spiritually speaking, fell off a cliff. After which it is very difficult to climb up again."

Gerrit Jan is having a hard time, Charles assures us. "Everyone saw him from the beginning as a second Josef Fritzl (the Austrian who locked up his daughter for ten years and had children with her, ed.). There are superficial similarities, such as the cellars, that were not even there in his house at all. But that didn't matter. His head had to be cut off. He might be accused of having a problem with authority, yes. He is against all forms of registration, because it is a way for the government to keep control over people. He didn't want the State to play a role in his family life."

There's more, of course. For example, Gerrit Jan kept his children away from school, without permission for home schooling. But deprivation of liberty and the withholding of medical care? Charles doesn't believe it and doesn't see a long prison sentence for his friend. "But as soon as he is released, I don't know how they' re going to proceed. His children, except the eldest of them, undoubtedly were besides themselves when their sick father was snatched from them. Their lives will never be the same again."


BBM

 

[claudianunes]

This is so weird.

 

[ZaZara]

Het laatste nieuws uit Nederland leest u op Telegraaf.nl

The Public Prosecutor's Office aims to determine by means of a DNA test whether the 67-year-old Gerrit Jan van D. and the six young adults with whom he led a withdrawn life in a farm in Ruinerwold, are family members.

A spokeswoman of the Public Prosecutor's Office has confirmed this, following a report in the Dagblad van het Noorden.

Van D. is being held on suspicion of unlawful deprivation of liberty, damage to the health of others (ill-treatment) and money laundering. The 58-year-old tenant of the farm, Josef B., is also in custody on the same grounds. The two will be brought before the council chamber of the court in Assen on Wednesday. The Public Prosecution wants to keep the two of them in custody for longer.

The family had been living in solitary confinement for years. Two weeks ago the ball started rolling after the 25-year-old son had turned up a few times in a pub in Ruinerwold in Drenthe, a town of about 4000 inhabitants near Meppel. When he told his story to the barman of the village pub, the latter called in the police.

The residents told the police that they were a family of which Van D. was the father. The municipality of De Wolden, which includes Ruinerwold, previously announced that only one of the seven people who lived in the farm was registered in the National Register of Persons by means of a birth declaration. The municipality does not want to say which of the seven people was registered.

On Monday, the Public Prosecutor's Office did not want to say anything about the investigation into the case, except: "A DNA a kinship investigation is a part of this." According to the spokeswoman, the Public Prosecution Service may request an extension of custody of both thirty and ninety days on Wednesday.


BBM

Dna-test moet familieband gezin Ruinerwold uitwijzen: 'Willen onomstotelijk bewijs'
The police announced a week and a half ago that this DNA relationship investigation would take place. Both Van D. and the six children claim to be related, but the Public Prosecution wants 'clear proof of this', a spokesman says. The DNA investigation has to make this clear.


Dna-onderzoek moet aantonen of jongeren Ruinerwold ook écht familie zijn


The family has already been examined by a doctor and appears to be physically healthy. According to the police, since the young people were found, there has been a lot of care and attention for them.

"It seems that they have had some form of education. They can speak and write at a good level," a spokesman said.


BBM