Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
The Ant Hill Kids, led by self-proclaimed prophet Roch Thériault, are considered one of the most bizarre cults in Canadian history. His dark reign began in 1977 with the founding of the doomsday cult Ant Hill Kids, which was based on the beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventists, from which Thériault was expelled in April 1978 due to his abstruse ideas. Thériault’s followers were completely devoted to him, selling their possessions to live with him in a remote area of Quebec. Thériault controlled every aspect of his followers’ lives, who had to live in unsanitary conditions and without any medical care. If they rebelled, harsh punishments followed. Roch Thériault, who saw himself as the reincarnation of Moses, kept a harem of nine women and fathered 26 children as a religious duty. Thériault’s followers lived under his totalitarian rule in a commune and were subjected to severe physical and sexual abuse. But who was this sadist who saw himself as the Messiah? Roch Thériault was born on May 16, 1947, in Saint-Épiphane, one of seven children of Hyacinthe and Pierette Thériault. He grew up in a poor French-Canadian and strictly Catholic family. At the age of 6, Thériault’s family moved to the tranquil town of Thetford Mine. His mother wanted him to become a priest, but he was unpopular with other family members because of his origins, as he was the result of his mother being raped by his grandfather. For most of his childhood, Thériault was regularly beaten by his stepfather, and his mother was too afraid to protect him. This further isolated him from his family. He was considered very intelligent, but he left school after seventh grade. He lived for many years in homeless shelters in Quebec, where he took on various odd jobs before finally starting a small woodworking business. In November 1967, he married Francine Grenier. The couple had two sons and moved to Montréal, where Thériault had to undergo surgery for stomach ulcers. This sparked his interest in human anatomy. In 1970, the small family moved back to Thetford Mine. At that time, Thériault began to drink alcohol regularly and have sex with other women. In his twenties, he converted from Catholicism to the Seventh-day Adventist Church and began to practice their holistic lifestyle, which promoted healthy living without unhealthy foods and tobacco. Thériault initially adhered strictly to this and even gave up alcohol. During this time, young women in particular flocked to the charismatic Thériault, who, with his long brown curls and full beard, actually resembled a prophet from the Bible. Thériault was convinced that the end of the world was imminent and would be triggered by a war between good and evil. The aim of founding the sect was to create a commune where people could listen to his motivational speeches, live in unity and equality, and be free from sin. He forbade the group from having contact with their families and the outside world. In April 1978, Thériault was expelled from the Seventh-day Adventist Church because he was developing increasingly dark ideas. In addition, Thériault’s fear of the end of the world grew, and he claimed that God had warned him of an end on February 19, 1979. The commune then moved to a place called “Eternal Mountain” in Hope, a remote part of the Gaspé Peninsula, where Thériault claimed they could all be saved. There, Thériault had the commune build their city while he relaxed and compared them to ants working diligently in an anthill, following their leader’s instructions without question, hence the name Ant Hill Kids. But when the day came and the end of the world did not happen, Thériault explained that time was different here and in heaven. The longer the cult existed, the more dictatorial and irrational Thériault’s behavior became, and he began to consume more and more alcohol. Members were not allowed to talk to each other when he was not present, nor were they allowed to have sex with each other without his permission.
Thériault used his charisma to cover up his increasingly abusive and delusional actions, and none of his followers dared to question his decisions or hold him responsible for the physical, mental, or emotional harm he caused. Thériault began to punish followers he considered to be straying by monitoring them and claiming that God had told him what they had done. Those who wanted to leave the commune were beaten by Thériault or subjected to worse punishments. After the physical and emotional abuse, the members were so broken that they no longer wanted to leave the cult. In addition, Thériault had sex with all female members in order to increase the number of his followers. All members had to wear tunics and were given biblical names. Thériault saw himself as a miracle healer, who began treating 38-year-old Geraldine Gagné Auclair, who was suffering from leukemia, in March 1978. Her husband had consulted Thériault, who was firmly convinced that Thériault could save his wife. Thériault treated Geraldine with a diet of organic food and grape juice, but she died shortly afterwards. However, Thériault marketed her death as a resurrection myth, claiming that she had come back to life when he kissed her forehead. But God wanted Geraldine, so he did not want to interfere with God’s plan. In 1981, another fateful event occurred, resulting in death. It was March 23 when Thériault held a celebration. Guy Veer, a 23-year-old new member of the sect who was mentally ill, was supposed to look after the children during the celebration. When 2-year-old Samuel Giguère cried incessantly, Guy hit the infant so hard that he fell into a coma. Thériault was called, believing that a blessing would save the boy. He gave him alcohol and operated on the boy, who was dead the next morning. Thériault found Guy guilty of Samuel’s death, who had to be punished, so a show trial was held. But the members acquitted the mentally ill Guy. Thériault did not like this verdict and castrated Guy. Guy felt increasingly uncomfortable in the sect because he had taken on the role of scapegoat, so he fled in November 1981. He alerted the police about Samuel’s murder, who then arrested several sect members. After a nine-month trial, Thériault was sentenced to two years in prison for manslaughter, which he served in Orsainville Prison in Quebec. After his release in 1984 and with significantly fewer members, the sect moved to the community of Somerville, not far from Burnt River, to make a new start. But Thériault fell back into alcoholism, and his punishments became increasingly extreme, including breaking his followers’ limbs with sledgehammers, sitting on burning stoves, shooting at each other, and eating dead mice and feces. One follower cut off another member’s toes with wire cutters to prove her loyalty to Thériault. The children of the sect were also severely abused. Since the state regarded the Ant Hill Kids as an institution, they no longer received social benefits, which is why Thériault sent the sect on theft sprees to secure their livelihood. Those who did not steal enough were punished accordingly. Thériault was an absolute sadist who loved to humiliate his members and have them under his complete control.
In 1987, social workers freed 17 children from the clutches of the cult. Then, in 1989, a tragic event occurred that would later trigger the dissolution of the cult. Solange Boilard, Thériault’s favorite woman, complained of stomach pains, whereupon Thériault subjected her to a rough intestinal operation without anesthesia. He gave her an enema, repeatedly hit her on the stomach, and inserted a tube into her throat, which the others were instructed to inflate. Then he cut open her stomach with a knife and tore out parts of her intestines with his bare hands. Afterwards, follower Gabrielle Lavallée, a trained nurse, had to sew her up with a needle and thread. After this ordeal, Solange was even able to take hot and cold baths on Thériault’s instructions. When Solange Boilard died the next day in unimaginable pain, Thériault initially had her buried in the forest. But shortly afterwards, he had her exhumed so that he could resurrect her from the dead. To do this, he drilled a hole in her skull, ejaculated into it, and boasted of her resurrection thanks to his miraculous powers. Afterwards, other male followers had to do the same. But Solange Boilard could not be brought back to life by Thériault. When he realized this, he removed one of her ribs, which he wore around his neck from then on. Everything came to light when Gabrielle Lavallée managed to escape. Gabrielle Lavallée was physically injured several times in the 1980s. She suffered severe burns to her genitals from a welding torch, an injection needle broke in her back, and eight healthy teeth were forcibly extracted. She could no longer endure the physical punishment and sexual abuse and made four attempts to escape between November 1988 and July 1989, but returned to the sect each time. In 1984, her newborn daughter Eleazar died in the cold in order to protect her from abuse. Thériault saw the punishments as a kind of purification ritual to free the members from their sins and exorcise the devil from them. On July 26, 1989, Thériault, who was heavily intoxicated, had several more fits of rage. He had decided to examine Gabriele’s hand when he suddenly stabbed her in the back of the hand with a knife. The knife went through her hand and into the table, so that Gabrielle could not free herself. Thirty-six-year-old Jacques Giguere, 32-year-old Nicole Ruel, and 31-year-old Chantal Labrie joined in to help Thériault amputate Gabrielle’s right arm. Using a kitchen knife, he cut Gabrielle’s arm down to the bone over several hours before chopping it off with a meat cleaver. After the amputation of her right arm, Gabrielle fled into the forest and actually reached a town where she was admitted to the hospital. There she told of her ordeal. After the authorities were informed of the gruesome details of the abuse, they searched for Thériault and the other three cult members who were on the run. After six weeks, they were arrested. Thériault was sentenced to 12 years in prison for grievous bodily harm to Gabrielle Lavallée. He was also sentenced to life imprisonment for the premeditated murder of Solange Boilard. In 2000, Thériault was transferred to Dorchester Prison in New Brunswick. He was denied parole in 2002. In addition, in 2009, the Canadian Correctional Service prohibited him from selling his artwork on a US auction platform for true crime items, as individuals convicted of violent crimes should not profit from their notoriety. While Thériault was serving his sentence at Dorchester Prison, he was killed on February 26, 2011, by his cellmate Matthew Gerrard MacDonalds, who was already serving a life sentence for another murder, with a knife to the throat. MacDonalds confessed to the murder and handed the knife to the police station, saying, “That piece of shit is down at the shooting range. Here’s the knife, I cut him up.” Thériault’s horrific legacy and the stories of the Ant Hill Kids remain a dark chapter in Canadian history, and he remains one of the country’s most notorious criminals to this day.
