Dutch ‘end of times’ family and their ‘captor’ were members of the Moonie cult, it is claimed – and the ‘prisoners’ took part in rituals where they moved in circles after they were released
- Police rescued a father and his five adult children living at remote Dutch house
- Josef Brunner will appear in court on Thursday for allegedly imprisoning family
- His brother claims the 58-year-old became delusional after joining a sect
- Police were alerted when a 25-year-old man walked to a bar and asked for help
- Brunner said to have met the family through the Unification ‘Moonie’ Church
A Dutch family and their alleged captor of nine years were members of the Moonie cult, it has been claimed.
Carpenter Josef Brunner, 58, nicknamed Josef the Austrian, is accused of imprisoning his friend and his five children in a remote farmhouse at Ruinerwold, 60 miles north of Amsterdam.
The van Dorsten family were discovered after the eldest son, 25, walked to a nearby bar on Sunday, ordered five beers, and asked for help.
Brunner is thought to have met the reclusive father-of-five Geert Zon van Dorsten through the Unification Church – whose members are called ‘Moonies’ – after he dropped out of the Army in the late 90s, his family claimed.
According to locals at a holiday park where the van Dorsten family were taken after they were liberated, they moved in a circle together every 30 minutes in a ritual believed to relate to the Moonie cult, RTV Drenthe reported.
The Unification Church was founded by South Korean pastor Sun Myung Moon, who declared himself the Messiah in the 1950s, it was brought to the Netherlands in 1965.
A large amount of money in cash was found in the Ruinerwold farmhouse where the van Dorstens lived. It is believed this money came from donations from the Moonies.
Police bring in equipment into the farmhouse in Ruinerwold, 60 miles north of Amsterdam, where carpenter Josef Brunner, nicknamed Josef the Austrian, has been arrested for allegedly imprisoning his friend and his five children
Josef Brunner’s old family home, his brother Franz said Josef had become delusional and stopped speaking to his family
Jan Zon van Dorsten, 25, is the son who alerted Dutch police to the plight of his four brothers and sisters and their father, who were living in isolation at a remote house while apparently waiting ‘for the end of times’
A former neighbour has revealed how Josef Brunner lived next door to the ‘off-grid’ family for a brief period in Hasslet, the Netherlands
Today, a court extended Brunner’s custody for another two weeks. He is charged with unlawful detention and harming others’ health, and will remain in detention for at least two more weeks.
History of the Moonies or Unification movement:
The Unification Church was started in South Korea in 1954 by Reverend Sun Myung Moon, who put forth a theology that mixed Judeo-Christian and Eastern philosophies and proclaimed it time to unite all world religions and bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth.
Pastor Sun Myung Moon at a mass wessing in Seoul in 2002
According to Moon, Jesus (who appeared to him in a vision) had been meant to marry and have children so that he and his wife could become the True Parents of mankind and erase original sin from humanity. But Jesus was crucified before he could fulfill his mission, so God had to send a second Messiah, which he did around 1930, to a place that had to be Korea (the Church’s text, Divine Principle, outlines various historical and numerological reasons for these conclusions.)
Moon was born in what is now North Korea in 1920 and married Hak Ja Han, and the Church taught that they were the new designated True Parents who would bring God’s Kingdom to Earth. The arranged marriages and mass weddings of members were called Blessings and the Church believed they erased original sin from members and their future children.
The behavioral edicts were puritanical – no alcohol, no drugs, no premarital sex, limited physical contact between genders.
Following Moon’s death in 2012, the Church splintered, with his widow and two sons taking over different factions.
Hak Ja Han has come to be called the co-Messiah by many followers; she founded the Women’s Federation for World Peace International. Supporters of Moon’s oldest living son, Hyun Jin Preston Moon, led the Family Peace Association; his youngest, Hyung Jin Moon, started Sanctuary Church.
The Moonie claim has thrown fresh light on the relationship between Brunner and Van Dorsten and the father of five is set to be questioned as a suspect.
Geert Zon van Dorsten’s cousin said he had broken off contact with his family decades ago.
It was about thirty years ago. There was a lot of disagreements between my parents and Geert,’ van Dorsten’s cousin said.
Franz Brunner earlier said his brother was married to a Japanese woman and had become disillusioned from his family after joining the sect.
‘My brother was always only for his own advantage,’ he said. ‘He was with a sect and he believed he was better than the Jesus.’
‘When my father handed over the farm to me, the problems started. When Josef learned that I was in charge of the farm, he immediately demanded that I pay him for his services.
‘For ten years, I have had no contact with him. The last time I saw him I said to him, ‘You do not have to come back. I do not want to have anything to do with people like you.”
Detectives are trying to unravel what drove Austrian-born Brunner to detain van Dorsten and his children, aged between 18 and 25, in a secret room at the secluded mansion.
To those who knew him for the 16 years he lived in the Netherlands he was a secretive, quiet loner who rarely made friends and found it difficult to engage socially.
His brother Franz said the kidnap suspect had abandoned his twin daughters when they were young children and ignored them when they tried to contact him as adults in 2017.
When Brunner’s father died in 2015 he did not attend the funeral and when his mother passed away 18 months ago, he failed to return calls to his family in Austria.
Franz said Brunner was born on March 3, 1961 in Waldhausen, Austria and was one of five peasant children.
He completed a carpentry apprenticeship with distinction, but while enrolled in the army in Linz he joined a sect.
The brothers quarrelled over their parent’s farm and fell out with Brunner moving out.
Josef camped for a while in a house nearby and eventually moved in with an old aunt who lived in a 300-year-old house with a lot of land in Pabneukirchen, Austria, and appointed him as her heir.
He lived there from 1998 to about 2008, his brother says. He is then believed to have moved to Hasselt, the Netherlands, where he lived next door to the family he is accused of holding captive.
A former neighbour told MailOnline Josef lived briefly next door to the van Dorsten family but had left by the time Geert’s wife had died from colon cancer.
Police in Ruinerwold on Thursday as they continue their investigation into Brunner’s isolated house
Former neighbour Sandra Soer said: ‘The majority of children born in this house. There was no midwife involved. They all did that themselves.
‘A daughter had a birthday on the same day as my daughter. They often played together. But only in their back garden. The children never went out on the street or came to our house. You’d often see them climbing in the trees.
‘The children didn’t go to a school in the neighbourhood. But I saw them leave every morning with a bag with their father, so I assumed they were going to school somewhere else.’
Mrs Soar said Brunner only lived in the street for a very short time. She said she thought he knew the reclusive van Dorstens before he moved in because shortly afterwards they removed a fence that separated their back gardens.
But by 2004, before Geert’s wife died in mysterious circumstances, he had already left.
It is reported that after leaving Austria, Josef fathered up to five more children and is reported to have an adult son living in Zwartsluis, a few miles from the farmhouse where the family were found.
Mrs Soer said: ‘One day Gerrit-Jan came and told me that his wife had just died of colon cancer. Nobody knew she was that sick. No one knew when she was buried.
‘Not long after, the family had left but they continued to pay the rent for the house. One of the daughters lived in the house for a while. I think she was sixteen. But a short time later when someone from the housing association came round, the house was vacated.’
Mr van Dorsten and Brunner both shared a passion for woodwork. He was a toy maker and his eventual captor built wooden canoes.
Brunner only lived at in the ground floor of the house at de Weerd in Hasselt for a few months and disappeared.
Officers found his four brothers and sisters, aged between 18 and 25, along with their father in a room hidden behind a staircase in Ruinerwold, 60 miles north of Amsterdam
A woman who used to be ‘Josef the Austrian’s next door neighbor said he had only lived on the street, next to the ‘imprisoned family’ for a short time
Officers raided this property on Sunday where they discovered Jan’s family living in an ‘enclosed space’. Josef Brunner, 58, who rented the property, was arrested
Ms Soer went on: ‘I was surprised that they had remained in contact and even more shocked when I heard what had happened to Geert and his family.
‘Josef was never friendly. He never said hello. He wasn’t friends with anybody.
‘He never had a wife. He never had a girlfriend. He would never go to a bar. He was just mysterious.
‘When they left, I didn’t know where they’d gone.
‘It was a total surprise to me that they were still in touch with Josef. This is a very sad situation for the family.’
Van Dorsten owned a toy shop and moved over the years into rented properties in the village in Zwartsluis before moving into the rented detached house at Ruinerwold which has been sealed off by police.
The van Dorstens allegedly lived like hobbits in the basement of the remote farmhouse for almost a decade before their secret was exposed this week when the eldest son walked into a bar and told the owner how the family had been living.
Jan Zon van Dorsten, 25, drank five pints of beer in the café De Kastelein and revealed to the owner Chris Westerbeek how they had been living.
Neighbours said they had been suspicious about Brunner who would go back and forth from the house to his workshop 15 miles away in a Volvo every day.
Meanwhile MailOnline can reveal how Brunner lived illegally in a trailer four miles from the house where the family of six were imprisoned.
The caravan was parked behind his workshop at Meppel.
The family ran this shop Zwartluis, which was searched by the police shortly after they were found
Jan raised the alarm after walking from the house to a local bar where he ordered five beers and told the bartender that he couldn’t go home
Cafe De Kastelein in Ruinerwold where the eldest son drank beer before raising the alarm
He would make weekly visits to a local Lidl supermarket in to stock up on supplies for the family.
A man who owns a building business next door said: ‘I have known him for about seven years, but I really know very little about him.
‘I would see him every day, but he will just say hello. Only wants to look inside his work premises and I saw a trailer hidden behind a wall where he was living.
‘I could never have imagined that he had another home and six people were in there. He never ever talk about friends or anybody.
It is not allowed for him to live here, but he used to.
‘I was curious because he would buy something like 50 toilet rolls and huge boxes of food once a week and then drive off with them. But he lived here. So he wasn’t living with that family.’
Another man, a truck driver, said: ‘He was always very secretive. He never spoke with anybody.
‘He would reverse his blue Volvo onto the drive of his workshop, and then go inside for the night. Nobody knew him. He didn’t want to speak to anybody.’
Brunner, known as ‘Josef the Austrian’ will appear in court on Thursday, as it emerged the family can barely talk and speak in a ‘fantasy language’ after spending nine years in isolation.
Investigators earlier revealed they had difficulty understanding the victims, with parts of their speech deemed ‘incomprehensible’ – and said they slept and ate on the floor in a room with no windows, according to local reports.
Despite sharing a ‘small, enclosed space’ with no natural light, police confirmed the family were not malnourished and looked ‘normal’.
Investigators admit they are still deeply puzzled by the case and are still working to answer key questions – such as whether the family were held against their will by Brunner.
Native Creative Economy, a company based in Meppel which is owned by Josef Brunner
Police continued working at the property Wednesday, as they try to unravel the mystery of how the family came to be there, and whether they were being kept against their will
Police say they are puzzled by the case – a mystery that is deepened by the fact that Jan had access to social media and had been posting since June this year until the time he was rescued
However more details may emerge when he appears in court for the remand hearing, after being charged with the deprivation of liberty and prejudicing the health of others.
Neighbours told local media they were puzzled by the man – described as a skilled ‘wood-worker’ – as it emerged the ‘odd-jobs-man’ had asked neighbours for renovation tips such as laying concrete and appeared to have renovated the isolated home alone.
He would reportedly ask locals for tips on building and construction but would not elaborate on where he lived or with whom.
One local told Bild newspaper: ‘The man has renovated all this alone, came with his trailer and building materials. I’ve always wondered ‘how can he do it all on his own?’
‘He must have had help, it can not be done on his own.’
Residents also claim Brunner had surveillance cameras around the property, kept the gate locked and peered through binoculars.
He would reportedly ‘chase’ people away that strayed too close to the house.
‘It was enough for you to come near the farm and he sent you away. He followed everything with binoculars,’ one local told Aftonbladet.
The mystery is deepened further by the fact that Jan, the eldest son, had access to social media and had been active on Facebook since June this year.
Posts on his public profile show he used the platform for several years until 2010, when he posted saying that he had moved to Ruinerwold – the village where the house is located.
Jan was active on Facebook until 2010, when it is thought his family moved to the house, before his profile went silent – only to activate again in June this year
Police were still present at the house on Wednesday, three days after the initial raid took place
The house is located in Ruinerwold, around 60 miles north of Amsterdam, and it is thought the family moved there in 2010
The profile then goes silent until June this year, when it suddenly reactivated with a post announcing that Jan was working as an online store manager at Creconat, located in Meppel – a village around four miles from Ruinerwold.
‘Creativity for everyone!’ the post says.
Jan spent his time on social media posting pictures of nature and promoting causes, such as climate strikes.
On Saturday he uploaded three photos of landmarks around Ruinerwold that were taken in the dark. It is thought these were taken while he was walking to the bar.
It is reported he went to the bar three times before the barman – Chris Westerbeek – called police, describing Jan as dishevelled, confused and needing help.
None of Jan’s family were registered on government databases, police have confirmed – perhaps indicating how they managed to go undetected for years.
Local media reported Brunner was born in Vienna. The Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs could only confirm that Josef has requested not to be contacted by the embassy, and has refused their help.
The house itself was set back 200 yards from the nearest road, and another 100 yards from the nearest building.
Pictures show it was surrounded by trees, blocking off the view, and also had a perimeter fence.
Police raided the property along with a workshop belonging to Brunner in the nearby village of Meppel, where Jan listed himself as working
Bar owner, Chris Westerbeek, recalled the 25-year-old man came in numerous times over a number of days and looked ‘confused’
Police spokesman Ramona Venema confirmed the family was found at the remote house
Vegetables were being grown in plots surrounding the property, while a goat was also kept there.
Ruinerwold mayor Roger de Groot told a press conference that neither he nor the police had ever seen anything like it.
Speaking about the inside of the house, he added: ‘The police found a number of rooms with makeshift furnishings where the family lived a withdrawn existence. That is where the six were found.’
He denied that the family had been living in a basement.
A statement from local police said Brunner was refusing to cooperate with the investigation but was detained and being interrogated.
‘We understand that everyone still has many questions,’ a police spokesman said. ‘We do too. That is why we want to do our research thoroughly and carefully.
‘This means that we may not be able to answer everything immediately. Simply because sometimes we don’t have answers yet. Or we cannot share them.
‘We have called in a Large Scale Investigation Team (TGO). Investigators are probing possible criminal offenses under the leadership of the Public Prosecution Service.’
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