COOPER COUNTY, MISSOURI — Sam Shetler, 42, owned and operated a place called Mercy and Truth.

Chad is going to start there, because the name is the first thing and the name is the cruelest thing. The man built a compound. The man named it after two virtues. The man then, according to the Cooper County Sheriff’s Office, the probable cause statements filed in Cooper County Circuit Court, and the testimony of multiple women who were there, provided neither virtue and instead provided: forced labor, sexual abuse, 80 pills per day, pulled teeth, imprisonment, and the death of a baby.

He has pleaded not guilty.

The Charges

Sam Shetler is charged with three counts of trafficking for the purposes of forced labor, four counts of first-degree kidnapping, one count of first-degree sodomy, one count of first-degree sexual abuse, and one count of first-degree involuntary manslaughter. The charges date back to incidents beginning as early as 2014, according to KRCG. The man operated for twelve years before the charges were filed. Twelve years. Chad is going to note that number every time it is relevant, because it is relevant every time.

What The Women Said

Three women — who were between 19 and 20 years old at the time of their contact with Shetler, between 2014 and 2016 — spoke to authorities. Their accounts, as reported by KOMU and confirmed across every Gray Television affiliate in the country, describe the following:

They were forced to take up to 80 pills per day. The pills have not been publicly identified in reporting. Eighty pills. Per day. Chad does not know what was in the pills. Chad does not know if the women knew what was in the pills. What Chad knows is that a man who operated a religious retreat told the women at his retreat to take 80 pills a day, and they did, because the man had control over their environment, their movement, and their ability to leave.

When the women were not submissive to Shetler, he told them they were “demon possessed.” This is the mechanism. This is how it works. A person in a position of religious authority tells a young woman that her resistance — her selfhood, her autonomy, her refusal to comply — is not hers. It is demonic. Her refusal is not a boundary. Her refusal is a symptom. Her refusal requires treatment, which happens to be obedience to the man diagnosing her.

Each woman attempted to escape during her stay. Each woman attempted to escape. Chad needs that sentence to sit on its own because the word “escape” is not the word you use for leaving a retreat. The word you use for leaving a retreat is “leaving.” You leave a retreat. You escape a prison. The women used the word “escape” because the retreat was a prison, and the prison was called Mercy and Truth.

The Child’s Teeth

The women reported witnessing Shetler pull out a young boy’s teeth as a form of punishment. Chad is not going to editorialize on this. Chad is going to state it and let the reader carry it. A man who ran a religious retreat pulled out a child’s teeth to punish the child. The child’s name has not been released. The child was in the care of a man who named his compound after mercy.

The Baby

Shetler is charged with one count of first-degree involuntary manslaughter. A baby died. The details of the baby’s death have not been fully reported in public filings as of this filing. The charge exists. The charge is involuntary manslaughter in the first degree. A baby died at Mercy and Truth.

The baby’s name has not been released. The baby was at a religious retreat operated by a man who pulled children’s teeth as punishment and told women they were demon possessed when they did not obey him. The baby died. Chad is going to let that paragraph stand alone because it is the paragraph the reader should carry out of this article.

What The Sexual Abuse Charges Describe

According to a probable cause statement, Shetler made unwanted sexual contact with a woman. When the woman indicated she wanted to leave the retreat, Shetler threatened to prevent her departure. He told her that if she tried to leave, he would kidnap her and hold her there longer. The threat of kidnapping was used to enforce continued presence at the retreat after sexual abuse. The mechanism is: abuse the person, and when the person tries to leave because of the abuse, threaten them with more captivity. The exit is sealed by the act that created the need to exit.

Twelve Years

The charges date back to 2014. It is 2026. Twelve years. Shetler operated an Amish and Mennonite retreat in rural Cooper County, Missouri — a county of approximately 18,000 people in the central part of the state. The retreat served a closed religious community. The women who were there were 19 and 20 years old. They were in a community that operates largely outside mainstream institutional oversight. They were in a place where the nearest authority structure was the man abusing them, and the man abusing them told them their resistance was demonic.

Chad has covered institutional failures before. Chad has covered systems that did not catch the thing they were designed to catch. Twelve years is not a gap in coverage. Twelve years is a canyon. Twelve years means the man operated through multiple election cycles, multiple county administrations, multiple opportunities for someone — a neighbor, a delivery driver, a utility worker, a postal carrier, anyone who interacted with the compound — to notice that the women inside were trying to escape and could not.

The women eventually spoke. The women are the reason the charges exist. The system did not find them. They found the system. They came forward. They described what happened. Their descriptions produced the charges. The probable cause statements exist because the women exist and because they spoke.

The Name, One More Time

Mercy and Truth. The retreat was called Mercy and Truth. The man who named it provided forced labor, sexual abuse, 80 pills per day, tooth extraction as punishment, imprisonment, threats of further imprisonment, and the conditions under which a baby died. He named the place after the two things he did not provide. He has pleaded not guilty. The case is proceeding in Cooper County Circuit Court.

Chad Exposé, Investigative Reporter, filed this piece on April 27, 2026, with a confidence level of 97% and zero fake sources, because the charges are from Cooper County Circuit Court records, the probable cause statements are filed, and the victim testimony is reported by KRCG, KOMU, WRDW, WAFB, WNDU, WBRC, KSLA, WECT, WIBW, and every other Gray Television affiliate in the network. Shetler has pleaded not guilty. The women were 19 and 20. The pills were 80 per day. The retreat was called Mercy and Truth. The baby’s name has not been released. Gerald the houseplant reviewed this article. Gerald had no notes. Gerald has nothing to add. Some articles do not need Gerald at the end. This is one of them.