My Story

I am Sheri Autrey and I am a survivor of Child Sexual Abuse by a “Worker” (minister) in the secretive sect that I was born and raised in. I was 17 when I moved away from home and left the sect, which members refer to as “The Truth”.

When I was 12 years old I was groomed by Steve Rohs, a “worker” who two years later came to stay in our home, a common practice in the sect. During his stay at our home I was molested on a daily basis. No one stopped him. No one questioned him or his intentions. No one found out about it until three years later, when my parents asked what happened only after I hinted at the predatory relationship. It wasn’t until I visited a counselor following the admission that I even realized the daily child sexual abuse I endured was a crime.

In August of 1986 I went to the authorities in Tulare County California where the crime was committed. Like so many victims, I was warned that I would be ripped to shreds in the courtroom and, based on my upbringing I had no faith that a jury would believe me over a revered man of God. I chose not to press charges at the age of 17.

Despite not taking Rohs to court, I asked that the organization go to every home the “worker” stayed in over the years — (it is standard practice in the sect for workers to be homeless and live with a rotating roster of members) and find the other victims of his. I wanted it to be publicly known that he was a child molester. They never did. Within the next few years, he was promoted within the religious hierarchy to “elder” — authority figures who hold meetings in their homes.

He was later brought back into my home to apologize to me for his abuse at the insistence of other sect members aware of his actions. I did not accept it. He would go on to abuse more children sexually, physically and spiritually.

The sect and its culture, it turns out, was the perfect breeding ground for child sexual abuse. It is not a registered church in the USA or most other countries worldwide. It is not a 501(c) 3 nor are any of the monies accounted for. It was started in 1897 by William Irvine and has spread worldwide over time. Their belief is that all other bible based christian churches as well as all other religions are false religions. Pre-pandemic the estimated worldwide population of the organization was 250,000.

As other survivors and I learned many years later while trying to expose these misdeeds, there are upwards of 700 or more members of the sect who have had allegations of abuse against them. 

I continued to heal from this ordeal many years later and only after I began confronting the injustices placed on the vulnerable within the religious organization I was raised in. In 2010 I wrote an email to nearly 1,000 members of the organization and, though it was dismissed and ignored internally, it received a great deal of viral attention from sympathetic websites and other survivors. The results gave me a purpose.

In August of 2022 I heard about the look back windows that were being opened by some states to report sexual abuse that could be prosecuted regardless of any previous statute of limitations. Not only did I get to work seeking justice for my own case, I worked with fellow survivors to gather evidence from hundreds of people who had suffered abuse and then a familiar pattern of suppression and repression from their religious hierarchy.

My mission had always been to expose my perpetrator, not knowing that my story was just one of thousands. The abuse that has been exposed to this point is horrific and it is just the tip of the iceberg.

Of those survivors, many of them have just told of their abuse for the first time this last year, they  have no recourse for justice due to the statutes of limitations. My mission is to not only continue to expose the prolific abuse within The Truth, but to show society as a whole the importance of removing the statute of limitations nationwide on these types of crimes, enabling victims to pursue justice and preventing abusers from victimizing more children.

As I fight for that future, I know from experience that it is worth the discomfort of telling it if there is a single person who hears my story and finds any comfort in knowing that there is a path to a better life, a mended soul or simply the knowledge that they are not alone.

The Native Thunderbird symbol represents power, protection, and strength.