Inside the Church Cult That Eventually Drove Parents to Join a 12-Hour Beating of Their Sons

Residents of Chadwicks, New York, had long thought there might be something wrong with the Word of Life Christian Church. Those suspicions were confirmed on the night of Oct. 11, 2015, when two teenage brothers were savagely beaten for a dozen hours inside the church’s sanctuary room after trying to defect.

The vicious attack — at times carried out by the boys’  parents — left 19-year-old Lucas Leonard dead and his then-17-year-old brother, Christopher, severely injured.

Soon pulled under the harsh scrutiny of a police investigation, the little-known religious sect was revealed as a dangerous cult.

Nearly three years later and Word of Life is no more. Christopher continues to recover from his injuries and relatives tell PEOPLE he recently graduated from high school….Click Here To Keep Reading