This is the front page news of the Post Register, the newspaper in Idaho Falls, Idaho.  (Disclaimer – the paper tends to be biased against conservative Republican politics and Mormonism.  Just ask the neighbors.)

 

Here are excerpts:

The Case:  Kenichi David Kaneko is facing five felony charges for allegedly contributing to the deaths of his wife and daughter:  two counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of abandonment of a vulnerable adult and one count of desertion.  A hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence for him to stand trial on the charges will continue at 9:30 a.m. today at the Madison County Courthouse. 

Kaneko told him [Craig Beaver] that in 1994, his wife and daughter believed they received a revelation that Laura was to marry an apostle.  Lorraine told her husband that their daughter needed to go through a cleansing process, which came to include eating only certain foods and isolating herself from others, including her father, Beaver said.

“He was not allowed to have contact or interaction with their daughter,” he said, adding that the women spent most of their time in Laura Kaneko’s bedroom.  Beaver also said Kaneko told him that Lorrain Kaneko, who at one time regularly cleaned the house with bleach, decided items in the home that broke were not supposed to be repaired.  When the stove went out, they stopped cooking; when the washer and dryer broke, they stopped doing laundry, he said.  “Nothing was allowed to be fixed or replaced,” Beaver said.

Eventually, Kaneko’s wife stopped letting him into the home occasionally and insisted he change his work clothes before he entered the house.  She taped plastic over the windows to block light and to keep people from peering in.

“He had strong faith in his wife’s belief and plan,” Beaver said, adding that she told him not to talk to others about what was going on.  Madison County sheriff’s officials checked on the family on two occasions because of their own concerns and the request of Lorraine’s mother and brother, who lived in a home on the same property. . . .

Beaver said Kaneko told him he discovered her body [his daughter] June 30, 2001, after he used tools to break into the room when he noticed an odd smell. “Her flesh had already started to dry up,” he said, adding that Kaneko’s wife told him this was part of the plan.

After Laura died, Kaneko’s wife allowed him to buy specific items such as flour, tuna and pineapple, Beaver said, but eventually she stopped eating.  Her words began to slur and she had trouble walking, but she insisted she was OK and this was still part of the plan, Beaver said.  She died Feb. 9, 2003. . . .

 

I know this took place several years ago.  But today is the first time I have heard of this.  My heart weeps this morning.