Every Town - The Ant Hill Kids: MURDER In The Canadian Wilderness

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

If you think you're too smart to fall into the clutches of a cult, think again. Because the scariest part isn't what was done to The Ant Hill Kids, it's how easily their leader convinced them to let him do it. Visit MintMobile.com/everytown and get 3 monthsof unlimited wireless for just $15 a month at mintmobile.com/everytown 👀 Watch This Episode On Youtube: https://youtu.be/ACiNUTzIApY 👁 Check out our movie AN ANGRY BOY for FREE! ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvtlOlODQ8g&t=5238s⁠ ⁠https://tubitv.com/movies/100029672/an-angry-boy⁠ International & Other Ways To Watch: ⁠https://www.anangryboy.com/⁠ 💀 MERCH: ⁠https://scary-mysteries.teemill.com/⁠ 💀 Free 7 Day Trail on Exclusive Episodes, Podcasts & Perks! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries⁠   🎧 Our Other Podcast Scary Mysteries: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZooEZMoZ421WdsOVJhVkT⁠ 👁 X: ⁠https://x.com/ScaryMysteries1⁠ 👁Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg⁠ 👁 TikTok: ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald⁠ 👁Facebook: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial⁠ 👁 X: ⁠https://x.com/ScaryMysteries1⁠   🗣 Business Inquiries, questions and comments hit us up at ⁠[e-mail]⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you ready to dive into the unknown? Join me, Peyton Moreland, on Into the Dark, the true crime podcast from Ono Media with a hint of horror and mystery. Each week, I dive into a different case, breaking down the facts, and pondering the age-old question, why do people do what they do? Now, sometimes the answer isn't so clear, and that's why I'll also explore conspiracy theories, hauntings, and all things spooky. From the Green River Killer to the Mothman incident, we will unravel all of the questions that keep us up at night. So don't miss out. Subscribe now on your favorite podcast platform.

New episodes drop every Wednesday. Into the dark, where true crime meets the eerie unknown. Every town has a dark side. In 1977, a nurse was sitting in a community hall listening to a man preach about the end of the world coming. as she was depressed and like a lot of people feeling pretty lost in life and this man who was charismatic to the max walked up to her after his speech was done looked directly into her eyes and told her that he knew how to help ease her pain for good all she had to do was quit her job leave her family and follow him out into the canadian wilderness

so she did and so did a whole bunch of other people and over the course of the next decade, what would develop from there was one of the most depraved and vicious cults the world has ever seen, the details of which are hard to even put into words. Hey, guys, it's Andrew, and welcome back for another episode of Everytown War today. We're diving into the story of Roche the Ralt and the Anhill Kids, one of the most brutal cults that we've had the misfortune witness.

If you think you're too smart to fall for something like this, well, you might want to think again. because the scariest part isn't what the Ralt did to his followers. It's how easily he convinced them all to let him do it. So, let's head up to Canada now and go inside the An Hill Kids' cold. Evil takes time to grow. Like anything else in this life, it's a process that evolves over time. You want to get in better shape,

you need to dedicate yourself to the gym for months and years to see results. If you want to get ahead in your career, it takes years to learn the road. hopes. An evil is the same, and often it starts out small in the most normal of places, but if left unchecked, it metastasizes. And that's exactly what happened to a smart kid in Quebec. Roche the Rall was born in 1947 in St. Epiphany, Quebec. He came from a large family, seven kids in total, as folks raised them all to be good Catholics. When Roach was six, they all moved to Thetford Mines, a mining city, of course, where his dad painted houses and his mom ran the household

with religious precision. Every single Sunday they all attended Mass, no exceptions, but Roche, well, he wasn't like the other kids. After church was out, when they all went to play outside, but you can find him with his nose buried in the Bible. He usually like to gloss over all the boring things about love and forgiveness, and head straight to the violent stuff. The Old Testament stories about God's wrath, the book of Revelation with its descriptions of the apocalypse reigning down on humanity. His family thought it was great, and he was being a good Catholic boy, but too much of anything, as they say, is never good.

By the time he was 13, when most teens are worried about acne and crushes, Roche had convinced himself wholeheartedly at the end of the world was coming soon, and he was somehow special in God's plan because he understood that. His education ended in seventh grade, not because he was dumb, but because that's all the local school system offered. He kept teaching himself, diving deeper into religious texts, becoming more and more convinced that he had knowledge that other people didn't. His parents' religious devotion wasn't helping matters either, and his dad was involved in with something called the Berets Blanc, Catholic fringe group with fascist leanings. Young Roche would tag along on their door-to-door recruitment missions,

watching his dad try to convert neighbors to their extreme beliefs. And looking back, neighbors remembered some disturbing things. One guy told local papers about a game the Therault family played called Bone. Father and son would sit at the kitchen table wearing thick work boots and kick each other as hard as they could, until one of them gave up. That same neighbor described hearing Roche's mother, screaming at the kids constantly.

Roach's father denied these claims later, but something was clearly warped in that household. At age 20, Roche married Francine Grenier, and they moved to Montreal, had two sons, and seemed to be settling in to a normal enough life. Except the part about how Roche controlled every aspect of Francine's appearance, what she wore, how she actually. in public. You have to remember, he knew more than everybody else, and he wasn't afraid to let that

be known. First, he demanded modest dresses from his wife, then suddenly switched and made her wear miniskirts. And the rules kept changing, but the control was constant. Then came the health crisis that changed everything. Roche himself developed severe stomach ulcers that required surgery. The pain was excruciating, and so he moved beyond just religious. fanaticism, and he now became obsessed with medical textbooks, studying anatomy, developing theories about healing that had nothing to do with actual medicine. Roach truly thought he could figure things out better than the entire history of the medical community put together. Armed with even more confidence, no matter how delusional it was, and bounced around to a few Catholic organizations,

clubs, and what have you, to try and enlighten them. every time he just freaked them out more than anything, really rocked the boat, and so they'd kick him out. Now most people who get rejected like that might feel embarrassed and they'd be angry, or realize that they were being too pushy and changed their ways, but Roche didn't think like that. He certainly wasn't like most people. And he took it all as a sign that he was just on the wrong path. All signs pointed to the fact that he needed to start his own thing completely from scratch. You know it doesn't belong in your epic summer plans, getting burned by your old wireless bill?

While you're planning, backyard barbecues, and long weekends on the beach, your cell phone bill shouldn't be the thing holding you back. That's why I made the switch to Mint Mobile, and honestly, I wish I'd done it sooner. With Mint, I'm getting the same reliable coverage and fast speeds I have with my old provider, but for a fraction of the price. And right now, they've got a summer promo that's kind of wild. You can get three months of unlimited premium wireless service for just $15 a month. That means while your friends are sweating over data overages and surprise charges, you'll be chilling, literally and financially. Mint Mobile runs in the nation's largest 5G network, so the service is solid.

You keep your phone, your number, and all your contacts, while you're ditching is the bloated bill. And I use Mint Mobile, and you should too. And this year, skip breaking a sweat and breaking the bank. Get this new customer offer and your three-month unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com slash every town. That's mintmobile.com slash every town. Up front payment of $45 required equivalent to $15 a month. Limited time new customer offer for first three months only.

The speeds may slow above 35 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. In January of 1977, he converted to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. This wasn't just changing denominations, it was a complete lifestyle overall. No alcohol or tobacco, no unhealthy food. Strict rules about everything from diet to dress. For someone who loved controlling others, it was perfect.

Not because he wanted to follow the rules, but because he could use them to control people who did. So the Adventists loved him at first. Roche was magnetic when he spoke about faith and salvation. He could draw crowds, inspire conversations, and make people see the importance of the big picture and look beyond just themselves. But church leaders started noticing something weird. While the people Roche was converting and bringing into their church didn't seem all that interested in Adventist doctrine. They were more interested in Roche himself. They hung on his every word, treated him like he had special access to divine truth. Within the year, he had a core group of followers,

mostly women who spent their weekends at the apartment of a woman named Gisela Frank, the first official member of what would become the Anheil Kids. And this is where Roche started calling himself Moses, claiming to be a reincarnation of the biblical prophet. He preached about the coming apocalypse and positioned himself as the, only person who could lead them to salvation. His genius for recruitment really showed at a summer retreat on Lake Rousseau the moment he met Gabriel Lavalle. She was a trained nurse, educated, supposedly smart enough to spot manipulation from afar. Like so many others, he was a person

who was depressed in carrying the scars of childhood abuse and searching for direction. For her, Roche, didn't pitch himself as some self-proclaimed profit, at least not right away. Now, he played the role of a holistic healer with a practical vision, a wellness center where broken people could find help, and where Gabrielle could put her nursing skills to use. And he offered something she hadn't felt, real purpose. He made her feel needed, gave her a role in something bigger than the world she was so used to. When you get down to it, well, that's how cult recruits.

actually works. It's not flashy or obvious. It's a slow, careful process of spotting exactly what someone's missing, be it purpose, belonging, healing, and then stepping in as the answer. Soon Roche had convinced his growing circle to quit their jobs or drop out of school, because according to him, there was no point. The world you see was going to end on February 19th of 1979. And things like careers or degrees, well, they don't mean a thing in God's kingdom. And then one after another, perfectly rational adults gave up their futures to follow a man who claimed he had a direct line to the divine. They set up the healthy living clinic, supposedly an alternative medicine practice. Roche claimed his special remedies could cure

any single illness. His followers wore matching uniforms, green tunics for women, beige ones for men, only Roche stood apart, dressed in dark brown robes that marked his special status. But their clinic was really about two things, money and recruitment, of course. It generated income while allowing Roche to identify vulnerable people who might join his movement. Those who were dissatisfied with Western medicine and looking for more. It also gave Roche the opportunity to play doctor, which fed his growing obsession with controlling people. In March, 1978, a woman named Geraldine Aukler came to the clinic.

She had leukemia and was getting real medical treatment at a hospital in Quebec City. But her husband, looking at all possibilities to save his wife, stumbled upon Roche and became fascinated with his teachings. It was then pretty easy to convince the woman to abandon conventional medicine for the alternative approach they offered. And the treatment? Organic food and grape juice. That's it. Roche isolated her from family, banned visitors, and watched as her condition deteriorated very, very quickly.

When Geraldine died, Roche faced his first real test as a leader. A normal person might feel guilt, maybe admit that. they were wrong, but of course he did something much smarter from a manipulation standpoint. And he created an elaborate story about resurrection, claiming Geraldine had briefly awakened when he kissed her forehead, but that God wanted her in heaven. So you see, he positioned her death, not as his failure, but as proof of his special connection to the divine.

His followers bought it. Nobody left, and they didn't question his abilities. If anything, this scenario only strengthened their devotion. This response taught Roche something crucial. He could justify anything, no matter how obviously wrong, even a death, by claiming it was part of God's plan. By April of 78, the 7th Day Adventist had seen enough and they officially excommunicated Roche and his followers, cutting all ties.

You'd think that perhaps that would have been the end of it, but instead of tearing the group apart, the rejection only made them stronger. Roche spun this setback as proof that mainstream Christianity was corrupt, and that the only way to salvation was through his pure teachings that came direct from above. Around this time, his wife, Gisela was pregnant and fed up with his constant affairs, saw an opportunity and she gave him an ultimatum. Either disband and give up on the commune altogether or lose her.

How dare she talked to the Supreme Court? leader in this way. So he smacked her around a bit and locked her in her room for days so she could reevaluate her thoughts. And with police sniffing around after Geraldine's death and the Adventist no longer supplying food or medical supplies to the group, bills were piling up as they tried to run their clinic on their own. They needed something new. Roche's solution was extreme. Take everyone into the Canadian wilderness and build a commune where they could prepare for the apocalypse together without outside interference. So in June, 16 people followed their Moses into the remote forests of eastern Quebec.

He called the place Eternal Mountain. They lived in tents while building log cabins for permanent housing. The plan was for a big communal building with a well in the center, but reality was much more primitive. And this is where the group actually got its name. Roche, who did no physical list, labor himself, watched his followers work constantly and compared them to ants on an ant hill, the ant hill kids. It perfectly captured how he saw them, not his people, but his insects,

whose only purpose was serving him. Gabrielle would later say it felt like being trapped in the worst kind of prison, one without bars where the chains were all in their minds. The love bombing that had drawn these people in vanished, replaced now by exhaustion. constant hunger, and a creeping sense of dread. Not so much because the end of the world was coming, but because Roche was acting stranger and stranger with each passing day. As the leader, he kept them deliberately sleep-deprived and underfed, because when you're starving and running on no sleep,

clear thinking isn't really an option. As the so-called doomsday drew closer, Roche dropped any pretense of being a spiritual leader. He announced a new rule that made his true motives crystal clear. All existing marriages were now void, except for his. From that moment on, every woman in the group would be his wife. He held the ceremonies himself and consummated each one right away. Within a few years, he would father 26 children with nine different women.

In February 19th, 1979 came and went, no apocalypse. When confused followers question what happened, while Roach had a ready explanation. Time worked differently in God's world versus Earth time, so it was just a miscalculation, not a false prophecy. His infallibility had to be maintained at all costs. Instead of walking away, most of his followers just accepted his explanations without a second thought. By this time, they were fully brainwashed, and some of their parents were worried. worried enough to reach out to authorities. Yes, these were adults, but after enough of them had expressed concern about this group out in the woods,

the police went on in to take a second look. It was a weird thing to see, a bunch of hippies doing their thing, but no one who was actually there dared to complain. Roche willingly, then went in for a psychiatric evaluation, and news of the commune hit the mainstream airwaves. You'd think the professionals would have caught on once the test was completed. The results would surely show just how out of his mind Roche had become, except that didn't happen at all. Instead, the lead psychiatrist held a press conference in which he praised Roche as a model back-to-the-land religious leader.

This professional endorsement gave Roche a well-needed boost in credibility amongst his followers, and it also fed his growing belief that he truly was. chosen by God. Now, after surviving challenges from the church, his wife, concerned parents, and even medical professionals, Roche began to believe his own propaganda. So really, there was only one way for this whole thing to play out, and things went downhill fast. Away from civilization and normal social rules, with followers who had already proven they'd

sacrifice everything for his approval, Roche began experimenting. experimenting with more extreme forms of control. The transformation accelerated more when he abandoned his healthy Adventist lifestyle and started drinking heavily. The man who had preached about pure living became a violent drunk who used his followers' bodies as outlets for his rage and sick fantasies. He forced everyone to sit through drunken sermons that lasted for hours, beating anyone who fell asleep with pieces of wood.

And speaking of that, Roche's punishments evolved into systematic torture. People who displeased him were handed sledgehammers and made to smash their own legs till they broke the bones. They were made to sit on lit stoves, shoot each other in the shoulders. He made them eat dead mice and human waste and used wire cutters to remove fingers and toes as loyalty tests. And the small children weren't safe either. Roche abused them in the same sort of ways. Sometimes he'd nail them to trees while other kids threw rocks at the victims. It got so insane that one of his wives left a newborn outside to freeze to death,

rather than bring the baby inside to face the abuse. And beyond all that, Roche also had this thing where he performed amateur surgeries. He claimed these operations proved his healing powers, but they were really just elaborate torture sessions. He'd inject pure alcohol into people's stomachs, perform circumcisions with whatever tools were around, all without any anesthesia while other members held the victims down. The nightmare reached its peak in 1981 with the death of two-year-old Samuel Guguerre.

A new member named Guy Veer was struggling with depression and living in a tool shed as the group's lowest-ranking member. When Samuel was crying, woke him up, well, Guy beat the child so badly that Samuel, fell into a coma. Instead of getting medical help, Roche decided circumcision would cure the boy.

And he performed the procedure himself on a kitchen table, using alcohol as a form of anesthesia. Samuel died the next morning from alcohol poisoning. And not even this horror brought an end to the cult because even the little boy's death was woven into the narrative and twisted

theater. He staged a mock trial with cult members acting as judge and jury. A guy was found not guilty by reason of insanity, but he didn't get off Scott Free. Roche decided that a castration would be the correct form of punishment, and through manipulation and psychological pressure, he actually convinced Guy to agree to this mutilation. Well, after it happened, Guy ended up leaving. I guess it finally hit him that if he stayed, he was likely going to die. He headed for civilization and once there went straight to the police station.

He told the authorities about Samuel's death. Police then raided the commune and arrested several members, including Roche. The conditions they found were so awful that nine children were immediately taken away and put in foster care. The medical examiner confirmed that Samuel had been murdered. At trial, six cult members were found guilty on various charges. Though Roche only got two years in prison and three years probation for criminal negligence. Still, though, the commune was shut down, the buildings burned, and everyone was kicked off the property. So that was the official end of the Ant Hill kids, or so most people thought.

When Roche got out of prison in February of 84, he discovered something incredible. His hold over his followers was still unbroken. Despite everything that had happened, despite the horrible conditions that led to his imprisonment, A core group of devoted disciples was waiting for them. They lost most of their children to social services and had no money, but their faith and their profit remained intact. Roche decided to start over with a new commune near Burnt River, Ontario. The group now had ten children, two men, and nine women,

most of them pregnant with his babies. But their financial situation was desperate. Roche solved this by forcing a woman. his followers to shoplift food and supplies. He even had special pockets sewn into their clothes to help them steal more efficiently. So he picked up right where he left off, began drinking heavily again and created conditions for even worse abuse than before. He made a rule that cult members couldn't talk to each other when he wasn't around.

Roche had evolved into a true sadist who needed absolute control to feel powerful. He spied constantly. He confronted people claiming God had revealed their sins and administered punishments limited only to his imagination. Mutilation with wire cutters, forced violence between members, bizarre exorcisms, and surgical torture disguised as healing. Which leads us to September of 1988. One of his wives, Solange Bullard, complained about stomach pain and Roche got excited about the chance to perform another surgery. and he told Solange her liver was infected and needed immediate treatment. He forced her onto the kitchen table and gave her an enema and punched her stomach repeatedly.

He then put a tube down her throat and made other members blow air into it. The full extent of what went down next is too harsh for me to even describe, but it involved a kitchen knife, intestines, and bare hands, all while she was awake and aware. Salange didn't make it to see the following morning. In his utter derangement, he attempted to bring her back to life in the following days, digging up the body and performing some twisted rituals that made no logical sense. It truly is insane what he was able to get away with without people leaving. But the end of this sick cult finally came in July of 1989. Gabriella Valle complained about an issue with her hand being in pain.

Aroche had her show it to him while he examined it on the table, and then out of nowhere he plunged a knife into it, pinning her right there. He let her sit helpless for hours, and when he returned, removed the arm entirely. No hand, no more problem. Bleeding profusely, she fled into the woods and eventually made it to a hospital, where she told doctors and police about the years of torture and medical mutilation. Her detailed testimony led to a massive investigation that would finally end Roche's reign of terror once and for all. And knowing the police would come, the cult fled.

The police tracked them down, Roche and several followers to Quebec, where they arrested him after a six-week manhunt. At trial, he received life for Solange's murder, plus 12 years for Gabrielle's amputation. Even in prison, though, Roche couldn't resist to account. exploiting his notoriety. In 2009, he tried selling artwork through a true crime auction website until authorities blocked it. This whole story ended February 26, the 2011, when sellmate, Matthew McDonald, had had enough of Roche's ramblings. He stabbed him in the neck with a homemade weapon and didn't even try to hide it. He just said, that piece of is down on the range. Here's the knife, I've sliced them up. But the questions this case raises don't die with Roche the

ral. It's not so cut and dry. How does someone become capable of such evil? Most importantly, how do rational adults allow systematic destruction by someone they chose to follow? The answer lies in understanding that many things that turn out to be evil take time to evolve, and they slowly draw people in. It's so slow, in fact, that They don't even realize it's happening. Remember, Roche didn't start by asking people to break their own legs. He began by offering purpose in a spiritual community. Each step towards submission was small enough to seem reasonable, given what came before.

His followers weren't weak or stupid. Many were educated professionals seeking meaning, struggling with trauma, looking for something authentic. Roche's genius was identifying these needs and presenting himself as the solution, then gradually escalating demands while maintaining the illusion of free choice. That's how these things work. Not through obvious red flags, but through meeting genuine human needs in ways that create dependence. And you? You think you're sharp enough not to fall into the clutches of a cult? But maybe you've already fallen for it, hook-line and sinker. Only you don't know it yet,

and the worst is yet to come. The honest truth is that, under the truth, is that under the the right circumstances and with the right kind of persuasion, we're all vulnerable. Hopefully, we're able to see it and steer clear before it's too late. That's going to do it for this week's episode of Everytown. If you want more content like this, check the links down in the description, pull podcast episodes, exclusive videos, and our feature-length movie and Angry Boys streaming now. Thanks for being here today. Remember to come back next week for another episode filled with Scary Strange.

and mysterious stories? Because you never know. Maybe your town will be next.