Sex abuse suspect with Spokane ties arrested in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazilian authorities said Saturday they arrested a self-professed minister with ties to Spokane who is accused of molesting two girls in a “Maidens Group” at his religious fellowship in rural Minnesota.

A statement from the Public Security Secretariat for the Rio Grande do Norte state government reported the arrest of Victor Arden Barnard, 53. The U.S. Marshals Service also confirmed the arrest.

The Brazilian statement said police captured Barnard late Friday in an apartment near a paradisiacal white-sand beach in northeastern Brazil. He was being held in the city of Natal to await extradition to face charges in the U.S.

Barnard, who faces 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct, was on the most-wanted list of the U.S. Marshals Service.

According to a criminal complaint in the U.S., two women said they were among about 10 girls and young women who were chosen to live apart from their families in a camp that Barnard set up near Finlayson, Minnesota, about 90 miles north of Minneapolis.

One woman alleged Barnard sexually abused her beginning at age 13 and continuing until she was 22. The other said her abuse occurred between ages 12 and 20.

Barnard allegedly kept the girls isolated, and U.S. authorities have said he used religious coercion and intimidation to maintain his control over them, calling it cultlike behavior. He allegedly told one victim she would remain a virgin because he was a “man of God,” according to a criminal complaint.

Investigators believe Barnard abused other girls but have been unable to get others to come forward. Most of the criminal counts against him carry maximum sentences of 30 years in prison.

In 2012, Minnesota investigators came to Spokane where some members of his group resettled. Steven Blackwell, chief deputy for the Pine County Sheriff’s Office in Minnesota, said last year that there was no evidence Barnard established a similar camp in the Spokane area. But court documents indicate known associates who relocated to the area were not forthcoming about Barnard’s whereabouts. The parents of a purported victim living in Spokane refused to allow the sergeant entry into their home, according to court documents.

One of the alleged victims told Minnesota investigators that members of the fellowship moved to Washington in the late 2000s. Barnard’s driver’s license listed an address in Spokane, according to court documents.

A Pine County Sheriff’s Office sergeant flew to Spokane in November 2012 and questioned a businessman identified in court documents as Craig Elmblad, referred to as Barnard’s “right-hand man” by investigators. Elmblad told police Barnard had occasionally stayed at the home in Spokane but was not there at the time. Pine County is where Barnard faces criminal charges.

Cindi Currie, who said she had visited Barnard’s River Road Fellowship religious camp in Minnesota years ago and tried to persuade a friend to leave, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper that she can’t wait to see Barnard behind bars.

“He has ruined more lives. That man is the devil incarnate,” she said. “I’m just ready to cry. I’m so glad they found him. Not only will Victor Barnard go to jail, but every adult who knew what was going on up there can start to pay, and maybe these girls can start to heal.”

The U.S. Marshals Service said Barnard initially left Minnesota in 2010, before the women came forward.

Brazilian police inspector Paulo Henrique Oliveira told the news portal G1, the website of Brazil’s biggest TV network, that Barnard entered the South American country legally in 2012.

Authorities said Barnard had been living for at least six months at the apartment where he was arrested near Praia da Pipa beach.