St. Louis Church Accused of Kidnapping Can Reopen, City Says

By Andrea Arnold On Mar 6, 2024

ZACHARY LINHARES

Church secretary Nkulu Mamba, left, St. Louis Fire Safety Inspector Wayne Brooks, and the building’s former owner Arlie Singleton talk after code enforcers toured Mount Of Olives Ministry.

The south St. Louis church that for the past two weeks has been at the center of kidnapping allegations is again open business after the city reversed its condemnation orders.

An email from Deputy Building Commissioner Dylan Mosier dated today says that the condemnation of Mount of Olives Ministry, implemented February 26, is now lifted.

That original condemnation of the church in the city’s Patch neighborhood was issued after inspectors determined the building was being “used or intended to be used for purposes which are illegal and may endanger the health or safety of persons.”

The church building had seen significant police activity the weekend prior. In the early hours of the morning of Saturday, February 24, a woman ran to a nearby residential street, crying out to passersby for help. When police arrived, the woman said she’d been confined in a room at the church against her will, tied up and beaten.

In court, prosecutors have said that evidence includes marks on the woman’s wrists and ankles as well as injuries to her head, which are all consistent with her version of events. Prosecutors have alleged in court that other church members attempted to intimidate the victim after the police became involved and to contact her even as she was in protective custody. At a bond hearing for one of the alleged kidnappers, a prosecutor said that police body cam footage taken at the scene showed cult-like conditions at the church.

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ZACHARY LINHARES

A white sheet sections off the room where a woman was allegedly held captive in the basement of the Mount Of Olives Ministry.

Grace Kipendo, Pasi Heri and Mmunga Fungamali were arrested on the night of the incident and all three remain in the St. Louis City Justice Center, having been denied bond. Their attorneys don’t dispute that there was an injured woman at the church, but they say she had suffered a mental breakdown on the night in question. She had been living at the church along with others, they say, and other people at the church assaulted her. The arrest of the three men, the defense attorneys say, was due to mistaken identity stemming from a language barrier between police and the primarily Swahili-speaking congregation.

Employees with the Building Division visited the church again yesterday, and RFT photographer Zachary Linhares was able to tag along.

In addition to seeing what one would expect in any church, Linhares also photographed a long back hallway with approximately 10 small rooms branching off from it. Each of the rooms contained multiple beds. Defense attorneys for the arrested men previously said in court that roughly three to five people lived at the church at any given time. However, the facility appears to regularly house many more than that.

The three men taken into custody all have preliminary hearings set in their cases for either the end of March or beginning of April.

Monte Chambers, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety, issued this statement: “Following an inspection of the facility by the City of St. Louis Building Division, the condemnation of the Mount of Olives Ministries has been abated. The Building Division will continue to work with the property owner to maintain a safe facility. The occupancy permit for Mount of Olives Ministries does not permit residential use of the premises.

“The safety of St. Louis residents and visitors remains a top priority for the Department of Public Safety.”