Amish Retreat Leader Faces Seven New Charges — Including Manslaughter in Death of 6-Month-Old — And Kidnapping
Missouri Amish retreat leader Sam Shetler has seen the number of charges against him grow following a court appearance yesterday – with some quite serious ones joining the list.
In addition to prior trafficking and sodomy charges, he now faces counts of kidnapping and even involuntary manslaughter, regarding the death of a baby. More details on the new charges below.
First here’s a summary from the report by KOMU:
A man who led an Amish retreat in Cooper County is now facing additional charges, including involuntary manslaughter, in connection to allegations of abuse in the community.
Sam Shetler, 42, is now being charged with three counts of trafficking for the purposes of forced labor, one count of first-degree sodomy, four counts of first-degree kidnapping, one count of first-degree sexual abuse and one count of first-degree involuntary manslaughter, according to court records.
Shetler was initially charged with two counts of trafficking for the purposes of forced labor and one count of first-degree sodomy.
These charges come following further interviews conducted by investigators with “people who had contact with Shetler”. That could mean more residents of the Mercy and Truth retreat center, or perhaps others.
Shetler was originally arrested on March 25th, and in a prior court appearance, pleaded not guilty, while expressing a wish to get church approval before hiring a lawyer. On that, new reporting references him having a lawyer, and I’m assuming that is him in the screenshot at top, so apparently Shetler got the “okay”.
The interviews which have led to these new charges were conducted in the days following his initial arrest. Shetler has pleaded not guilty to the new charges as well. Now let’s look at what’s involved in both the kidnapping and manslaughter charges.
Kidnapping Charges
KOMU addresses the kidnapping charges, emerging from interviews conducted with several women in the week following Shetler’s arrest:
Another new probable cause statement filed Monday alleges that Shetler made unwanted sexual contact with a woman and threatened her to prevent her from leaving the retreat.
The woman told the Cooper County Sheriff’s Office that Shetler told her that if she tried to escape, he would kidnap her and hold her longer, according to the statement.
The statement also details the accounts of three other women who said they stayed at the retreat between 2014 and 2016 to learn how to belong in the Amish community. The women were between 19 and 20 years old at the time, according to the statement.
According to the statement, KOMU reports, the three women “tried to escape at different times” during their stays at Mercy and Truth. One said she succeeded, while the other two initially did not, with one of them allegedly being placed in a room and fed only bread and water for two weeks (that detail via the ABC 17 report).
They were allegedly sent to another retreat before returning to Mercy and Truth. The women then later managed to flee when Shetler was absent from the retreat.
Similar to other accounts, the women said they were forced to take pills, even up to 80 a day, and were said to be “demon possessed” for refusing to submit to Shetler. Another disturbing detail: they claim to have witnessed Shetler pulling the teeth of a young boy in order to punish him.
Manslaughter Charge
Here’s what happened in the death of the baby, for which Shetler faces a charge of involuntary manslaughter:
A new probable cause statement filed Monday alleges that Shetler was involved in the death of a 6-month-old child in March 2025. The Cooper County detective sergeant investigating the case against Shetler interviewed someone who worked at Mercy and Truth on April 7, 2026, in which the investigator learned more information about the death of the child, according to the probable cause statement.
The child had been sick for about four days and was having issues breathing, even “turning blue” on several occasions, according to the probable cause statement, which cited testimony from the infant’s parents.
The child was taken to Shetler, who was known in the community as a practitioner and holistic doctor who had medical expertise, according to the probable cause statement.
Shetler allegedly provided a breathing treatment of lavender oil in a diffuser and gave instructions for how to use it on the infant, according to the statement.
The child was put down for a nap on March 6, 2025, and about an hour later, he was found blue in color and unresponsive, according to the statement. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the statement.
The Boone County Medical Examiner’s Office did an autopsy on the baby. They found the child’s cause of death to be pneumonia and “multiple viruses”, according to the statement.
Shetler would not be the first among the Amish to claim to have the ability to treat illness in unconventional ways. But if these new allegations are true, it only adds to what is becoming an even more disturbing picture of what the experience of some who spent time around Shetler was like.
Shetler remains in Cooper County Jail. His lawyer attempted to get his $100,000 bond reduced to $50,000, but was denied today by Judge Keith Bail. KRCG reports that in fact his $100,000 bond was “revoked”. Shetler is due in court for a preliminary hearing on May 13.
Sam Shetler
Forgive me for saying as much, but this guy sounds like a real piece of work. Wonder what a jury will think??