During the 1990s and early 2000s, Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula, Louisiana became the home of a Satanic cult. This story would go on to inspire seaon 1 of True Detective.
In 2005, a member of the Hosanna Church, Nicole Bernard, blindly called the sheriff's office and told them about everything that had been happening behind the scenes in the church building.
Two days later, Pastor Luis LaMonica Jr. waltzed into Detective Stan Carpenter's office in Livingston, Louisiana, confessing that he and others had been performing satanic rituals and had been carrying out animal sacrifices inside of his church building.
The list of perpetrators that the pastor gave to the police included Nicole's husband, Austin Bernard, known as the mastermind of the cult; Louis's wife, Robin; church member Paul Fontanot; sheriff's deputy, Chris Labat; and a woman named Patricia Pearson.
Hosanna Church was founded by Louis LaMonica's father, Louis LaMonica Sr., over 20 years prior, and it apparently converted to Satanism in 2000. The windows of the church were painted white so that no one could see inside the building; and dump trucks had spread dirt all over the back parking lot in an attempt to "close it up" and stop people from coming in.
Austin Bernard was heavily involved in the rituals that were performed in the church building and even used his own one-year-old daughter in some of them; one of the members went into detail with the authorities about a ritual in which Austin's one-year-old daughter was dressed in black and was positioned in the middle of a pentagram while all the other members chanted around her to satanic music; she was then undressed, while a cat was sacrificed, its blood being dripped over the infant's naked body. This apparently happened every two to three months. It was also reported by LaMonica that the members defecated and urinated in the ritual room; had s*x with animals; and drank the fresh blood of cats.
On other occasions, certain female children would be picked by the men in the group to have relations with, lining up one by one to take their turn; If a woman was in line, she would assume the role of the man. LaMonica stated that he believed there could have been around 25 total victims, including children from infants to young teenagers. He also admitted that he had SAd his own two sons, both minors at the time.
Louis claimed that during these satanic rituals, he would become distorted by the devil and demons would change him into an animal such as a snake, fox, wolf or spider. Police in Ohio reportedly searched Nicole's storage unit and found mattresses, videos and garbage bags full of costumes.
Louise LaMonica Jr. was charged with two counts of SA of a juvenile and a charge of a crime against nature.
Sheriff Edwards noted in 2005 that they were looking at at least 20 child SA charges against members of the cult.
Dozens of videotapes, hundreds of computer disks and eight large boxes of documents and photographs were taken out of the church as evidence, including crude testemonial drawings by LaMonica's son.
The eight additional people that were arrested besides Louis LaMonica Jr. were his wife, Robin, Patricia Pearson, Alan R. Pearson, Chris Labatt, a former Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff's deputy, who also got hit with one charge of CP after computers were seized from his home, Paul Fontenot, who was later charged with two counts of SA and one charge of incest, Nicole Bernard, Austin Bernard and Louis Mowbray, former co-pastor of the church.
Louis LaMonica Jr. was sentenced to life at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, AKA Angola, as a was Austin Bernard.
The ones who got away
Robin LaMonica and Trish Pearson avoided any prison time, and their charges were dismissed.
Paul Fontenot pleaded not guilty to sexual battery of a juvenile; he was initially facing a life sentence, but under the terms of his plea bargain, was only sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2009; he was released in 2019 and is currently walking the streets today, despite being imprisoned for charges like SA of minors and incest.
Nicole Bernard, who tried to flee, was extradited back to Louisiana and was also released on a plea deal.
Labat, the sheriff's deputy's charges, including child SA, were all dismissed.
The remaining individuals who were arrested remain a mystery.
By: Colin Browen...
Raped by: Otto Heckel
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