Inside the Ant Hill Kids Cult: A Deep Dive into Roch Thériault's Reign

Doomsday cults are normally bad news, but many of them have some bizarre thinking that leads to everyone committing homicide. That is not the case with Roch Thériault and the Ant Hill Kids cult.

Roch seriously abused the Ant Hill gang and convinced them to abuse each other too. Their story took place in the Canadian wilderness. We'll discuss what happened in the ant hill kids cult by giving a brief overview first, then going deeper to help you understand Roch Thériault, the cult, and the history of what happened. We'll tell the story in chronological order then answer some frequently asked questions about the Ant Hill Kids.

Get ready to find out what the Ant Hill Kids did.

What Did The Ant Hill Kids Cult Do?

The Ant Hill Kids followed Roch Thériault who told them the world would end in 1979. When he was wrong, the horrors began. Thériault began drinking more and more heavily, taking on a totalitarian approach to running the cult, and impregnating all the women.

He even started performing surgeries on people without having any medical experience. This would lead to at least one death. Roch Thériault would eventually be arrested for assault in 1989 and then second degree murder in 1993. We'll go into more detail throughout the rest of this blog.

Roch Thériault: Leader Of The Ant Hill Kids Cult

Roch Thériault, the leader of the Ant Hill Kids, was born on May 16, 1947 in Saint-Épiphane, Quebec, Canada. Thériault was a bright student, but dropped out in the seventh grade. He was raised Catholic.

He started studying the Old Testament and became convinced that the world would end in a battle of good and evil. Roch isn't the first person and probably won't be the last that digging into the Old testament did a number on. The Old Testament also played a role in the crimes of Ed Gein.

In January of 1977, shortly before he started the anthill kids, Thériault converted to become a member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

Ant Hill Kids Was Founded in 1977

Roch Thériault founded the Ant Hill Kids cult in 1977 as a religious group in Sainte-Marie, Quebec, Canada. He sold people on joining with his motivational speeches and the promise of being free from sin, in a state of unity and equality. Members would soon discover that to be far from the truth.

The Ant Hill Kids Cult Was Based On Adventism

The Ant Hill Kids cult was loosely based on the beliefs of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. This church is similar to evangelical Christianity or Catholicism, but has some major differences. It more closely follows Judaism, with the day of rest being Saturday and practicing many of the dietary practices.

Thériault added in Doomsday elements because he believed the world was going to end in 1979.

Move to Eternal Mountain

In 1978 Roch Thériault told his followers they need to move from Saint Marie to the sparsely populated Gaspé Peninsula. Thériault claimed the location was the Eternal Mountain and would ensure his followers safety.

Turn the page to the following year, and guess what? The group realized the word didn't end. Like with every Doomsday cult, there prophecies never come.

To anyone who isn't susceptible to cult leader's persuasive skills this would have been enough for the Ant Hill Kids to be over before anything horrible happened. But cult members tend to be young, going through a transitionary time, and longing to belong.

Roch Thériault claimed his miscalculation was because the heavens and the earth operate on different times.

Thériault Fathered 26 Children

Members of his tiny town were starting to question his story so he began making all the women have sex with him and carry his children. This led to him parenting 22 children before he was arrested.

Some of the women would visit cult leader Roch Theriault for conjugal visits in prison. By the time he died he had fathered 26 children with female members of the Ant Hill Kids. His once small cult grew to nearly 40 members in the 1980s.

The Totalitarian Rule Of Thériault

The followers of the Ant Hill Kids cult lived under Thériault's totalitarian rule.

His abuse started off with the siring children, but the abuse evolved to include:

• Banning other members from talking to each other outside his presence.

• Forbidding sex with anyone but him.

• Beating members with a belt or hammer

• Suspending members from the ceiling

• Plucking out body hairs

• Defecation

• Forcing people to break their own legs

• Siting on hot stoves

• Shooting people in the shoulder

• Eating dead mice

• Cutting of toes

• Sexual abuse of adults and children

• Nailing people to trees

• Stoning people.

• Whippings

Extreme violence in cult

Members of the Ant Hill Kids cult were subjected to extreme violence as punishments. Thériault's cult engaged in severe physical and sexual abuse of its members. Some of the worst examples are described below.

Eleazar Lavallée was one of Thériault's wives. She found the abuse to be so horrible that she left her newborn son outside to freeze to death.

The Murder of Solange Boilard

In 1989 Solange Boilard reported an upset stomach which led to Thériault attempting surgery without anesthetic. Solange laid on a table naked as He laid her naked on a table as Thériault punched her in the stomach.

Next, he performed an enema with molasses, olive oil, and a plastic tube before cutting her open with a hunting knife, ripping out part of her intestines, and having Gabrielle Lavallée stitch her up using needle and thread. Another women shoved a tube down her throat and blew through it.

This surgery led to the death of Boilard, but Thériault claimed he had the ability to bring her back to life. The process involved his disciples cutting off the top of Boilard's skull for Thériault to masturbate and cum on her brain. Needless to say, the Ant Hill cult was unable to revive her. She was buried shortly after.

The Amputation Of Gabrielle Lavallée

Gabrielle Lavallée took some of the worst abuse from the Ant Hill Kids Leader. He had removed eight of her teeth, burnt her genitals with a welding torch, and broken a hypodermic needle in her back. He'd also cut off part of her breasts and beat her with an axe.

 On July 26, 1989 Thériault cut off one of Gabrielle Lavallée's fingers with wire cutters, stabbed her hand with a hunting knife, and amputated her right arm with a cleaver.

Two weeks later Thériault cauterized the stump of her arm before she and other commune members fled the commune.

Arrest led to dissolution

On August 16, 1989, a week after leaving the hell that was the anthill cult, Lavallée told police how she lost her arm.

This led to a six-week search for the Canadian cult leader. Police finally captured Thériault on October 6, 1989, leading to the dissolution of the cult.

Nine days later Thériault was found guilty of unlawfully causing bodily harm and three counts of aggravated assault. His sentence was 12 years in prison.

That wasn't the end of his legal problems though.

Thériault convicted for murder

Knowing Thériault was in prison, another of the Ant Hill Kids members notified police about the murder of Solange Boilard. She was found dead, nothing but a skeleton, on commune property.

On December 18, 1990 Thériault received second degree murder charges for the murder of Solange Boiard. He was convicted on January 18, 1993. Thériault was sentenced to a life sentence after being convicted of second-degree murder. He was eligible for parole in the year 2000.

Thériault died in prison

Thériault spent the rest of his life in prison. He applied for parole in 2002, but it was rejected because he was believed to be high risk for becoming a repeat offender.

Thériault died in 2011 at Dorchester Penitentiary after being murdered by a fellow inmate. His cell mate Matthew Gerrard MacDonald was proud of killing the Ant Hill Kids cult leader. After stabbing Thériault in the neck with a shiv, he walked up to the officers station and proclaimed:

And so ended the torture in the name of God.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Should I Do If I Think Someone Is In A Cult?

If you think someone you know has joined a cult, try to maintain positive contact, do not shame or belittle them, ask questions, do your own research, evaluate the cost of the group, and be supportive if and when they leave.

Pushing too hard may cause the person to go deeper into the cult and shut you out of their life.

Where Was The Ant Hill Kids Commune?

The Ant Hill Kids commune changed locations over time. At first it was located in Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce, but the cult moved after cult leader Rock was convicted of child neglect. The second location was in Saint-Jogues. They finally moved to Ontario in 1982 and lived in the woods near in the woods near Ledge Hill Road. They provided for themselves by selling baked goods.

Where To Watch Savage Messiah

You can watch Savage Messiah, the Ant Hill Kids documentary movie, on Amazon Prime or The Roku Channel for free.

Ant Hill Kids Survivors Where Are They Now?

Roch Thériault was stabbed to death in prison in 2011.

Gabrielle Lavallée wrote a book titled Alliance de la brebis and became a motivational speaker.

Most of the children were removed from the cult in 1985 by the Children’s Aid Society (CAS), Canada's family protective services. The woman had a chance to leave then too but the Ant Hill Kids abuse was so severe that most were scared.

When did the Ant Hill kids cult end?

The official end of the Ant Hill Kids cult was October 6, 1989 when Roch Thériault was arrested.

When did the Ant hill kids cult start?

The Ant Hill Kids cult started in 1977.

Who was the leader of the Ant hill kids?

Roch Thériault was the leader of the Ant Hill Kids. He was found guilty of second degree murder, unlawfully causing bodily harm, and three counts of aggravated assault. He served life in prison before being murdered by his cell mate.

What happened to the ant hill kids children?

The Ant Hill Kids case with the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) removed them from the Ant Hill Kids location after a year long investigation.