Authorities arrested two more people on charges of murder Saturday for the alleged beating death of an 8-year-old girl who was in the care of a controversial youth group founded by her father.
Meanwhile, the dead girl's grandfather, who described himself as a bishop of the group, the Ecclesia Athletic Association, said it was in "God's plan" that she should die.Deputy Judy Gage of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said two more men were arrested and charged with murder about 1 a.m. Saturday in the death of Dayna Lorea Broussard, who was under the group's supervision.
The controversial Los Angeles-based group, which represents itself as an athletic training center for underprivileged children, was founded by her father, Eldridge J. Broussard, Jr., a former college basketball star at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore.
Four staff members of the group brought Dayna Broussard's dead body to a fire station south of Portland Friday, and an autopsy later showed she had been beaten to death.
Friday night, authorities went to a farm near Sandy, about 25 miles east of Portland, which is used by Ecclesia and took 53 children into protective custody.
They arrested the four people who had brought in the body and charged one of them, Willie K. Chambers, 35, of San Diego, Calif., with murder. The other three were charged with hindering prosecution, Gage said.
She said Constance Zipporah Jackson, 37, and Fredrick Paul Doolittle, 28, both of Los Angeles, were arrested and charged with murder early Saturday after being interviewed by sheriff's deputies. Gage did not know if Jackson and Doolittle were staying at the Sandy farm or if they had any connection to the group.
Eldridge J. Broussard, Sr., who said he is the bishop of Ecclesia, told United Press International that his son left Los Angeles by car Friday night for Oregon but had a breakdown somewhere along the way. At mid-morning Saturday the elder Broussard did not know where his son was.
He said his son and daughter-in-law were naturally upset to learn of their daughter's death, but added, "They understand that it was in God's plan.
"God felt it was her time to go," Broussard said. "Nobdoy can kill anybody if God hasn't willed them to die."
Broussard said the children were in Oregon as a "vacation," but also said they were being trained for work and sports.