In a town that promotes character builders like "fairness" in store windows, members of the Heaven's Gate lived and worked in near anonymity.
In the summer of 1995, they rented office space adjacent to Gustin Hardware for $250 a month. The unassuming town didn't pay the group much mind.As the summer wore on, the only visible change on Broadway Street was a different word of the month posted in store windows. The program aims to promote character-building in the area's schoolchildren.
Cultists used the name "Computer Knowmads" and paid in cash and on time for the offices on Mountainair's main drag. They left after only four months, telling Larry and Patsy Gustin they had received a call to California.
At the time, Patsy Gustin thought the "call" meant the group's company was transferring them.
A few months later, she received a postcard from a woman named Nora, who had been one of those working in Mountainair. Susan Nora Paup, 54, was one of the dead identified in the mass suicide.
The plain white card was friendly and short "like a thank-you note I guess," Patsy Gustin said. It didn't surprise her, coming from people who would wander over to the hardware store to chat or look at the rattlesnakes the couple keep in a cage in the back.
Except for the nylon workout suits they wore, many locals, including the Gustins, didn't think the group very odd.
"They were friendly, always had a smile for you," Patsy Gustin said. "If I'd had to tie them to something I would have tied them to a health group."
Instead, finding out the group was actually part of a suicidal cult called the Heaven's Gate stunned the couple. When the couple saw video clips of cult members who later took their own lives in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., last week, they recognized three people.
Patsy Gustin said it made her sad. Then, she saw the video again and realized how happy the group seemed.
"If we hadn't seen it on TV, it would have been a lot more upsetting," she said. "But they were so happy."
Larry Gustin tugs at his flannel shirt and nods at his wife's words.
"There are a lot of people you know who are spaced out and you wouldn't be surprised if they did something like this," he said. "There are more nutty people here in town than they were."
Another local, Pastor Mike Dew of Prophetic Voices in the Wilderness, said he had a "spiritual battle" with the group shortly before they left the area, which is about 55 miles southeast of Albuquerque.
Dew was summoned to the group's compound, a former youth camp in the Monzano Mountains, where he met with a man named Logan. During the 45-minute meeting, Logan said the group consisted of angels sent from a higher plane.
No Logan is listed among the dead, but John M. Craig, a 63-year-old man from New Mexico reportedly went by the name Logan Lahson. He evidently came through Utah in the summer of 1994 with 10-15 other cult members who worked at the Peruvian Lodge in Alta.
Dew said Logan and the others were well versed in the Bible and had a "monk-type look." The conversation was serene until the group began talking over their shoulders.
"The four individuals would consult their spirit guide in my presence," Dew said. "It was obvious they were talking to a spiritual being. This is occultic, not a cult. They were delving in real forces."