Jesse L, McFadden was a 39-year-old convicted sex offender who lived in Henryetta Oklahoma. He had been convicted in 2003 of first-degree rape and had served until October of 2020. He was expected to stand trial in May of 2023 for solicitation of a minor and possession of child pornography (child sexual abuse material) which he committed while in prison. With the pending charges, he was still released from prison in 2020.
Upon his release, Jesse McFadden kept details of his conviction and upcoming trial away from Holly Guess (McFadden’s wife). Jesse McFadden explained away his legal challenges and appearance on the Oklahoma Sex Offender Registry. He did so effectively enough that Guess married McFadden introducing him to regular exposure to her three children. McFadden was described as extremely controlling by those who observed McFadden and the family.
Tragically on April 30, 2023 the day before his scheduled court appearance for the crime he committed while in prison he murdered Holly Guess, her three children, and two of the children’s friends who were at the property where McFadden and Guess resided. Then McFadden took his own life.
There are many things that can be learned from this tragedy. One of which is how lax our laws are when an individual is convicted of sex crimes involving children. Fortunately, this spurred a change in Oklahoma law requiring offenders to serve their entire sentence and removed any credits for good behavior like what allowed McFadden to be released early.
There are more questions to be asked and changes that society at large should probably employ, but what about the Church? What can the Church learn from this tragedy?
- Deception. A predator’s ability to deceive is greater than the amount of time any minister or leader in a congregation can spend with the predator to determine their intentions. Anna Salter in her book on predators highlights the skill and ability of predators to deceive. In her book she also highlights that trained Secret Service Agent’s ability to pick up on deception wanes with age (p162). Our congregations are led by elders who are largely untrained in detecting deception. Based on Salter’s findings, most would be better off flipping a coin. These elders must be willing to listen and not be dismissive of individuals or holes in policy when it involves child protection.
- Empathy. Very often a predator will leverage empathy of some sort to gain access or allies. The news articles in the McFadden case do not specifically outline this however in one article that has a relative describing McFadden as standoffish and demure. It is possible that these were tools used by McFadden to reel others in by their own curiosity. Empathy is the tool that Amnon leveraged to gain access to Tamar in 2 Samuel 13:5.
- Apathy. Predators bank on apathy. Predators often take advantage of apathy that allows them into a situation where they can abuse. In the McFadden case, his early release from prison was the apathy that allowed him to abuse again. Immediately following the rape of Tamar, nothing was said or done to Amnon until 2 years later Absalom had Amnon killed in 2 Samuel 13:28 Absalom had Amnon killed.
-Anna C. Salter – Predators Pedophiles, Rapists, & Other Sex Ofenders, 2003