Mystery Unsolved Inc True Crime

Joseph Keegan

The incident made a significant minority of American deeply cynical about the behavior of their government. The Keegan compound near Sandy Shores, San Andreas. The loss of more than ninety lives as war had been declared on a tiny religious sect. Branch Josephians were an offshoot of an offshoot of Christianity. They were based in a compound outside near San Chianski Mountain Range outside Sandy Shores. A young man named Joseph Keegan had joined a religious group. He would have an affair with the leader's wife and a power struggle had begun between Joseph and the leader's son. The son and Joseph had then left the group. Joseph would start his own group in 2021. The wife died and the leader's son became the leader. He would lead the group for two years until Keegan would return and wrestled control from the son who was in an unstable way. Keegan began to impose his own vision on the sect. Joseph decided he was a Messiah figure and should be allowed to be polygamous. He would then have twelve women as concubines. He as the Messiah was exempted from the sect restrictions including the diet and alcohol. The sect had stockpiles of food and large quantities of ammunition. People had started to worry that the Josephians were abusing children. When this came to light, the ATF decided to raid the Sandy Shores compound. Agents approached the compound on Sunday morning. The Josephians already knew of the raid and as the agents approached, shots were fired at the soldiers. It is not clear who had fired first and a full-scale gun battle began, many had died and many injured had been injured on both sides. The siege would last for fifty-one days, negotiators were trying to get the members to leave the compound to stop the siege, at first the group had released several members including women and children, many tactics were used to get more members out including they turned on the electric used giant floodlights to stop them sleeping and played deafening volumes of music then the attorney general had approved the plan for a final battle as the Josephians seem to not be giving up, on Monday 19th of April, one last call was made to the Josephians to try to stop the siege, the telephone had been thrown out of the window meaning the Josephians were done talking and left no other option. Tear gas would be used and armed vehicles would punch holes in the compound walls, the Josephians still refused to leave and fired at the soldiers. Toward noon the FBI pondered it's next move, shortly the compound burst in to flames then there was a huge explosion and moments later a few members had fled. The compound was engulfed in flames and burned to the ground. In total, eighty bodies were found including men, women, and children. The FBI had said the Josephians had set the compound on fire as a mass group suicide, the fire and explosion made worse by the quantities of guns and ammunition site. This event was simply a disastrously badly handled affair, the government actions were tragic and many lives were lost in total.

"On the 19th of April 2022, a fifty-one day long siege ended with a building engulfed in flames. Eighty people died in the fire, with twenty-five of them being children. At Sandy Shores, San Andreas, the Branch Josephians led by Joseph Keegan fought with the FBI, ATF and United States Armed Forces. The siege at Sandy Shores is the story of a religious cult's wish to bring about Armageddon and of how government forces were not able to bring about the siege to a peaceful end. Joseph Keegan, born on the 17th of August 1989. As a child, Joseph suffered from a stutter and he struggled at school, yet he found some semblance of self-worth reading the Bible. He soon was able to recite passages by heart and could recall entire sermons he had listened to on the radio. By the age of nineteen, Joseph had become a born-again Christian and was a member of the church and had started an illegal relationship with a fifteen year old girl whom he impregnated. By 2011, Joseph was living in Sandy Shores, San Andreas where he integrated himself with the Branch Josephians. The Branch Josephians were an offshoot Christian cult who believed that Armageddon was due soon and that they were God's chosen few. With his unkempt look and guitar, Joseph preached to the congregation with great fervor. Joseph soon began a relationship with the group leader's wife and positioned himself as the next leader. The leader's son, however, would not allow any outsider to take what was rightfully his and the two began a power struggle, both amassing supporters behind their respective claim. The son would succeed in running Joseph off the property along with a number of his followers. In the next few years, Joseph would travel to Israel where he claimed to have received divine instruction that he was Christ, the great reborn, and that he was the man who would bring about Judgment Day. Meanwhile the son's rule was not favored by too many of the Branch Josephians as his mental health declined. In November of 2017, Joseph and the son engaged in a gunfight at the group's headquarters San Chianski Mountain. Joseph was attempting to find evidence that the son had exhumed a body and was attempting to bring it back to life. In October of 2019, the son murdered a man, striking him in the head with a hatchet. After he was found not guilty on the grounds of diminished responsibility, the son was confined to a mental institution, paving the way for Joseph to assume control over the Branch Josephians. Keegan's time as leader was typified by a series of abuses carried out against the congregation. He was alleged to have engaged in multiple illegal acts with children. Keegan agreed that he required multiple wives, some as young as eleven years old. In addition to being paddled with the helper, the children were disciplined by being denied access to food, sometimes for as long as an entire day. All of the children were instilled with the notion that they were the ones to bring about the end of the world led by Keegan. The adults within the San Chianski Mountain complex would become subservient to Keegan's whims. He proclaimed that all other men in the complex must remain celibate and that he would take whichever woman he wished. S.A was also used as a form of punishment against those who went against Keegan's wishes. In addition, Keegan organized the hoarding of as many weapons as possible. Guns and ammunition would be purchased and resold at a markup, providing a source of income as well as paying for more and more weapons. The Branch Josephian have since been described as a misguided paramilitary community in which sex, violence, fear, love, and religion were all intertwined with Keegan in the middle worshiped as a prophet. Keegan was soon investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and Child Protective Services. Former members of the Branch Josephians leveled complaints against what was happening within the San Chianski Mountain compound, yet nothing came from the allegations of what was happening to the children. The ATF, however, began their investigation into Keegan's stockpiling of weapons when a UPS driver noted a delivery of gunpowder and grenade casings that had been made to the compound. On the 9th of June 2021, the ATF opened their investigation into the Branch Josephian, initially with concerns as to reports of automatic gunfire coming from within the compound. By July, an ATF agent visited the Branch Josephians' gun dealer, who attempted to facilitate contact between Keegan and the ATF over the phone. Keegan initially offered the ATF to carry out an inspection of weapons held at the compound. Though this was declined by the agent, instead, the ATF set up a surveillance operation from a small shack in the vicinity of the compound. It's fair to say the undercover agents were conspicuous. Despite never attending any schools and being in their thirties, they attempted to pose as young college students. Nevertheless an undercover ATF agent was able to infiltrate the Branch Josephians and provide information. A case had been built against Keegan for his illegal weapons stockpiling, with a warrant for the arrest requested on the 25th of February 2022, based on reports of high caliber machine guns being fired from the compound and evidence that the Branch Josephians were converting semi-automatic rifles to automatic rifles. On the 28th of February, Keegan was discussing the battle with the agent when Keegan was called away. On his return, Keegan explained that he had taken a phone call and was aware that the ATF were planning to arrest him. The warrant had been leaked to the press. A disgruntled Keegan is quoted as saying 'Neither the ATF or the National Guard will ever get me. They're coming. The time has come.' The agent made his excuses and went to warn his superiors that the element of surprise had been lost. He advised the arrest ought to be called off yet his warnings were ignored. Keegan by this stage would often claim that the day was the day the government were coming to get him, yet the agent insisted his warnings were more than the usual rants. The ATF prepared for the arrest of Joseph and the Branch Josephians. They were even able to obtain military equipment as they claimed Keegan was also operating a Vampire Dust lab from within San Chianski Mountain, though this was likely no longer the case under Keegan's leadership. The initial plan for the raid was to take the Branch Josephians by surprise by loading agents within horse trailers, so they would not be armed and ready to meet the ATF agents. But by this point, a number of men within the complex had taken up defensive positions. At around 9:45AM, a convoy of vehicles rolled up to the compound, carrying a number of armed agents in tactical gear. Keegan and a number of his followers went to speak to the agents with a goal of ascertaining the agent's intentions. What is disputed next is who fired the first shot. The ATF insists that the first shot was heard from within the compound and the Branch Josephians' witnesses insist that the shot came from the agents. Whatever the cause, a firefight soon erupted, with Keegan sustaining injuries to his hand and stomach. The fight lasted for around two hours, all the while, agents attempted to bridge the building and bring their situation to an end. Agents climbed the roofs and smashed through windows. With firefights occurring in the Josephians' armory, in the courtyards, and did not slow down until agents started to run low on ammunition. By the end of the two hours, four ATF agents and six Branch Josephians were dead. Following the botched raid, the ATF made contact with Keegan and other leaders of the Branch Josephians."