Scars Along the Way

Truth

Monday

August 14th, 2000

Missing teen Evangeline Hartman has been found alive, exposes evil cult and the shocking truth about her disappearance.

It has been revealed that parents Reese and Dawn Hartman, who were murdered in February of 1999 by an unknown suspect, had been blackmailed by cult into allowing their 13-year-old daughter to be taken in order to avoid prison time.

Reese was a member of the "Pain to Power" cult run by 52-year-old Frank White. The tape used as blackmail has been obtained and authorities have reported that this footage contains Reese committing sexual abuse and torture on a young minor, authorities say.

Reese, when reporting the missing teen, had said to police that she was a runaway but it is now known that he had in fact fabricated the letter he claimed she had left for him to find, in which she had supposedly written that she was in love with an older man and left for California with him.

Hartman suffered horrific abuse and torture at the hands of cult leader Frank White and his followers for three years before escaping and making her way to a nearby convenience store, only to be abducted once again by video store owner Mason Powell, 38. Powell had a history of violence and stalking.

Hartman endured another 11 months of physical abuse and isolation by Powell. She stated, "Mason was technically physically unable to be a pedophile, but called me his wife and demanded that I act as if I love him, cook for him and clean just like a housewife."

Hartman was kept locked inside of a room the majority of the time Powell had held her captive, except to have her cook and clean while he supervised her every move.

Evangeline made her final escape when Powell had held her down and mutilated her face with a straight razor in a 'paranoid, delusional jealous rage'. Hartman collapsed his trachea with a single kick to his throat, killing him in self-defense. She states that although she remembers the fight and him attacking her, she does not recall kicking him in self-defense, or anything after.

Hartman, weighing only 60 lbs and in an 'apparent dissociative fugue state', had walked six miles before finally collapsing in the front yard of a home of a nearby neighborhood. This was seen by the owner of the house, who has chosen to stay anonymous, who called emergency services and remained with her, even riding with her in the ambulance.

Now seventeen-year-old Evangeline had arrived at Worthden General Hospital in a semi-conscious state, dehydrated, malnourished, and having lost a significant amount of blood from her facial wounds.

After being treated for her wounds and given a feeding tube and IV fluid, she awoke hours later "confused and disoriented" unaware of the events that had taken place for a period of time.

It has been three days since being admitted and Evangeline is improving quickly, doctors say. Doctors have informed us that Hartman was in a 'catatonic state, unable to speak' for nearly 24 hours before finally being able to speak to us and authorities.

Now Evangeline is up and walking the hospital halls, and is now off the feeding tube.

Officer Owens, the police officer who interviewed Hartman, has stated:

"This young woman has amazing strength to bounce back the way that she has. She's lost everything and been betrayed in the worst possible way, been through a nightmare that you and I could never even begin to imagine, but she's truly a survivor. I believe she's going to do really well. She has already saved so many other children's lives by exposing this sick cult and telling her story. I'm really proud of her."