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ACAST.com Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis center. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. On Sunday, January 10, 1993, 54-year-old pig farmer Ralph Volmer and his 49-year-old wife Joan returned home from a week-long interstate trip.
The couple, who lived in the Victorian country town of Antwerp, had driven four and a half hours west to attend a six-day religious convention in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Ralph, a devout and ardent Christian, had been eager to attend the event, and while Joan didn't share her husband's fervor, she attended church regularly, and so agreed to accompany him. The vacation had passed without incident, but shortly after their arrival home, Joan started to behave oddly. She had difficulty concentrating on tasks, would frequently change outfits throughout the day, was restless, and struggled to fall asleep.
According to Ralph, as time went on she also started making peculiar noises and adopting different personas. On one occasion, she acted as though she were a sheep shearer, speaking in a tone and manner consistent with a farmhand. On another, she claimed to be a sex worker, while describing the activities she had participated in with supposed clients. It wasn't the first time Ralph had witnessed a Joan behaving this way.
Two years earlier, she was hospitalized briefly for mental illness, but had made a fairly quick recovery and had been in good health ever since. Now, it appeared her symptoms were returning. Over the course of the next two weeks, they seemed to worsen, particularly at night time. On the evening of Friday, January 22, Ralph returned home to find Joan waving her arms and dancing in their property's paddocks.
Deeply troubled by the way his wife's well-being had deteriorated, Ralph prayed to God for guidance. The Wimmera is a regional inland district in Victoria's west, predominantly characterized by drier flat farmlands and a 278-kilometer intermittent river that bears the same name. Passing through the region's unofficial capital city of Horsham, the river winds west and then continues north to Antwerp, a tiny outback town named after the Belgian home city of an early European settler. In the 1860s, two Protestant missionaries arrived in Antwerp and to build a church and mission, where they aimed to convert the local indigenous population.
The mission was closed 40 years later due to low congregation numbers, and today stands as a tourist attraction. Towards the end of the 20th century, Antwerp was home to just 63 inhabitants. It had a licensed general store, a rail siding, and a small station where residents could catch a bus to Horsham twice a week. The two-lane Dimpula Rainbow Road carved through the town's sprawling fields, which were dotted by scrubs and eucalyptus trees, and several disused rain silos stood out against the mostly natural landscape.
Ralph and Joan Vollmer had moved to Antwerp in the late 1980s, purchasing one of the town's traditional farmsteads, where they raised pigs. Born in Germany in 1938, right before the outbreak of World War II, Ralph had emigrated to Australia with his family when he was a teenager. He had completed primary school in Germany, but the move interrupted his education, and he never enrolled in secondary school. His family moved to the Melbourne suburb of Caulfield, and his parents both work in factory production.
Eventually, they saved enough money from working overtime to afford a small rural property in Gippsland, a region in the state's southeast. Ralph grew up to bear softly spoken man who found it difficult to trust others and mostly kept to himself, but when he did form friendships they were extremely strong. He worked as a farmhand and performed odd jobs, before meeting his first wife and settling down in the Gippsland town of Yarram. The couple had two sons, but the marriage ended in the mid-1970s.
Following the divorce, Ralph remained single until 1986, when he met and fell in love with Joan. Joan Lenora Taylor was a petite woman with short, wavy, light-brown hair, who was typically described as shy, gentle, and loving. Her childhood and early adulthood were marred by sexual abuse, and she was later diagnosed with schizophrenia, resulting in several stints in mental health hospitals, which left her with a fear of psychiatric care. She struggled to make friends and maintain ongoing work, though she adored her children and had been employed as a nanny for a time.
As a young woman, she married and had a baby, but was left in a state of anxiety and blame when her husband took his own life. Her life appeared to turn around in her early forties when she met Ralph, who later compared their early relationship to a miracle. The new couple decided to start a fresh life together in an entirely different part of the state, settling on the Wimmera region and purchasing the farm in Antwerp in 1988. Their new home was a single-story weatherboard farmhouse with a wide veranda that sat at the end of a 500-meter dirt driveway framed by several trees.
The rear of the property backed onto the banks of the Wimmera River. Joan, an avid gardener, immediately set about planting a neat order of garden beds around the house and establishing a greenhouse. She also decorated her new home with vases, porcelain ornaments, and cat figurines. The couple didn't involve themselves in the local community, but those who met Joan in town described her as friendly.
Neither Ralph nor Joan had been religious when they met, but several years into their relationship they discovered their faith and became Christians. They married at Horsham's Salvation Army Church in 1989 and began attending Sunday mass there. Ralph was a far more impassioned believer compared to his wife, spending his spare time listening to hymns and reading religious texts, while Joan preferred to watch television. She was content to be involved with the church, but, in the words of one local minister, not to be fanatical about it.
In contrast, Ralph was eager to learn as much as he could about Christianity. For most of his life he had only attended church for weddings and funerals, but after converting he would constantly engage others on the topic, listening enthusiastically to those who claimed a deep knowledge of the Bible. In their home's kitchen he hung a plaque that read, Christ is the head of this house, the unseen guest at every meal, the silent listener to every conversation. Within two years of moving to Antwerp, Joan began exhibiting signs of a mental health crisis.
In the spring of 1990, she suddenly became extremely restless, was unable to sleep, and struggled to concentrate on tasks or conversations, yet seemed oblivious that something was wrong. She also became fixated on her childhood, discussing it frequently in a childlike voice. One day, she told Ralph that she had done a painting for him, only to reveal she had coated his car in house paint. From the beginning, Ralph suspected that dark forces were responsible for his wife's changes in behavior.
He noticed an expression in her eyes that terrified him, describing them as being bright red, almost glowing, almost like coals. When she was overcome with a bit of rage outside, a frightened Ralph locked himself in the house. He consulted Salvation Army captains at the church the couple attended, seeking guidance on the matter. Rejecting his suggestion there was, quote, an evil presence in Joan, the captains instead offered the couple marriage counseling.
Displeased with this response, Ralph scheduled a doctor's appointment for Joan at a medical clinic in the nearby town of Dimboola. The general practitioner concluded that Joan was suffering from mental illness and should be admitted as an involuntary patient to a psychiatric hospital. In late September, she was taken to Lakeside Mental Health Hospital in the regional city of Ballarat, a three-hour drive southeast from her home. Psychiatrists there diagnosed Joan with anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and hypomania, a mood disorder which can cause increased energy, difficulty concentrating, restlessness, and irritability.
She remained at the hospital for three weeks, and by mid-October her sleep pattern had improved, though it still wasn't back to normal. Upon release, doctors prescribed to Joan an antipsychotic medication called dioridazine, which was then commonly used to treat schizophrenia. They instructed her to take it for twelve months, cautioning her that if she stopped, there was a strong possibility of relapse within the next two years. Nine days after Joan's release, she was still struggling with persistent restlessness, so she and Ralph made another doctor's appointment.
Although Joan was coherent, the doctor noted she had difficulty remaining seated, and expressed that the problem might have been the thioridazine, as agitation was a side effect of the drug. Joan's dosage was halved, and she was also prescribed a second medication to help manage the restlessness. The doctor asked the couple to return in five days for a follow-up appointment, but she never saw them again. Joan's continued suffering convinced Ralph that the doctors were unable to help.
He suggested to Joan that she submit to deliverance, a form of ministry similar to an exorcism in which an individual is cleansed of evil spirits and demons. Joan refused, telling her husband, there's nothing wrong with me. Ralph then turned to his religious friends for advice and was instructed to pray to God to bind the spirits. He did so, and when Joan's health improved shortly after, Ralph attributed her recovery to his prayers, and she ceased taking her medication.
Seeing Joan's recovery increased Ralph's faith in God even further, and religion became the focal point of his life. One neighbor would later recall that while he could have a normal conversation with Joan, it was impossible to talk to Ralph without the subject of religion being raised. In his quest to find a like-minded people, Ralph had become acquainted with a couple named to John and Leanne Reichenbach, both aged 30, who had encouraged him to pray for Joan's recovery. The Reichenbachs resided on a remote farmstead in the town of Glen Lee, located roughly 28 kilometers west of Antwerp.
They had met through their involvement in the Lutheran faith, with Leanne attending services in the town south of Horsham, and John's family being well-regarded elders of another nearby church. They married, and by the early 1990s had four children. Over time, they found themselves increasingly drawn to charismatic Christianity, a fundamentalist movement that emphasizes abilities believed to be bestowed by the Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues, performing miracles, and being able to heal the sick. During the early 1990s, the charismatic movement was on the rise throughout the Wimera region, becoming increasingly popular with individuals who had previously practiced the more conventional branches of Christianity.
John and Leanne Reichenbach believed they had a divine calling to exorcise demons and began performing deliverances. They also established their own prayer circle at their home, with groups ranging from six to twenty-five people gathering there to sing hymns and study biblical passages. Soon, Ralph of Olmer was a regular attendee and developed a close friendship with the couple, considering them to be the only two truly spirit-filled people of their entire congregation. However, the Reichenbachs' involvement with the charismatic movement led to clashes with their Lutheran minister.
When he pointed out that some of their new beliefs contradicted the Bible's teachings, they would argue that the Lord had spoken to them personally. Their disagreements with the church's doctrine eventually led to them being excommunicated from their congregation in late 1992. In early January 1993, Ralph and Joan traveled to Adelaide to attend a six-day charismatic movement convention that the Reichenbachs had recommended to them. The week-long event was characterized by lots of singing, preaching, and people performing minor miracles such as healing and casting out demons.
Throughout it all, Joan seemed moody and withdrawn, but the trip passed without any significant incidents. When the couple arrived back home on Sunday January 10, Joan's manic symptoms returned and quickly worsened. She was once again restless and unable to sleep, and, according to Ralph, would snort like a pig, make aggressive facial expressions that he compared to an angry dog, swear loudly, and speak about lewd activities. Ralph attributed Joan's behavior to spiritual problems.
When he had prayed to bind the evil spirit within her two years earlier, he believed he had rendered it ineffective, but failed to cast it out. Now, he suspected it had been reawakened by the strong spiritual atmosphere and nourishment of the convention, and was rebelling against it. Over the next ten days, Ralph prayed often for guidance, but worried that he was harassing God with concerns that he was already aware of. As a reminder to himself, Ralph painted the words Stop Telling Father Your Needs in red paint on an outside wall of the property's pigsty.
On Thursday January 21, 63-year-old Roma Karras caught the bus from Horsham to Antwerp to stay with her friend to Joan Vollmer. It was the middle of summer, and temperatures in the region were consistently soaring above 40 degrees Celsius. When Roma greeted Joan, she was shocked to find her friend dressed in a nighty and heavy dressing gown, but with ice-cold hands. Throughout the visit, Joan re-sacked crockery, pulled apart flowers from a bouquet Roma had given her, and sang in a peculiar voice that Roma described as lovely, like a nightingale.
Roma also observed that Joan's stomach appeared to be swollen. Joan told Roma that she was both expecting a baby, and that the swelling was due to a cancerous tumor. She insisted that there were people on the property who wanted to rape her, but when she tried to point them out to her friend, Roma saw nothing. Believing that Joan was heading for, quote, a nervous breakdown, Roma told Ralph of her concerns on the following morning of Friday, January 22, before returning home.
That evening, Ralph returned home from shopping to find Joan dancing barefoot in the paddocks while waving her arms and calling out to him. He escorted her into the house, only for Joan to run away and be found later that night four kilometers away. Deeply disturbed, Ralph prayed to God for guidance as to where he should turn for help. Believing he received an answer to reach out to the Reichenbachs, he phoned John and asked him to come over.
John arrived at the Volmer residence at around 11.30 p.m. He and Leanne had participated in as many as twenty deliverances by this time, and upon seeing the state that Joan was in, John quickly... deduced that she was a victim of demonic possession. He told Ralph that deliverance was no longer an option, but a necessary action in order to save her soul.
Ralph agreed, and the two of them stayed awake all night praying for Joan and reading passages aloud from the Bible. The next morning of Saturday January 23, Leanne Reichenbach arrived and took her husband's place by Joan's side, while John returned home to the couple's children. She phoned other members of their circle to ask for their guidance and assistance in praying for Joan. At the top of her list was Leah Clungston, a 77-year-old Baptist who resided in the town of Rainbow, 52 kilometers north of Antwerp.
The Reichenbachs considered Leah to be something of a spiritual leader, as she claimed to speak directly with God. After consulting with Leanne over the telephone, Leah came to the conclusion that Joan was possessed by not one, but ten demonic entities, and provided advice on how to expel the evil spirits. Following Leah's instructions, Ralph and Leanne had Joan sit in a chair at one end of the kitchen, while they sat at the other, reciting biblical passages, praying, and asking Joan questions while Christian music played in the background. This pattern repeated over the next two days.
Ralph and Leanne's deliverance sessions commenced during the mid-afternoon and continued throughout the night, sometimes not concluding until 5 a.m. Occasionally John Reichenbach would join them in person, but other times they regularly called him for advice, along with Leah and several other prayer circle members. After three days with no change in Joan's behavior, it was decided that they needed someone else to join them and strengthen their efforts. Case File will be back shortly.
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Terms and conditions apply. Thank you for listening to this episode's ads. By supporting our sponsors, you support Casefile to continue to deliver quality content. David Klingner was a 28-year-old contract harvester who had grown up in northern New South Wales but now lived in South Australia.
He had attended the Reichenbach's prayer circles on a number of occasions, where he had become acquainted with a Routh Vollmer as well. David had also met Joan, and already harbored some suspicions about her, even before receiving phone calls from Leanne Reichenbach explaining that Joan was undergoing a deliverance. He had seen the Vollmers at a New Year's Eve prayer gathering four weeks earlier, and thought that Joan had a blank expression on her face during the service. At one stage, he believed he saw her eyes roll back into her head.
From that moment, he suspected there was a demonic presence in her, and an out that had seemingly been confirmed. When the group asked him to join them, he felt it was his duty to assist. On Tuesday, January 26, David made a considerable journey across the state border to Antwerp. Upon arriving at the property, he felt that the atmosphere there was like that of a, quote, spiritual battle between God and Satan.
He prayed and read from the Bible along with Ralph and Leanne. The trio maintained their efforts throughout the entire day and into Wednesday as well, regularly checking in with their prayer circle associates. According to David, Joan became increasingly verbally abusive and aggressive as time went on. By Thursday, January 28, Joan's restlessness had worsened to the point that she refused to stay seated and resisted the group's prayers.
In response, Ralph suggested they tie her feet to wooden planks to prevent her from moving around and making what he described as satanic gestures. They also began depriving Joan of food and water as a way of starving the demons inside her. When she complained of her hunger and thirst, they would pray even louder to drown out her cries. Their questioning of Joan persisted, and if she didn't provide satisfactory replies, they slapped her face as a means of telling her, in Ralph's words, Come on, give us an answer.
On a couple of occasions, Ralph became distressed at witnessing the torment his wife was enduring, including the bruises that had formed on her skin. When he voiced his concerns that this could not be God's will, Leanne and David pointed out to Ralph that it wasn't his wife that were physically battling, but a demonic presence. They reassured him that they were Not harming Joan in any way, we were just dealing with the evil spirit. Nevertheless, the group were at a loss as to why they couldn't see any improvement in Joan's well-being, despite the growing intensity of their deliverance.
Leah advised them over the phone that they would need to call for more reinforcements if the demons still remained by Saturday. Throughout the exorcism, the group had also been consulting fellow prayer circle attendee, Kathleen Usky, over the phone. Like Leah Clunston, Kathleen lived in rainbow and felt it was her obligation to assist with prayers and guidance. In the face of the group's continued failure to exorcise Joan's demons, Kathleen suggested that her son, 22-year-old Matthew Paul Narsky, join them.
Matthew lived nearly 400 kilometers away in the Melbourne suburb of Warrandyte and was employed as an assistant greenkeeper at a golf course. He had never participated in a deliverance before, but Kathleen advised that he was particularly sensitive to the message of God and the presence of evil, having previously detected demons that resided in a house that he lived in. When Saturday January 30 dawned with no perceivable change in Joan, Kathleen called her son and he agreed to make the long drive to Antwerp. It was another hot day, with the temperature reaching 40 degrees by noon when Matthew Paul Narsky pulled up to the property.
In anticipation of his arrival, the group had removed all of the kitchen's furniture, with the exception of a single chair that Joan was restrained in. Her stockings had been used to tie her feet to wooden planks that had been nailed together. She had barely had anything to eat or drink for days. Matthew later said that when he entered the room, Joan was unable to look at him, which he attributed to her detecting the presence of Jesus in him.
As they began the day's deliverance, Matthew blessed some olive oil and anointed those present with it, before running around to the exterior of the house seven times, holding up a 30-centimeter square sheet of cling film in an attempt to prevent evil spirits from entering. He then decided they needed to destroy items that Joan loved, as they were shrines and altars for her devil worship. Ralph and David used a hammer to smash Joan's porcelain ornaments, jewelry, and vases, while Matthew ripped out the flowers in her beloved garden and greenhouse. Once Matthew had prepared for the exorcism, he re-entered the kitchen and said to Joan, In the name of Jesus, I demand you to sit down, while the other three attempted to pin her down.
Joan was distressed and struggled against them with what they perceived as an inhuman strength. Over several hours, she was repeatedly interrogated while Leanne pressed forcefully against her stomach, abdomen, and chest, in an effort to push out the demons that were inside her. Her eyes opened with his fingers so that she had to look at Matthew while he preached, saying over and over, In the precious name of the Lord Jesus, release this woman. The slapping continued, with Joan receiving approximately twenty hits to the face.
At one stage, her jaw was wrenched open in an effort to remove a demon. Leanne continued to call her husband John and Leah Cluxton, keeping them up to date with proceedings and following their directions. Through their questioning of Joan, the group believed that they had identified one of the demons as a legion, a powerful spirit that Jesus had once cast from a possessed man. They claimed that when controlled by legion, Joan adopted a masculine persona.
This contrasted with another spirit called Baby Joanie, or Baby Princess Joan, who spoke in a childlike voice and detailed sexual abuses that had been inflicted on her as a young girl. After several hours, the group believed that they had successfully driven out a number of demons, including Baby Princess Joan and another that resembled a pig, but that legion and another strong male spirit remained, hiding in Joan's womb. At four o'clock in the afternoon, she was moved to her bedroom for the exorcism's final stage. Once in the bedroom, the group took it in turns to sit on Joan and push on her stomach, chest, neck and head to force the final two demons out, concentrating most of their attention on her abdomen before moving up her body.
By around 4.30 p.m. they were focusing on Joan's neck, burnily massaging it, when she suddenly shuddered and admitted a loud groan before falling still. Those present interpreted this as the demons leaving her, and Matthew declared that the evil spirits had finally been defeated. As the others began to celebrate, Ralph noticed that his wife was no longer breathing and felt her wrist for a pulse.
Failing to find one, he alerted the others, and they attempted to revive Joan via mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. When this failed, Matthew reassured the group that entering a state such as this was normal for an individual who had just undergone a successful deliverance. After consulting with Leah Clugston by telephone, Matthew announced that Joan would arise by the next morning, restored to perfect health. He told the others to pray over her, then departed the property to attend to other matters.
The remaining trio pulled a quilt over Joan's body and began to sing songs of God's victory. The following day, Sunday January 31, Joan had failed to wake as promised. Leanne Reichenbach phoned Leah Clugston and Kathleen Usky, who agreed to visit the property so they could lay hands on Joan and pray for her in person. When the women arrived, they pressed their hands on Joan's forehead and commanded her to rise up and walk, to no avail.
Leah repeated the process three times before leaving in the afternoon. Those at the farm continued to hold a vigil and sing hymns, while at home, Leah prayed for further instructions regarding what she had seen at the Vollmer residence. On Monday morning, after consulting with her sister-in-law, Leah believed she had received another otherworldly message, telling her to call the authorities. Senior Constable Jeffrey Arnott was on duty in the town of Jeparit on Monday, February 1, when a call came through from the local Lutheran minister requesting an officer's presence at a property in Antwerp, 26 kilometers south.
The minister had just been summoned there himself and was disturbed by what he had found. When Constable Arnott arrived at the Vollmer's farmhouse at around 2 p.m., he was greeted by a balding man who identified himself as David Klingner and stated, It's a long story. Entering the house, the policeman saw Ralph Vollmer and Leanne Reichenbach seated at the kitchen table, Leanne reading aloud from a Bible, and Ralph using a marker to highlight passages relating to resurrection. Continuing down a hallway to the bedroom, Constable Arnott saw a female body with noticeable facial and arm bruising in an advanced state of decomposition lying on the bed.
Flyers and maggots had gathered on the body, under which there was an enormous stain on the mattress, and a foul odor permeated the room. Constable Arnott estimated the woman had been dead for several days. Upon returning to the kitchen, he saw Ralph still reading his Bible and noticed there was, quote, a strange atmosphere of calm. Constable Arnott queried Ralph as to whether he would be making funeral arrangements for his wife, but Ralph responded that there wouldn't be a funeral, and he was about to witness the greatest miracle, as Joan would soon walk out of the bedroom alive with a completely restored body.
Shocked, Constable Arnott made no further comment and called for backup. Ralph returned to reading his Bible. David told other responding officers that Joan had died as the group had been physically reading the demonic spirits from her. When queried as to how Joan's body had become so bruised, he explained that the demons had given her enormous strength and she had to be forcefully held down.
The homicide squad arranged to have the body taken to Melbourne for a post-mortem examination. That afternoon, Ralph, Leanne and David were all taken to Horsham Police Station to be formally questioned. They were interviewed for several hours by local police before homicide squad detectives arrived from Melbourne and commenced a second phase of interviews. In his account, Ralph Palmer claimed that he had discovered disturbing things about his wife during the exorcism, such as that her parents had sacrificed two of their other children at birth and had baptized her in the name of Satan when she was three years old.
After this alleged baptism, she became known as Baby Princess Joan to those who worshipped Satan. Joan's family, who avoided the public spotlight following her death, denied these claims. Ralph also said that Joan had been very distraught by her admission to Lakeside Mental Health Hospital, so he had made her a promise that she would never have to return to psychiatric care. This had been a factor in seeking divine intervention for his wife instead of medical attention.
He stated that his fellow worshippers, Leanne Reichenbach and David Klingner, were more sensitive to the voice of God than he was, so for the most part he followed their lead when it came to extracting information from Joan. In regards to the mistreatment and injuries inflicted against Joan, Ralph insisted she wouldn't have felt any physical pain. Quote, It would have hurt my wife terribly, but it wasn't my wife. We weren't dealing with my wife anymore.
This is the whole point. See, I wouldn't allow anything like that to happen to my wife. You can't believe that. She wasn't my wife.
She was an evil spirit that needed to be dealt with. despite having witnessed the decomposition of her body he remained adamant that joan would be revived stating his expectation that god would provide her with a new body and quote do a complete resurrection job leanne reichenbach expressed her surprise that joan had died due to the group pressing on her neck saying that they believed they were doing what was necessary to do she told police she'd been involved in deliverances for 18 months but had never encountered anything like joan's case before david klinger acknowledged that while it would have been appropriate to call an ambulance for joan quote in worldly terms the group had been dealing with a spiritual matter he said god had provided him a message that the case would receive worldwide attention leading to those who had performed the exorcism being criminally charged and possibly imprisoned in response to these consequences god would return joan to life and quote show he is victorious in this day and age the three individuals were permitted to return home in the early hours of tuesday february 2 later that day detectives visited the vomer property and filmed ralph as he took the monitor of the homestead providing a narrative of the exorcism and pointing out where particular events had taken place an autopsy determined that the thyroid cartilage in joan's neck had been fractured due to the amount of pressure that the perpetrators had applied and she died of cardiac arrest within two days of police finding her body both australian and international media outlets were reporting on the bizarre case ralph openly spoke to the journalists who turned up at his property sharing all of the details about the exorcism in one newspaper report published on wednesday february 3 he described the moment that his wife died quote there was a great noise of hissing screaming and groaning as the noise died down i looked at her eyes and i saw the light leave them he explained that her death wasn't reported because they had received messages that the lord would raise her up jones funeral was scheduled for friday february 5 less than a week after her death ralph informed the media he knew with absolute certainty that she would be resurrected before her body was laid to rest stating she will tell god's story to people around the world and get sinners to repent he was eager that the media shared the story and invited journalists to attend so that they could witness the miracle for themselves the modest service was held in horsham at the salvation army hall where joan and ralph had occasionally worshipped roughly 60 of joan's friends and fellow churchgoers attended but her family were absent reportedly too distressed by the manner of her death that be there as many as 30 journalists and photographers as well as horsham police officers monitored proceedings salvation army captain colin corkery presided over the service stating in 10 years of ministry we have never known any experience to be so traumatic in the two years we have known ralph and joan we have known them to be gentle simple and caring people he cautioned against the lone ranger exorcists who operated outside the bounds of churches lorna keaman her salvation army sister said joan's legacy would be that of a happy caring loving woman who walked with jesus following the ceremony the casket was taken to horsham cemetery for burial where curious spectators gathered around the perimeter awaiting the alleged miracle ralph had promised after a bible passage was shared jones coffin was slowly lowered into its grave and ralph closed his eyes tilting his head to the sky to pray when the casket touched the ground ralph began sobbing for the first time turning to his sons for support as he finally realized joan was gone he willingly spoke with reporters after the burial theorizing that perhaps joan hadn't wanted to return because she loved heaven so much david clinger also spoke with the press stating that he had nothing to hide and if the police wanted to speak with him again quote then i guess they'll find me he revealed that he and john reichenbach had already performed a deliverance on another woman just four days after joan's death but this one had been a success sometime after the funeral ralph moved in with the reichenbacks helping out on the couple's farm and taking care of their children while one of his sons took over the property at antwerp the reichenbach's prayer circle disbanded but they and ralph maintained their faith regularly attending services at another church in horsham case file will be back shortly thank you for supporting us by listening to this episode's sponsors thank you for listening to this episode's ads by supporting our sponsors you support case file to continue to deliver quality content police prepare to report for the coroner and three months after joan's death ralph olmer leanne reichenbach david clinger and matthew naski were all charged with manslaughter all four received bail and were ordered to face a three-day committal hearing in september on monday september 13 the four defendants each carrying a bible filed into horsham magistrates court two religious experts a baptist theologian and a catholic church official gave evidence that while they believed in demonic possession such cases were rare an improved understanding of mental health had led them to believe many so-called possessions of the past had been misdiagnosed psychological disorders joan's mental health diagnosis two years earlier was relayed to the court and how the reichenbach's history with exorcisms had led to them being expelled from their church on the hearing second day leah clumpston took the stand telling the court that she had regularly consulted the defendants throughout the exorcism and while she had never met joan god had repeatedly confirmed that she was possessed leah stated that after visiting the property on january 31 and laying hands on joan's deceased body she alerted the local minister after much prayer on the matter at various stages she would shudder and interrupt her own testimony to channel the voice of god exclaiming i'm sorry daddy's god speaking yes the pathologist who performed to joan's autopsy testified that it was highly probable that her cardiac arrest was a result of the pressure the defendants had placed on her neck however as joan died five minutes or longer after the force was applied her cause of death could not be determined with absolute certainty and there was insufficient evidence to prove it was a consequence of the exorcism on thursday september 16 magistrate tim mcdonald conceded that although the poor defendants had in all likelihood contributed to joan's death his decision was to drop all of the charges stating i find the prosecution has not produced enough evidence of sufficient weight for a jury to find the cardiac arrest was caused by application of pressure on the neck of the deceased though surprised by the magistrate's decision all four defendants were pleased with the result they sobbed clapped and embraced their relatives and newspaper photographers captured some of them smiling broadly as they left the courthouse all four remained staunchly committed to their faith and felt vindicated by the ruling with ralph fulmer felling journalists god's will has been done and i just praise and rejoice in the lord he gave media interviews the following day in which he remarked that god had been on trial telling melbourne newspaper the sunday age that he disagreed with the finding that he and the others had most likely contributed to joan's death but that the magistrate had been as understanding as he could be when asked what he would do if he had his time over ralph said he would still choose to exercise joan quote i still maintain that she was possessed and it was god's will to take her home the broader community did not share the defendants views and were deeply disturbed by the ruling jones death had sent shockwaves through antwerp and the wider wimmera region although many in the area identified as religious the majority of them attended a mainstream church and felt that the legal system was not holding extremists accountable for their actions a number of locals aired their grievances to the media with long-time antwerp resident ivan pollack telling the sunday age newspaper everyone reckons we can do anything to our wives now and get away with it as long as we preach the gospel nobody's happy about it everybody's disgusted absolutely church spokespeople pointed out that this sort of event was the risk people took when taking matters into their own hands rather than calling in a religious authority the royal australian and new zealand college of psychiatrists called for a review of the case mental health workers expressed concern that vulnerable people may be targeted for recruitment by unconventional churches as some people suffering from schizophrenia believed themselves to be possessed by demons professor graham burrows chairman of the mental health foundation told the age if people have a psychiatric disease they should receive appropriate treatments and exorcism is not one of them in the wake of the public outrage victoria's director of public prosecutions continued to look into the case after reviewing the evidence with assistance from at least four legal advisors the charges against the four acquitted were reinstated on february 14 1994 ralph volmer leanne reichenbach david klinger and matthew nusky were served with notices to stand trial for manslaughter unlawful imprisonment and recklessly causing serious injury though the exorcism of joan volmer had lasted for over a week the charges only related to their actions between noon and 4 30 pm on saturday january 30 1993 the hours leading up to her death all four entered pleas of not guilty and were granted bail once again the trial commenced on monday october 17 1994 and was a sensational event for the small single-story courthouse a jury of five women and seven men were sworn in and dozens of journalists and spectators oversaw the proceedings rather than dismiss the defendants beliefs as outlandish the prosecution's approach was to bring in their own religious experts to testify that the behavior of the four accused did not align with mainstream christianity the jury was told about joan's 1990 diagnosis of anxiety depression schizophrenia and hypermania her decision to cease taking medication and her subsequent decline after attending the charismatic christian convention two years later the video shot by investigators of the volmer property was also shown revealing the stockings and boards used to restrain joan as well as joan's destroyed belongings in the garden it emerged during the trial that ralph had not informed joan's family about her cause of death joan's brother-in-law neville who was married to her sister dorothy gave evidence about a phone call he'd received from ralph three days after joan's death letting them know that an autopsy was being performed when asked how her death had occurred ralph nearly said she died slowly the couple were left to learn the details from media reports a psychiatrist who had treated joan at lakeside mental health hospital provided background on her psychiatric history a senior catholic official gave evidence that the number of exorcisms performed had significantly declined over the years likely due to ongoing advances in the mental health field he also stated that an exorcism typically involved prayer and possibly laying hands on the head of the possessed individual nothing like the treatment that joan had been subjected to though none of the accused took the stand leanne's husband john rickenback gave evidence he claimed that joan had been possessed by multiple spirits and described how she had appeared and behaved when under the influence of the entities he identified as legion and baby princess joan he also asserted that they had known joan was possessed because she revealed information about the exorcists that she had no way of knowing when matthew nusky had arrived at the farm joan said 22 piss pot which those present interpreted as a reference to his age and a problem he'd previously had with alcohol leah clumps then was also called to testify and again declared god was speaking directly to her just as she had at the committal hearing david cleaners defense attorney told the court that his client would have viewed not participating in the exorcism as quote a serious neglect of his duty while leanne rickenback's lawyer said exorcisms were not unlawful and none of her actions could have led to joan's death on tuesday october 25 leanne tendered a letter to the court justifying the group's actions the letter stated that the group performing the exorcism knew that they were acting in god's will because he gave them confirmation that their actions were proper leanne also noted that only god knew why joan had not been resurrected after her death and that some good had resulted from the situation because the story had quote gone worldwide to highlight the existence of a spiritual realm ralph volmer's barrister argued that his client was a reasonable person who had turned to his religious community after seeing no improvement in joan following her release from hospital in 1990 when joan seemed to recover shortly after ralph prayed for her to get better he attributed this to the power of prayer the defense pointed to references to exorcisms in the bible saying their long tradition made demonic possession entirely reasonable to someone of faith a psychologist called to give evidence about ralph's personality and character said ralph trusted the few friends he had implicitly it had taken him more than a year to accept that his wife was deceased and wouldn't be returning a month into the trial the barrister representing matthew nusky requested to have the most serious charge against his client dropped his barrister argued that the crown had failed to make a case for manslaughter against matthew who was now 24 and studying to be a missionary at the interdenominational college in perth the trial judge justice graham crossley agreed there was insufficient evidence to convict and instructed the jury to acquit matthew of manslaughter a week later both sides gave their closing address prosecutor peter jones argued that ralph should have recognized his wife required professional medical help but instead quote common sense gave way to zealotry which led to a volatile exorcism he told the jury that the defendants had no right to confine joan or assault her body adding they had no consideration for christianity they went right past that they were on a frolic of their own and an unlawful frolic the defense urged jurors to reflect on the evidence without prejudice and set aside sensationalist media reports they might have read following jones death they also pointed out that it was possible that jones had died from an asthma attack or an epileptic fit as the pathologist had not been able to determine the cause of death with absolute certainty the jury had a difficult task ahead while the local community wanted justice for jones exorcisms in and of themselves were not illegal meaning they would have to consider whether the actions performed by the group during the ritual were unlawful and amounted to manslaughter after a day's deliberation the jury returned to deliver the verdict late on wednesday november 30 they found ralph bulmer not guilty of manslaughter but guilty of one count of recklessly causing serious injury and one count of false imprisonment as per the judge's instructions matthew nusky was acquitted of manslaughter but convicted on one count of false imprisonment leanne rickenback and david klinger were both convicted of false imprisonment and manslaughter making them the only ones held directly responsible for killing Joan. When sentencing the perpetrators, Judge Crossley explained that they were not being sentenced for performing the exorcism, but for the undue force they had used against Joan, as the law did not allow excesses in the name of religion. He noted that regardless of whether Joan had suffered from a mental illness or been possessed by demons, the level of violence inflicted on her was rough, unwarranted, and absolutely unjustified.
While Judge Crossley observed that it was difficult to perceive any remorse in the four, as they all accepted Joan's death was God's will, he did not use this as an aggravating factor, due to the unusual nature of the case. He stated, You put Joan through an ordeal that can only be described as bizarre and quite extraordinary. Seen objectively, that ordeal was cruel. Yet, I do accept that you set about subjecting her to that ordeal, honestly believing that it was for her own good, and she was truly possessed by demons.
Judge Crossley sentenced Leanne Rickenback to two years in prison, twenty months of which were suspended for two years. David Klingner was given eighteen months, fifteen of which were also suspended for two years. Ralph Vollmer was sentenced to twelve months, suspended for two years, and Matthew Nusky received three months, suspended for eighteen months. Of the four, only Leanne and David would serve any prison time.
Leanne fought to hold back tears as she was escorted from the courtroom to begin her four-month sentence. Joan's family had deliberately avoided immediate attention since her death, but two members gave brief statements following the sentencings. One of her sisters, Dorothy, commented that Joan's death had traumatized their family, while another sister, Irene, added that she hoped the ordeal was finally over. Quote It's just something we have to put behind us now.
In May 1995, all four perpetrators appealed their convictions at the Supreme Court of Victoria. The defendants argued that the Crown had failed to adequately show that by pressing on Joan's neck they had caused her death, and claimed that the offense of manslaughter had not been committed, as Joan had consented to the acts that were performed on her. They also submitted that the charge of false imprisonment did not apply, as Joan's mental state and behavior meant she was a danger to herself and others, and she had agreed to, quote, The perpetrators' attorneys also objected the sum of the evidence supplied by the prosecution, including exhibits of the wooden planks Joan's feet had been strapped to, portions of the police interviews with the defendants, and testimony regarding the destruction of the farm's garden and Joan's prized possessions. On September 7, 1995, the Supreme Court of Victoria rejected all grounds of appeal, and upheld their convictions.
Little is known about the perpetrators' lives following their convictions, though all appear to have maintained their faith. Ralph Vollmer eventually married for a third time and left Victoria to live with his new wife in Queensland, selling his and Joan's Antwerp property in 2001. An editorial published in Melbourne newspaper The Age in September 1993, voiced the anxieties felt by much of the public in the wake of Joan's death. It read in part, Most Australians call themselves Christians, but most would have no doubt that the poor who tried to exercise the mentally ill Joan Vollmer were dangerously deluded.
How can such medieval thinking persist in the face of modern medicine's ability to diagnose mental disturbance? The Vollmer case demonstrates the darker side of some forms of belief, and the dangers of religious certainty. Those who do not question their actions, who carry within them the assurance of divine inspiration at all times, are capable of harm that is as great as it is unknowing. For the past 20 years the farmhouse where Joan was killed has lain empty.
The buyers who purchased it in 2001 never moved in. It sold again in 2013 for just under $87,500, but remained uninhabited. According to an article published in 2016 by news.com.au, breaking into the abandoned residence has become a popular pastime for local teenagers. Ivan Pollack, the Antwerp resident who spoke of the community's disgust in the wake of Joan's death, told reporter Candace Sutton that the house made people feel unsettled.
Quote, It put Antwerp on the map, so to speak. People still talk about what happened in that house. Nearly 60 kilometers south, a simple headstone marks Joan Vollmer's final resting place at Horsham Cemetery. Beneath the rendering of a crucifix and her name are the words, Always in our hearts, In God's care.
In God's care. In God's care. In God's care.