A national Amish leader has been arrested on allegations of torturing, enslaving and sexually abusing participants of his counseling retreat.

Sam Shetler's case has put the secretive and fast–growing Amish and Mennonite communities under the spotlight like never before.

No trial date has yet been set for the 42–year–old, who faces at least 15 years in prison if convicted on two counts of trafficking for forced labor and one count of sodomy. He has also been charged with one count of first–degree involuntary manslaughter and has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

He stands accused of using his residential program in Missouri to exploit vulnerable Amish and Mennonite teens and adults, including some who are disabled and severely mentally ill. 

Investigators say in their probable cause statement that he drugged and psychologically manipulated them, and demanded unpaid labor to maintain control of his flock.

Those allegations alone seem shocking enough when it comes to folks who are known for shunning conflict and cell phones, and still get around in horse–drawn buggies.

But victims' advocates say Shetler's March 25 arrest lays bare a much broader pattern of abuse at dozens of unregulated Amish and Mennonite treatment programs nationwide, warehousing not only female abuse survivors but also male attackers.

'Many of these facilities are nothing but organized crime – men making money exploiting the bodies, labor and emotional needs of members,' said Jasper Hoffman, a former Mennonite who advocates for Amish women and hosts The Plain People's Podcast.

'People don't really choose to go to these places. They get put there like concentration camps.'

Shetler is a horse and mule trainer, farmer, businessman and leader within the Swartzentrubers – the most conservative and restrictive subset of Amish Americans who separate themselves not just from modern society, but also from other Amish groups. 

They follow strict social rules that generally prohibit electricity, plumbing and technology, and are sometimes mocked as hillbillies by more modern Amish and Mennonites.

Shetler lives in a Schwartzentruber enclave in Boonville, Missouri, roughly midway between Kansas City and St. Louis. He has served on the board of the Hoffnung Organization, a national nonprofit named after the German word for hope.

It funds services for so–called 'plain' communities that adhere to a lifestyle of simple dress, separation from modern culture and devout faith.

In addition to raising their own brood of children, records show that around 2009 Shetler and his wife Ida opened an informal boarding program for teenagers perceived to be 'morally or mentally disabled and or in need of counseling or therapy services.' 

Some had diagnosed mental and behavioral health conditions, but others were merely rebellious or had been kicked out of their houses for resisting or speaking out about sexual abuse.

Shetler's program started with five participants but grew to more than 20, so he gleaned donations and volunteer labor to build a new nonprofit. The Mercy & Truth Retreat launched in 2022 with a steady stream of participants sent there by the Hoffnung Organization and various church ministries, mostly in the Midwest.

Its vision: 'To provide care and hope for struggling individuals within our Plain Communities in a Christ like way with little or no cost to the individual person.'

'We only charge for lab work, supplements, and actual medical expenses. Food, care, therapy and your stay at Mercy & Truth Retreat is free of charge,' the program boasted.

'Our goal is to provide a "primitive" family type setting that is as close to real life as possible with a whole person perspective of Body, Mind, Spirit.'

The program reported having ​​93 residents who stayed an average of 90 days for the year in 2023. It employed eight full–time workers, none of whom were making more than $35 a day, a report to the retreat's donors shows.

Shetler is believed to have no formal training or license as a mental – or behavioral –healthcare provider. Still, records show that at the 2023 opening of a new retreat center on his property, he gave a lecture about 'childhood trauma and the results of losing a heart–to–heart connection'.

Other records show that in 2024 he led a training for 'ministers, mentors, support groups and parents who are personally and/or directly involved with dealing with sexual abuse victims/survivors.'

Yet a multi–year investigation by the Cooper County Sheriff's Department found he had unorthodox and even disturbing ways of trying to help.

Prompted by numerous calls about his 'cult–like' behavior, the probe found Shetler told three teenage women that they were 'demon possessed' and he was the only one who could control the 'evil spirits' within them. During counseling sessions, he rubbed oil on their bodies, including on their pubic areas, as a form of exorcism, according to a five–page probable cause statement.

'The three females arrived at the facility when they were 15 years old and are now believed to be 19 to 20 years old. They travel everywhere with Sam and follow Sam everywhere he goes,' it reads.

According to the statement, one victim told police that, when she was a young teen, Shetler subjected her to inappropriate 'counseling' sessions in which he sexually abused her multiple times under the guise of treatment, including laying on top of her and whispering: 'You're so lucky to be here.'

Court documents also allege that Shetler forced some residents to take 70 to 100 pills a day, many of which he personally compounded at home. One witness reported seeing him 'wrestle down' a female resident who refused to take her pills, sit on her chest, force tablets and capsules into her mouth and hold it shut until she swallowed them.

Another witness reported that an Amish man with disabilities was kicked in the genitals and locked for weeks in a 'safe room', tied with his hands behind his back and punished with pepper in his eyes.

The statement quotes residents saying they were forced to work at Shetler's farm, horse and mule training operations, sawmill and pallet business, or leased as laborers on his neighbors' farms, often for long hours and without being paid. Some were not receiving counseling or therapy from Shetler, which ostensibly was their reason for being at Mercy & Truth.

'The retreat was under the control of one individual who took advantage of his position in the Amish Community to control, manipulate, coerce, and force vulnerable people for his own profit in different forms,' Cooper County Sheriff Chris Class said when announcing charges in March.

Liberty Ridge Farm, a rehabilitation center for troubled youth operated by Mennonites in eastern Pennsylvania, was similarly accused by former residents of labor, human trafficking and severe abuse. 

Reports indicated that older 'mentors' or staff forced residents to lie face–down on the ground and restrained them with zip–ties for extended periods, sometimes for days or weeks. A judge has ruled against Liberty Ridge for violating labor practices. 

Shetler – who hasn't posted his $100,000 bond and could not be reached in jail – has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. 

His lawyer, Adam Dowling, did not respond to the Daily Mail's request to discuss the case.

A woman who answered the phone at Mercy & Truth hung up on us when we asked about the allegations against her boss.

The Daily Mail spoke with three former residents of the retreat – one of whom, a Mennonite young man, said his family 'dragged' him there when he started questioning his faith at age 16.

'I was there to get re–programed by Sam,' he said of the man he claimed forced him to work with his livestock and in his sawmill for months without pay.

A young woman told the Daily Mail Shetler forced her to swallow dozens of pills each day without specifying what they were supposed to treat. She said some of the medications and supplements – for which her family paid thousands of dollars – 'tasted like the smell of ammonia' and that she worries they'll some day 'give me cancer or keep me from having babies'.

Another young woman is in her late teens, but says she feels like she's 50. From as far back as she can remember, when she first spoke out about sexual abuse by her father, she bounced between the homes of her grandparents, aunts and uncles and distant relatives, with occasional stints at retreats like Mercy & Truth. 

She was labeled 'unpious' and 'unsuitable' for the Swartzentruber way of life and repeatedly told that she was 'possessed by demons,' she said:

'I was a potato, thrown around like I was too hot to handle. And I'm not the only one,' she told the Daily Mail.

Like other facilities the two said they were also forced into, they noted that the retreat housed not just victims of sexual abuse, but also perpetrators.

The Daily Mail has verified through court records claims that at least one serial sexual predator was placed at Mercy & Truth. 

'There were boys and men who shouldn't have been there,' one of the young women told us.

A Pennsylvania–based victims' advocate who asked to be identified only as Rebecca toured the retreat in June 2024. She said a staffer there, Regina Miller, told her the retreat generally doesn't report abuse incidents.

'I found that to be problematic, obviously,' she said.

Attempts to reach Miller were unsuccessful. 

Investigators in Shetler's case found internal guidelines instructing staffers and residents at his retreat to clam up if questioned by law enforcement. Shetler's court records show that police could not fully investigate several reports about his misconduct 'due to cultural differences'.

'They're insular,' one law enforcement official told us. 'It's hard to get them to talk.'

It appears that members of Shetler's own community had been raising questions about his treatment practices long before his arrest.

A transcript of a January 2025 phone call including Shetler, the longtime head of a treatment center in Pennsylvania Amish country, and several high–level clergy members shows Shetler being challenged about locking up one resident in a 'safe room' and cuddling another resident in the course of what he claimed was attachment therapy. He was also taken to task for purporting to have been trained on attachment therapy, when he wasn't.

Insiders told us that internal disagreements about Shetler's conduct forced a rift in Boonville's Schwartzentruber Amish enclave. In April 2025, the community split between a north district of 22 families allied with Shetler and a south district of 16 families critical, among other things, of the way he ran his retreat.

Hoffman, the podcaster and former Mennonite, said she has spoken with hundreds of girls and women from Plain communities who have been abused by fathers, husbands, brothers, other relatives and clergy members and placed in retreats like Mercy & Truth for what she claims is bogus treatment by unlicensed therapists and counselors such as Shetler.

'They're sent, usually against their will, to be isolated and controlled. It's supposed to scare them, to make them obedient and quiet,' she said.

As she sees it, the Amish and Mennonite don't crack down on their male sexual predators, hoping they'll simply pray their sin away.

She points to the case of David Stoltzfus Smucker, an elderly Amish man in Pennsylvania who has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing four girls between four and nine years old for several years from 2014 to 2018. 

His victims were removed from their homes and placed in other households and facilities, accused of 'sexually acting out', as if they deserved their abuse. 

Rather than awaiting trial behind bars, Smucker was allowed to live at Whispering Hope, a retreat similar to Mercy & Truth where children are allowed to visit.

Another treatment facility called the Gilead Balm Wellness Center in the heart of Ohio Amish county has also come under fire, including for promoting alternative remedies over more proven, scientifically–based mental health and psychiatric treatments, even for its sickest clients.

Daniel Hershberger, 32, was placed there after other failed attempts to treat his schizophrenia and depression. After at least two reported suicide attempts during his stint there, he wandered away from the facility and killed himself in a corn field in October 2023 .

Ruth Miller, an Amish mother who also attended Gilead Balm, suffered acute psychosis and mania that led her to drown her 4–year–old son in an Ohio lake in 2025. She has since been found not guilty by reason of insanity, prompting watchdogs to ask why Gilead Balm didn't provide the care she clearly needed.

'It's heartbreaking,' Hoffman said. 'How many people need to suffer before something's done about these facilities?'