2005

• Jan. 8 — Angela Marilyn Smith is murdered by former member Ricky Rodriguez.
• Jan. 9 — Ricky Rodriguez subsequently takes his own life.
• Jan. 17 — xFamily.org is established as a collaborative effort to document and collate information on The Family.
• Mar. 3 — Recent photographs of Karen Zerby and other top leaders are made available publicly, by xFamily.org, for the first time in decades.
• Mar. 26 — A memorial for Ricky Rodriguez is held in San Diego.

Press coverage

• San Francisco Chronicle: Murder-suicide case in desert evangelical sex cult — 2005-01-11
• Tucson Citizen: Police probe ties between victim, killer — 2005-01-11
• Arizona Daily Star: Stabber's friends blame decades of abuse in sex cult — 2005-01-12
• Tucson Citizen: Murder suspect, a suicide, raised by cult to lead — 2005-01-12
• Arizona Daily Star: Sect rebuts claims in murder — 2005-01-13
• New York Times: Murder and Suicide Reviving Claims of Child Abuse in Cult — 2005-01-15
• San Francisco Chronicle: Rage turns to vengeance against "Family" — 2005-01-15
• Los Angeles Times: Fringe Group at Center of Deaths — 2005-01-17
• San Francisco Chronicle: Ex-sect members fear new violence — 2005-01-17
• San Jose Mercury News: Group, P.A. woman's slaying intertwined — 2005-01-18
• San Francisco Chronicle: On tape, son of 'prophet' declares war on mother — 2005-01-20
• London Times: Revenge of a son on cult of free love — 2005-01-23
• The Observer, UK: Sex cult's messiah turns killer — 2005-01-23
• AP Spanish Online: Video de homicida-suicida renueva polémica sobre secta comunal — 2005-01-25
• ABC News: New Focus on Fringe Religious Sect — 2005-01-27
• San Francisco Chronicle: Common Thread of Sexual, Spiritual Abuse Among Cult Defectors Who Killed Themselves — 2005-01-27
• San Francisco Chronicle: IRS documents show ties between charity, sex cult — 2005-02-06
• San Francisco Chronicle: Hewlett grant went to cult-linked charity — 2005-02-12
• San Francisco Chronicle: Mixed Memories of 'The Family' Sex: Ex-member believed abuse 'normal' — 2005-02-27
• Evening Standard: The Little Girl Seduced in the Name of God — 2005-03-09
• Los Angeles Times: Tragic Legacies of a Sex-Based Religion: Murder and Suicide — 2005-03-13
• Irish Times: Helping to Take the Cult Out of the Man — 2005-03-21
• Marie Claire: "Killing Myself is the Only Way Out of the Cult" — 2005-04-19
• Rolling Stone: The Life and Death of the Chosen One — 2005-06-30
• People Magazine: Was the Family Doing God's Work - Or Unspeakable Harm? — 2005-07-18
• Humble Observer: Charitable donation or cult income? — 2005-08-03
• Cosmopolitan: A sex cult stole my childhood — August 2005

See also: Previous Year - 2000s - Next Year