
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, September 6, 1993                   TAG: 9309060053
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WACO, TEXAS                                LENGTH: Short

12 KIDS DEAD IN FIRE SAID TO BE KORESH'S

Women who had sons by cult leader David Koresh say he fathered 12 of the 17 children who died when fire swept through Koresh's Branch Davidian compound last spring.

The children ranged in age from 1 to 4 and were born to six cult members other than Koresh's wife, the Waco Tribune-Herald reported Sunday.

One woman, who fled the compound last year with two children she said Koresh fathered, told the newspaper she knew he wouldn't willingly let his children leave.

"I just couldn't see him giving them up to the world," said Dana Okimoto. "He knew they would probably be placed in foster care. The chances of them being given back to their mothers was small. He was afraid they would be polluted by the world's ideas."

None of the 21 children released during the 51-day siege of the Mount Carmel compound were Koresh's. - Associated Press

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB