The wrong religion + defective will = evil

PONCHATOULA, La. -- Ohio authorities who arrested a suspect in an alleged Louisiana cult that had sex with children and animals searched a storage unit on Friday, where they found mattresses, videos and nine garbage bags full of costumes.

Authorities said Nicole Bernard, wanted on a charge of aggravated rape, waived extradition Tuesday and likely will return to Louisiana within 10 days.

The investigation began in March, when two children were interviewed by a child advocacy center in Ohio about possible molestation at Hosanna Church in Ponchatoula, La. Within the week, Bernard called authorities in Louisiana and said she had fled the state in fear for her child.

According to an attachment requesting to search the storage facility rented by Bernard, former Hosanna pastor Louis Lamonica walked into the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office May 16 and confessed that he started a Satanic pedophile ring within the church in 1999. The attachment said Lamonica implicated himself and six other adults in ritual rape sessions involving animals and about 15 children.

Bernard is one of nine people arrested so far. Tangipahoa Parish sheriff's spokeswoman Laura Covington said a dozen or more people could be involved.

Crime scene experts from the FBI, along with police and sheriff's deputies, dug behind the now-closed church with a backhoe. She said they haven't received any tips about anything at the church, but they're checking just to make sure.

Bernard's ex-husband, Austin Aaron Bernard, faces a charge of making a girl under the age of 13 perform a sex act.

Seven of the eight people arrested, including the church's pastor and a former sheriff's deputy, remain jailed without bond. One suspect, Lois Ann Mowbray, 54, of Ponchatoula, was released on $150,000 bond. Mowbray was arrested for obstruction of justice and failure to report a felony.