January 24, 2022 • 43 mins
Now in Miami, the monastic candidates of Holy Cross Academy start to realise that life there isn’t exactly what the priests promised. And one of those monks reveals how a dark secret kept inside the monastery put him on a path to prison.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
In nine six, the movie Matilda, an adaptation of Overall
Dall's children's book, was released in theaters across the US.
A summer vacation crept to an end. Families packed their
minivans and headed to cinemas to escape the heat and
watched the story of the title character. Matilda, was a
smart young girl with telekinetic powers who wanted to escape
(00:27):
her home life and rotten family by going to school,
where her neglectful parents refused to enroll her. In the story,
when Matilda finally did get to go to school, it
was nothing like she expected. She loved learning, her new
friends and her teacher, but Matilda found herself in a
school run by the hard nosed, disciplinarian and larger than
(00:49):
life principal, Agatha trunch Bull. In Miss trunch Bull's school,
breaking the rules was met with an array of bizarre punishments.
For some students, like Matilda, being the principal got them
time locked inside the Chokey, a cramped, dark closet with
rusty nails and glass shards poking in from the walls.
(01:09):
But in the movie's final act, Matilda uses her superpowers
to drive the villain, Miss trunch bowl out of the school.
After that, she gets adopted by her teacher and never
has to see her horrible parents ever. Again. It's a
kid's movie. There's a happy ending. In that same month,
August of ninety six, a real life boy was also
(01:31):
escaping a tough home life by joining a new school.
Mihailo ko Fell was on his way from Vergo Bina
Bistra in Ukraine to Miami, Florida, where he was about
to be a student at Holy Cross Academy and a
trainee monk at its monastery. And Mike's experience would be
weirdly similar to the one families were watching on screens
across the country. For him, school would be different than
(01:55):
he imagined and full of strict rules, heart structure and disciplinarian.
He and his friends would even spend time locked away
in a closet as punishment. But that's where the similarities stop.
Mike's story doesn't tie up neatly with a happy little ending. No,
his story would end in murder. I'm Paula Barrows and
(02:25):
I'm Melanie Bartley, and this is sacred scandal. He did
commit a murder, and it's horrible, But there was something
underneath the surface. It was not just black and white.
It wasn't just him killing a nune. It was something
more in there. And I believe that well wasn't right
(02:51):
that everybody just to make Michaelo the only person who's
responsible for this, But I believe that it wasn't use
because he was my sister initially. Has has to be
something else. In this episode, we pick up Mike's story
(03:31):
in August as he arrives in Miami to start training
as a monk and become a student in Holy Cross Academy.
It's from here that everything started to change again for him,
and Mike says things started happening at school and in
the monastery that set him on a course to murder
Sister Michelle Lewis. We will also be hearing from some
(03:53):
of the people who are closest to Mike during his
time at Holy Cross, and their words paint a more
complete picture of his daily life. But let's get started.
In those early days of Mike's arrival in Miami, just
to school was getting ready to begin. I remember the
very first thing I remember stepping out of the airplane,
(04:13):
American soil in in in Miami in the summer was
means of human and heart, and then we got to
the proper gift of all the course, I thought the
school like one giant castle. So I remember just being
really nervous, okay, beforing to school in all the course,
(04:36):
I didn't speak English. They made, of course really really
more difficult. In Ukraine, Mike's father went told him that
he and the other monastic candidate, Petro, would have their
own private tutor to help them learn English, but when
they showed up for school the first day, that wasn't
the case. The plan was for them to sit in
(04:58):
classes with the youngest kids in the school and learn
English in the same way that they were learning to
read and write. They already stood out in the school
as foreigners and were totally different uniforms. But now that
also be in classrooms with kids who are almost ten
years younger than they were. So basically we had to
(05:18):
attend first class with uh, with first grades there was English.
So you that you were saying that was the first grades,
being so embarrassed because they had to repeat the basic
worlds since it's like cats, dogs, you know, and so
that he was just learning and how did that? How
did that make you feel? You know, the first year
(05:40):
was really difficult and I was still still had to
adjust to the culture that the students, the features I
don't know, of course, I didn't know anybody. It was
quite hard times at the beginning. In those earliest days
at holy Cross, Mike struggled. There was so much to
(06:01):
learn so quickly in order to get caught up with
the students his own age. On top of that school
was different than in Ukraine. He had to move from
class to class during the day instead of staying in
one room, and navigating his new surroundings without being able
to speak the language was a challenge. The initial excitement
of getting to move to America and live his dream
(06:23):
of being a monk was starting to wear off. I
was still trying to adjust and I'm from small town
and being the big citing and just really fell out,
you know. Of course fell like a friend Pillow place where.
And it wasn't just me who has a hard time
to address. Of course, Patrol also going through hard times.
And I remember, like I feel like three months we
(06:46):
really really hidden there Patrol he wanted to leave. At night,
Mike says he and Petra would stay up in their
shared bedroom and talk about whether they should stay in
Florida or leave. After only about three months in Miami,
the pair made a decision they would go together. The
father went and tell them they were giving up and
(07:09):
we're ready to go home. You're talking to your father
went about this and you're ready to go back. I
remember he gave me this letter from my parents, and
my parents said that my grandfather died, and you know
everybody from my accounts, you know, saying saying hello, they're
(07:31):
proud of me. So I remember just crying. I remember crying.
I don't know, learning that my grandfather died, and just
so me and Patrol decided to continue our studies. So basically,
you told father when you wanted to go back to Ukraine,
and he showed you this letter from your parents saying
that they were so proud of you for being in
Miami and doing the monastery thing. Wow, in your mind,
(07:53):
did you I feel like going back to Ukraine was
worse than staying where you were and it's time. Yes,
I didn't want to go by that, I really didn't
didn't want to go. I've still tetd a lot of
things about being back in Ukraine. Of course, you know
of course, Uh, I started to learn learn more English
(08:13):
and got a little bit easier, but the difficult, difficult
time I remember just always in a more just like
going to school, just being really really nervous about it.
After reading that letter, the boys committed to staying at
Holy Cross. In the following months, Mike's English improved and
(08:35):
his nerves about going to school calm down. Over the years,
more boys like Mike and Petro would arrive at Holy Cross,
some would stay, and others would quit the monastery and
move back to Ukraine. In Mike's third year at Holy Cross,
Elia Hertzock arrived in Miami after spending two years at
the training center in Ukraine. When candidates like Mike and
(08:59):
Elia signed up to become monks, they knew they would
be on a strict schedule of prayer, work and study.
It's how they lived in the candidate's house before coming
to the United States, and as Mike told us, he
assumed the priests would be living that way too, but
he says they rarely ever came to morning or evening
prayers and only showed up for Sunday services when Holy
(09:21):
Cross parents and other people from the community were involved,
and when Elia arrived. He also noticed that religious life
at holy Cross was not meeting the same standards as
in Ukraine. We didn't have to confess like we used
to do here in Ukraine, at least one a month
or something like this, and there it was enough one
(09:42):
in a year. So it was unusual because here we
we really felt that that we are preparing to be
on monk and when we came there, we paid every day,
but nothing more. It was school Holycross Academy, and we
didn't feel like growing up in the religious way. Yeah
(10:05):
you don't. You didn't feel like the monastic program was
like serious enough. It wasn't increasing in any way. I
would say it rather stopped. For me. It was a
little bit surprising. Aside from the relaxed attitude on monastic life,
Mike and Elias said there were other things going on
(10:26):
inside the monastery that in hindsight felt have sorts. Neither
Mike or Elia could call home regularly because their parents
didn't have a phone, and in five years Mike says
he had the chance to speak with his mom and
dad maybe twice. But the monastic candidates were able to
send their families letters which they wrote in Ukrainian those letters,
(10:49):
though first had to be given to Father, went in
unsealed envelopes. What's from Ukraine or to Ukraine. But it's
important to remember that these monks were still just teenage boys,
and that the soft Father went as the authority of
the monastery. So Mike and Elias had they never questioned
(11:11):
this practice. They were just kids who were doing as
they were told, and they wrote home to say that
things were going just fine at Holy Cross. I don't
know if you went to every Everything just tell us
to belave the less offense. So they discourage people from
writing anything bed or just wherever. Most of the time
I think I try not to write anything negative, ord
(11:31):
you know something. Even though so much attention was paid
to their mail, Elias says that over time he felt
ignored by the priests altogether. In Miami, he says all
of their focus seemed to be on Mike and Petro,
the two original candidates. Each of them served as a
priest assistant, Mike with Father Damien and Petro with Father went.
(11:55):
Mike and Petro were separated in other ways too. When
New Boys started a having in Miami, Mike told us
that he and Petro were moved out of the room
shared by all the monks and given their own private bedrooms.
Mike Cadis space in the same house as the other
candidates and Father Damien, but Petro moved into another building
where only he and Father Went lived. So but there
(12:18):
was the most most of the time he was right
hand of Father Went, so he was helping him is everything.
Both Mike and Elia were growing unhappy with the way
things were going at holy Cross, and they formed a
friendship over these feelings of doubt. For Ilia, the time
he spent between the training center in Ukraine and holy
Cross made him realize that he wasn't ready for life
(12:41):
as a monk. I decided by myself to become a
priest or month, and then in three years I decided
to finish with this. It just it was natually. It
was because i've I went to school, to fel Cross Academy,
and and there I decided that I want to have
a friends, to have a girlfriend. I understood that I'm
(13:02):
not ready to finish with this. Elia would spend weeks
thinking about this decision. He told us he would walk
to Father One's door to tell the priest he was
ready to leave. Then before knocking, he'd second guess himself
and walk away. After that, a few days later, he
would go back and leave again. He repeated that cycle
(13:24):
over and over until he finally worked up the courage
to tell the priest that he was done, he'd finished
out the final month of the school year and go
back to Ukraine. At the same time, Elia couldn't quite
put his finger on why Mike was having issues at
holy Cross, but he knew that because of what his
family life was like in Ukraine. He was also too
(13:45):
afraid to tell the priests about his feelings. It was
on this noted was like obvious, but but he was
afraid that he they would send him back to Kaine immediately.
He he didn't want to go back. We were getting
a lot some some days. It was like every every evening,
(14:08):
and I don't remember exactly in in in what way
it was stated, but I understood that he's not happy.
But it was never like, come on, let's run away
or something like this. Mike says that he did want
to get away, he just didn't know how, and his
sadness came from something that he was too ashamed to
(14:30):
tell Eliah. It's something he was too ashamed to talk
about with anyone back then. That's coming up after a break.
(14:56):
Welcome back to Sacred Scandal. And can I ask you
when you were on holy Cross? What did they tell
you about interacting with other students? Told us when we're
we're taking classes with all the students, never you know,
(15:16):
talk to them or interact with them, you know, because
you're supposed to be training to be monst Yeah, we
really were not supposed to talk to them. As a
student at holy Cross Academy. This rule that Mike is
talking about is also something that I remember a students,
We were told that we weren't supposed to talk to
the monastic candidates because it could influence them in worldly ways.
(15:37):
And did you want to talk to them? Yeah, of course,
and of course I did. You know I did, But
I felt like you always have to loop over your
shoulder when you did. So if I got caught talking
to a monastic candidate, maybe the worst that would happen
was maybe get a demerit or I don't know, a
Saturday detention. But you never saw the monastic candidates and
(15:58):
detention so back then, and I just assumed they were
never in any trouble twenty years ago. I never knew
or even thought about how those boys might be disciplined
for breaking this rule. For me, it was I was
punished sometimes, I believe it was. It was just like
staying in a room. It was lungy. I stayed there,
(16:26):
especially at the at the end when I told that
I have I want to leave, and and I stayed
in the bedroom a lot, maybe two hours. They they
they go to a restaurant or go to a movie,
and you stay home at that room. Mike told us
that he was also disciplined by being locked in that
(16:47):
little room, but usually his punishment was cleaning or doing
chores for Sister Michelle, the nun in training who he
would one day murder. She was one if you messed
out or from the rules, so he would get punished.
So she was send me to help her everything everything
(17:08):
she said, like what in the house, because she stayed
everything everything that was one of the things we it
is she always just never happened, never like this is
not clear enough, this is good enough, So do this
over again? Has he films over again? And just being
always mean? Yeah, definitely. Eliot told us that he had
(17:31):
to work for Sister Michelle to cutting the grass near
her house or cleaning, but he didn't mind working for her.
It reminded him of churches he had to do at
home in Ukraine. In the end, he said, the priests
had figured out the punishment that would have the most
impact on each monastic candidate. They were good psychologists, so
(17:52):
then they knew who was by work. When Mike first
arrived at holy Cross back in he knew there was
a second priest living there, Father Damien. But Mike says,
back in Ukraine, Father went said nothing about any women
living at the monastery. So when you arrived at holy Cross,
(18:14):
did you already know that there would be nuns there? No?
I didn't. Father once he didn't tell us there was
a nun, Sisty Michelle. I remember. The first impression was
like she for her? Was she was really unfriendly? Friendly
personally just after ever laughed or smiled. Was she in
(18:36):
charge of like getting you guys ready for school? What?
What was her role when it came to you guys,
you and Petro, She was the one in charge of
saying that the mourning players in the Uni prayers during
the weekday. Mike told investigators that the sister Michelle he
got to know was different from what regular students, teachers
and parents may have observed. Yeah, well there were many
(19:00):
institutes that was happening that she was yelling at me
or all the candidates, you know, like I always had
to look over my fader to see the prince or
her around if I talked to talk to all the
students my friends. So yeah, she she she saw that
she see me talking to and all the students. She
(19:22):
would say, yes, definitely yell you know, you're not you're
not allowed. It should be you're not you know, you're
not allowed to talk to the other students. Yeah. Did
she yell at you offer? Yeah? Yeah? And what what
sort of things would she say? For example, she should
you know, code names you use useless and you pray
(19:46):
your trash and just just really just just being really
did she treat the other manacer Canada? It's the same
way as you. She was losto me to them. Yeah,
and what was she mean to the other students at
the school or she Definitely she did different, you know
because the pretty much for her help us there. You know,
we were at our own every part of the church,
(20:07):
and you know, of course she couldn't just be gelling
all the students because they were in the terrible paying
for them to go there, so she couldn't them. Yeah, definitely.
And also he hated the sister Michelle, but it wasn't
(20:28):
like I'm gonna kill her. It just was like Michelle
always telling things about Missas to the beasts, so it
wasn't good for him. But Elia would not be the
only person to see the tension between Mike and Sister Michelle.
I went to different school every year up until holy Cross.
Holycross is the first school I ever went to two
(20:49):
years in a row. Daniela's Pereira spent only her freshman
and sophomore years at holy Cross Academy. She told us
that because she moved from school to school so much,
she often had trouble making friends or fitting in. When
she was always the new girl at school, it was
no different at holy Cross. I was always never great
(21:11):
at I don't want I don't know if it's saying
making friends or you know, interacting because Mong people always
have clicks and stuff like that. So I made a
few friends, but mainly I've really kept to myself, and
you know, I seek other outsiders. As she got familiar
with the holy Cross, she saw that the monastic candidates
(21:32):
were some of those outsiders, the kids no one could
talk to, who floated on the edges of the student body. Well,
I remember it was kind of like Handmaiden's Tale. They
always had to be with another one. They could never
like really be alone, so they were always in pairs.
At holy Cross, Danielle has became the one student that
got to know Mike best during his time there, or
(21:53):
at least as well as she could get to know
someone who she wasn't supposed to be talking to at all.
Despite being apprimanded by teachers, Danielle says she spent most
days eating lunch with Mike and another monastic candidate, the
Elia's cousin. She says she always saw them pair together.
(22:14):
So how did that start? The eating lunch? I remember it.
I was friends with Jessica Um and she was talking,
and she was talking to somebody else, and I wasn't
interested in. I look over at Mikhailo and Vassals. You're
sitting by themselves on the table, and I'm like, you know,
what's good. I get up and I go take my
train and I go over there and sit down with them,
And I remember I went over and I go, hey,
(22:34):
can I sit down here? And he's like, yeah, sure.
Mikailo was the first one was like yeah, sure, sit down.
And I sat down and I started talking and I
started asking questions, so I was interested. I'm like, oh,
so you're from the Ukraine, so you're gonna be a
monk And he's like yeah, and I'm like, okay, that's cool.
After that, Danielle says she made it a point to
sit with the two of them most days. The Seal
was still learning English at the time, so she mostly
(22:55):
talked to Mike about the classes they had together, their teachers,
and some times basketball. But she was also curious about
why a teenager would decide to become a monk in
the first place, you know, because it's like you're so
young to dedicate your life to basically servitude. I remember
kind of like flat out asking him like do you
really want to be a monk, and him like like
(23:18):
like inching towards me and like kind of in a whisper,
going now, you know, no, I really want to be
a teacher, you know, I want to use that I
want to get the American education, and I really want
to be a school teacher. That's something he really wanted
to do, but it was a wonderful opportunity for him.
He saw it as his golden ticket, like you can
do this and you know, go through it for a
(23:38):
few years, get his education, and then get out. Danielle
says that Mike told her about the secret ambitions a
few times, but that he never said how he planned
to become a teacher. She also noticed that their conversations
only ever got more personal like this when they had
a few moments alone. That's when I noticed the whole
thing about how they always had to be to get there.
(24:00):
It was one he'd be more open to me when
Vassil was away getting a napkins or getting something. That's
when he would say something more, you know, like to me,
mind you, I'm sixteen years old, so my mind is
like not noticing all the little things. But I should
have been like, that's not normal. You know Now in hindsight,
you know, I can look back and be like, huh,
total Handmaiden's tale. How they're always together, So something does,
(24:23):
somebody does something wrong, the other one will tell Father
Rabd or Father Damien. They'll get in trouble. One day
during the school year, Danielle's was walking alone between classes
when she witnessed something that made her worry about Mike.
I remember an interaction once I saw his sister Michelle
and Mikailo cofell. I was going up to class, going
(24:45):
up the stairs, and she was yelling at him for something,
and he was standing looking down on the floor, like
looking at his feet while she was belittling him and
talking down to him. He looked like when somebody scolds
a five year old, just completely missive, looking down straight
at the floor while she was talking to him. And
I remember walking away and like that obviously upset me.
(25:11):
The next time she and Mike were alone, Danielle's asked
him about what happened that day. Honestly, I remember that
one time when I confronted him, like I asked him
because I saw that, And then afterwards I asked him,
I'm like, hey, I saw sister Michelle b me and
you are you okay? What happened? That's when he told
me she's not a nice person. She's very mean. She
makes fun of his accent. She makes fun of if
(25:32):
he messes up with a word, like instead of correcting him,
she like literally made fun of it, and she was
just very mean. She was a bully to him. By
March two thousand one, Danielle's which schools again, and she
learned about sister Michelle's murder on the news. When she
first saw Mike's smug shot on TV with cuts and
scratches on his face, she couldn't believe that the boy
(25:54):
she spent so much time talking with could do something
so terrible that was like a punch in the gut.
Last person I would ever suspect to kill anybody would
have been Mikhailo during the time in school. He was
one of my closest friends, and he was just such
a sweet person that I was like immediately, immediately, like
(26:14):
people reversed and like, oh my god, he's a monster
for doing that. I the opposite. I'm like, I immediately
thought of when she I caught her yelling at him
in the hallway that I'm like, there has to be
a reason, Like I immediately knew, like, there has to
be a reason he did this. This couldn't be him
being like evil wanting to kill somebody. There must have
something must have happened for him to, you know, suddenly
(26:36):
snap and kill sister Michelle. Did he ever tell you
that he was depressed? No? Never, never did I really
did feel it, you know, like I felt like maybe
he was sad and stuff, um, but I I didn't.
I didn't know what it could be the cause. Like
he never he never like took the confidence in me
(26:58):
to tell me anything that was going on with him.
So I really don't know. But Mike says there was
more going on in his life than just sister Michelle
that gave him this aura of sadness. We'll get to
that after a break. Welcome back to Sacred Scandal. I
(27:26):
am Paula Barrows and I'm Melanie Bartley. Back in n
when Mike and Petro tarn To first arrived in Miami,
they were both paired off with one of the two
priests to work as their assistant or helper. Petro was
first paired with Father Damien Gibbold, and Mike would help
(27:46):
Father went and the priest would be a sort of
mentor for the monks. In these early days, when Mike
was struggling with adapting to life in Miami and at
the monastery, he said he could go to Father Went
to talk about his problems. But one night when he
went to speak to the priest. Mike says, everything changed.
(28:09):
I remember first the first few months I was ad
to wry about when so you know, when we're talking,
I was going through a really pressing and going through
some really difficult friends. So said, I was announced like
that was in his house, right Went's house, he says,
or you know, uh, you know one of the apostles,
remember put upon his head on Jesus chest. So he says,
(28:32):
it was like, so it's he was that, you know,
I was like, you know something, he said, it was okay,
like context. So I remember him wrinning his hands of
course my chest and private pass and tried. When this happened,
he said his body just froze. He told us he
was uncomfortable and couldn't react. Mike told police in his
(28:54):
confession that this is how the sexual abuse he claims
took place at Holy Cross began, and that this same
situation happened again while he served as Father Wentz assistant.
After about eight months of working as Went's assistant, for
some unknown reason, Mike says, things switched. He was reassigned
to Father Damien and Petro would now assist Father went
(29:17):
Not long after this change, Mike says he witnessed Petro
being touched in the same way that he was when
he needed to go back to Went's house one night
after their curfew. I forgot has has once key, so
I was returned back and turned back once I returned back.
And I've seen the same thing as seen Father who
(29:38):
went like his hands. It wasn't over chess and stole
may just rubbing him. So I've seen my own eyes.
You said he quoted the Bible when he was doing that.
Oh yeah, if we used the Bible, whatever they needed
to know. Toniclidas Mike says that the priest used his
(30:01):
position as a man of God and an authority in
their monastery to create these situations. He also said that
when he switched to working for Father Damien, things were
no different and the abuse didn't stop. He says it
started one day while they were driving to get groceries.
Mike told us Father Damien started rubbing Max Dye in
the car. From there, things escalated and him he was
(30:26):
really yeah, yeah, he he was with more more predator,
definitely definitely more predator. Definitely predator. And were also we
have like confession and during the confession he would also
like touch me, uh my private post and eventually also
(30:47):
gave me maybe his pills because I was going to
drive a defessant, he asked me. He told me you
can have my pillows and you know also his own pillows,
which was anti anxiety pills. How do how did those
pills make you feel? What was the effect? Oh? I
was just high and I guess more relaxed, so you
(31:07):
know that. And yeah, he would give the pills and
I know, yes, So they had this okay, hed TV
right had all the channels, so he was watching watching
like soft porn and stuff. And also during watching the
soft porn, he was just you know, get aroused. And
(31:29):
then of course he'd order me to undress two my
briefs and then um so he was red like so
hippopped all my product piers and then he was just
he was trapping his hands all over my body. Then
(31:50):
he grabbing my penis and just I remember I got
correct and he started he started laughing, and I remember
him saying it something like you like it, and he
was laughing, he was laughing, and I was I was
just really like shog. Mike says that being called to
(32:15):
father Damien's room like this at night happened often and
was done in secret. He also claims that he was
given his own private room as a way of hiding
the abuse from other monks. In the night, Mike says
Father Damien summoned him down to his own room after
everyone went to bed, and none of the other monks
would see him leave. Once in Father Damien's room, Mike says,
(32:36):
the priests would set an alarm for three or four
o'clock in the morning, when he would send Mike back
down to his room before the other boys in the
house were awake. That was why I was in my
last because you always try the priests always he should
obay whatever whatever said, and of course punishments if you
(32:56):
disobey or anything. So my whole mind, it's just just
unimaginably like this, arguing Mike told us some police that
over the years he was touched by Father Damien on
numerous occasions and raped by the priest at least six times,
and he says these feelings of shame and agony hung
(33:19):
over him while he lived in that same house as
Father Damien. He says he wanted to get away, but
also didn't want to go back to his home in Ukraine.
So Mike says he started trying to find a way out.
Remember then GiB wasna I used this computer. I looked
at what the recruitment center like, army army recruitment center.
(33:41):
So now I looked up and got a phone number.
So I called this armory of recruitment guy. I said,
you know, can I be part of the army and stuff?
And he said he told my coulion because I was
not American resident citizen sold. Mike says he felt frustrated
and trapped in his situation. But in two thousand, Mike
(34:05):
graduated from Holy Cross and things changed. After Mike finished
high school, he Petro and father went, we're all taking
classes at Barry University, a Catholic college about five miles
away from the monastery. So to be closer to the school,
the three of them runted a house near the university campus.
(34:26):
It was at this time Mike says he started to
feel more free at school. He told us that he
would take off his tie and jacket to blend in
more with the other students, and he was also able
to drive by himself between Holy Cross and the Barry House.
When in the car with the priests. They had the
dial set to the classical radio stations, but on his
(34:47):
own Mike had the freedom to choose his own soundtrack.
So I remember driving to campus and just turning, just
listened to regular a puplar songs. Do you remember a
song or or an artist that you would like to
listen to? Oh? Yeah, yeah cool? Cryptonite did think all
(35:07):
those down, there's just those songs late nine public songs.
I remember that when it be going back to the house,
go back to station, make sure yea. Even though Mike
(35:30):
started to feel happier once he got out of high school,
those feelings were only temporary. Mike petroin Went only lived
at the Berry House during the week when they had classes.
On the weekend, they came back to Holy Cross to
pray at the monastery and help with church services on Sunday.
It was then Mike says that he'd be called to
Father Damien's room again in the night, and he would
(35:53):
become depressed and angry. Mike told us he'd been holding
in these growing feelings for five years that Holy Cross.
He said he was too ashamed to tell anyone about
the abuse, and too afraid to give up his life
and schooling in the US to move back to Ukraine.
And he told us how he started to question his
own faith and became angry and confused. But it all
(36:16):
culminated on the night of the murder, when he says
was the last time he was raped. The really the
whole thing was already was really building up, the whole
the whole rage was a ready million up more and more.
I pretty much lost my religion by the time. I
was like praising God and hated the police everything, just
hating my life. I remember being suicible. I had had
(36:41):
time I really want to kill myself. I was so
because I was still going to really struggling, still going
struggling inside too from the abuse, through everything you know,
and just little still nice. I had trouble for to sleep.
It was so much just run in my mind, and
so I will just be really suicible. So I had
his knife. I'm was just cutting myself because I felt
(37:02):
I would be better once I cut myself. Just remember
cutting myself. I feel like some scars from from from
cutting myself from the knife. And let me ask, were
you cutting yourself at the time that you were being
abused by Damien. Yes, yes, did he ever noticed your scars,
your wounds? Yeah, And I would specially lie, you know,
honestly something. Oh, I I just you know, I scrushed
(37:26):
myself by accident, you know, I you know, I went,
I was going by the fans, and I caught myself,
you know fans, and just bestically amount I would lie.
And so the night you killed sister Michelle, um, you
were raped by Damien that same night, right, yes, can
you walk me through that? That night, I just remember
(37:50):
I was in his room, right, and he he was
he was really like that move. So I remember just
remember him in pushing me, pushing me down on one
bed and taking taking my uh, taking my my brief
off and just pushed me down and just pushing himself
(38:13):
and hell with me. So yeah, written. And then after
he was done, if he fell asleep, I remember getting
his key because at the time, whenever he was asleep,
it's nory. I would get his key. I would and
I would go to like school as school rooms or
(38:33):
other rooms, and and I was just listen the kids
to go through rooms in in in school. And then
I went to I got got the power of wine.
And that's when you know, election got drunk. Hello, can
you hear me? Hello? Did I lose you? Since Melanie
(39:05):
and I started talking to Mike fifteen years ago, we've
asked each other the same question, if he was being
abused by the priests, why did he murder sister Michelle?
And his answer has been the same every time. He's
told us that he doesn't know, he just lost his
mind and snapped. It's a reason we always struggle with
(39:26):
because it seems so hard to comprehend, so unreal, and
to be honest, we've not always felt like it was
the truth, like there's more to it that he's afraid
to tell us. But this year, when we talked to Danielis,
the girl who ate lunch with Mike at holy Cross,
she told us a story about herself that put Mike's
reasoning into perspective, and it helped us understand how someone
(39:50):
liked Mike, overwhelmed with rage can be capable of doing
something so terrible. So Danielle's came to holy Cross with
her sister, who was a little bit younger than her.
She had a hard time fitting in at the school
and was being bullied pretty badly by other kids. It's
why their mom eventually took them out of Holy Cross.
(40:12):
Danielle said she did her best to get the kids
to stop, but one day an older girl was picking
on her eight year old sister, and Danielle's had seen enough.
I literally grabbed her hair above her ears and I
banged her head in the corner of the cafeteria battle
bench chair. I was bringing her head like that. I
(40:33):
wanted to destroy her. At one point when I hit
her head against that, she opened her mouth and her
eyes got super glassy, and then the two pe coaches
pulled me off. I snapped and I know I could
have killed her. I know I could because I saw
the reaction on her face when I banged her head
in the corner. She was bleeding in the back of
her head. I could have killed her. I snapped back,
(40:54):
and I'm like, what the hell am I doing? Like
I'm gonna kill this girl? And because your rage takes over,
and when your rage takes over, it's hard to control
that when you're anger and rageist goes. So I really,
I really do sympathize, like obviously from Mikailo to have
done what he did. You know, you don't stab somebody
what n six times you don't stab somebody like that
(41:16):
without a being complete loss of control, pure rage. You know,
he probably wasn't even in his own body. It wasn't
until afterwards that he came out of it or I
don't know. Like honestly, this is the sort of reasoning
that Mike's lawyers would use for his defense. But even
though he confessed to the murder, this case would not
(41:38):
be simple. It would drag on through the Miami legal
system for almost five years and take police and attorneys
from both sides all the way to Transcarpathia Mike's home
in search of answers. All that is next time on
Sacred Scandal. Sacred Scandal is a production of Exile Content
(42:06):
Studio in partnership with I Heart Radio's Michael da Podcast Network.
Sacred Scandal was created and produced by Melanie Bartley and
me Paula Barrows. Our senior producer is Dennis Funk of
Written in Air. The executive producers are Rose Red and
Nando Villa. Our production assistant is Emani Leonard. The show
(42:31):
is fact checked by Kimberly Winston. Original music was composed
by Patrick Hart and special thanks on this episode to
Brian Robertson and Travis Roy. If you'd like to reach out,
email us at hello at Sacred Scandal podcast dot com,
and you can follow us on Instagram at Sacred scandal
(43:02):
owe
In nine six, the movie Matilda, an adaptation of Overall
Dall's children's book, was released in theaters across the US.
A summer vacation crept to an end. Families packed their
minivans and headed to cinemas to escape the heat and
watched the story of the title character. Matilda, was a
smart young girl with telekinetic powers who wanted to escape
(00:27):
her home life and rotten family by going to school,
where her neglectful parents refused to enroll her. In the story,
when Matilda finally did get to go to school, it
was nothing like she expected. She loved learning, her new
friends and her teacher, but Matilda found herself in a
school run by the hard nosed, disciplinarian and larger than
(00:49):
life principal, Agatha trunch Bull. In Miss trunch Bull's school,
breaking the rules was met with an array of bizarre punishments.
For some students, like Matilda, being the principal got them
time locked inside the Chokey, a cramped, dark closet with
rusty nails and glass shards poking in from the walls.
(01:09):
But in the movie's final act, Matilda uses her superpowers
to drive the villain, Miss trunch bowl out of the school.
After that, she gets adopted by her teacher and never
has to see her horrible parents ever. Again. It's a
kid's movie. There's a happy ending. In that same month,
August of ninety six, a real life boy was also
(01:31):
escaping a tough home life by joining a new school.
Mihailo ko Fell was on his way from Vergo Bina
Bistra in Ukraine to Miami, Florida, where he was about
to be a student at Holy Cross Academy and a
trainee monk at its monastery. And Mike's experience would be
weirdly similar to the one families were watching on screens
across the country. For him, school would be different than
(01:55):
he imagined and full of strict rules, heart structure and disciplinarian.
He and his friends would even spend time locked away
in a closet as punishment. But that's where the similarities stop.
Mike's story doesn't tie up neatly with a happy little ending. No,
his story would end in murder. I'm Paula Barrows and
(02:25):
I'm Melanie Bartley, and this is sacred scandal. He did
commit a murder, and it's horrible, But there was something
underneath the surface. It was not just black and white.
It wasn't just him killing a nune. It was something
more in there. And I believe that well wasn't right
(02:51):
that everybody just to make Michaelo the only person who's
responsible for this, But I believe that it wasn't use
because he was my sister initially. Has has to be
something else. In this episode, we pick up Mike's story
(03:31):
in August as he arrives in Miami to start training
as a monk and become a student in Holy Cross Academy.
It's from here that everything started to change again for him,
and Mike says things started happening at school and in
the monastery that set him on a course to murder
Sister Michelle Lewis. We will also be hearing from some
(03:53):
of the people who are closest to Mike during his
time at Holy Cross, and their words paint a more
complete picture of his daily life. But let's get started.
In those early days of Mike's arrival in Miami, just
to school was getting ready to begin. I remember the
very first thing I remember stepping out of the airplane,
(04:13):
American soil in in in Miami in the summer was
means of human and heart, and then we got to
the proper gift of all the course, I thought the
school like one giant castle. So I remember just being
really nervous, okay, beforing to school in all the course,
(04:36):
I didn't speak English. They made, of course really really
more difficult. In Ukraine, Mike's father went told him that
he and the other monastic candidate, Petro, would have their
own private tutor to help them learn English, but when
they showed up for school the first day, that wasn't
the case. The plan was for them to sit in
(04:58):
classes with the youngest kids in the school and learn
English in the same way that they were learning to
read and write. They already stood out in the school
as foreigners and were totally different uniforms. But now that
also be in classrooms with kids who are almost ten
years younger than they were. So basically we had to
(05:18):
attend first class with uh, with first grades there was English.
So you that you were saying that was the first grades,
being so embarrassed because they had to repeat the basic
worlds since it's like cats, dogs, you know, and so
that he was just learning and how did that? How
did that make you feel? You know, the first year
(05:40):
was really difficult and I was still still had to
adjust to the culture that the students, the features I
don't know, of course, I didn't know anybody. It was
quite hard times at the beginning. In those earliest days
at holy Cross, Mike struggled. There was so much to
(06:01):
learn so quickly in order to get caught up with
the students his own age. On top of that school
was different than in Ukraine. He had to move from
class to class during the day instead of staying in
one room, and navigating his new surroundings without being able
to speak the language was a challenge. The initial excitement
of getting to move to America and live his dream
(06:23):
of being a monk was starting to wear off. I
was still trying to adjust and I'm from small town
and being the big citing and just really fell out,
you know. Of course fell like a friend Pillow place where.
And it wasn't just me who has a hard time
to address. Of course, Patrol also going through hard times.
And I remember, like I feel like three months we
(06:46):
really really hidden there Patrol he wanted to leave. At night,
Mike says he and Petra would stay up in their
shared bedroom and talk about whether they should stay in
Florida or leave. After only about three months in Miami,
the pair made a decision they would go together. The
father went and tell them they were giving up and
(07:09):
we're ready to go home. You're talking to your father
went about this and you're ready to go back. I
remember he gave me this letter from my parents, and
my parents said that my grandfather died, and you know
everybody from my accounts, you know, saying saying hello, they're
(07:31):
proud of me. So I remember just crying. I remember crying.
I don't know, learning that my grandfather died, and just
so me and Patrol decided to continue our studies. So basically,
you told father when you wanted to go back to Ukraine,
and he showed you this letter from your parents saying
that they were so proud of you for being in
Miami and doing the monastery thing. Wow, in your mind,
(07:53):
did you I feel like going back to Ukraine was
worse than staying where you were and it's time. Yes,
I didn't want to go by that, I really didn't
didn't want to go. I've still tetd a lot of
things about being back in Ukraine. Of course, you know
of course, Uh, I started to learn learn more English
(08:13):
and got a little bit easier, but the difficult, difficult
time I remember just always in a more just like
going to school, just being really really nervous about it.
After reading that letter, the boys committed to staying at
Holy Cross. In the following months, Mike's English improved and
(08:35):
his nerves about going to school calm down. Over the years,
more boys like Mike and Petro would arrive at Holy Cross,
some would stay, and others would quit the monastery and
move back to Ukraine. In Mike's third year at Holy Cross,
Elia Hertzock arrived in Miami after spending two years at
the training center in Ukraine. When candidates like Mike and
(08:59):
Elia signed up to become monks, they knew they would
be on a strict schedule of prayer, work and study.
It's how they lived in the candidate's house before coming
to the United States, and as Mike told us, he
assumed the priests would be living that way too, but
he says they rarely ever came to morning or evening
prayers and only showed up for Sunday services when Holy
(09:21):
Cross parents and other people from the community were involved,
and when Elia arrived. He also noticed that religious life
at holy Cross was not meeting the same standards as
in Ukraine. We didn't have to confess like we used
to do here in Ukraine, at least one a month
or something like this, and there it was enough one
(09:42):
in a year. So it was unusual because here we
we really felt that that we are preparing to be
on monk and when we came there, we paid every day,
but nothing more. It was school Holycross Academy, and we
didn't feel like growing up in the religious way. Yeah
(10:05):
you don't. You didn't feel like the monastic program was
like serious enough. It wasn't increasing in any way. I
would say it rather stopped. For me. It was a
little bit surprising. Aside from the relaxed attitude on monastic life,
Mike and Elias said there were other things going on
(10:26):
inside the monastery that in hindsight felt have sorts. Neither
Mike or Elia could call home regularly because their parents
didn't have a phone, and in five years Mike says
he had the chance to speak with his mom and
dad maybe twice. But the monastic candidates were able to
send their families letters which they wrote in Ukrainian those letters,
(10:49):
though first had to be given to Father, went in
unsealed envelopes. What's from Ukraine or to Ukraine. But it's
important to remember that these monks were still just teenage boys,
and that the soft Father went as the authority of
the monastery. So Mike and Elias had they never questioned
(11:11):
this practice. They were just kids who were doing as
they were told, and they wrote home to say that
things were going just fine at Holy Cross. I don't
know if you went to every Everything just tell us
to belave the less offense. So they discourage people from
writing anything bed or just wherever. Most of the time
I think I try not to write anything negative, ord
(11:31):
you know something. Even though so much attention was paid
to their mail, Elias says that over time he felt
ignored by the priests altogether. In Miami, he says all
of their focus seemed to be on Mike and Petro,
the two original candidates. Each of them served as a
priest assistant, Mike with Father Damien and Petro with Father went.
(11:55):
Mike and Petro were separated in other ways too. When
New Boys started a having in Miami, Mike told us
that he and Petro were moved out of the room
shared by all the monks and given their own private bedrooms.
Mike Cadis space in the same house as the other
candidates and Father Damien, but Petro moved into another building
where only he and Father Went lived. So but there
(12:18):
was the most most of the time he was right
hand of Father Went, so he was helping him is everything.
Both Mike and Elia were growing unhappy with the way
things were going at holy Cross, and they formed a
friendship over these feelings of doubt. For Ilia, the time
he spent between the training center in Ukraine and holy
Cross made him realize that he wasn't ready for life
(12:41):
as a monk. I decided by myself to become a
priest or month, and then in three years I decided
to finish with this. It just it was natually. It
was because i've I went to school, to fel Cross Academy,
and and there I decided that I want to have
a friends, to have a girlfriend. I understood that I'm
(13:02):
not ready to finish with this. Elia would spend weeks
thinking about this decision. He told us he would walk
to Father One's door to tell the priest he was
ready to leave. Then before knocking, he'd second guess himself
and walk away. After that, a few days later, he
would go back and leave again. He repeated that cycle
(13:24):
over and over until he finally worked up the courage
to tell the priest that he was done, he'd finished
out the final month of the school year and go
back to Ukraine. At the same time, Elia couldn't quite
put his finger on why Mike was having issues at
holy Cross, but he knew that because of what his
family life was like in Ukraine. He was also too
(13:45):
afraid to tell the priests about his feelings. It was
on this noted was like obvious, but but he was
afraid that he they would send him back to Kaine immediately.
He he didn't want to go back. We were getting
a lot some some days. It was like every every evening,
(14:08):
and I don't remember exactly in in in what way
it was stated, but I understood that he's not happy.
But it was never like, come on, let's run away
or something like this. Mike says that he did want
to get away, he just didn't know how, and his
sadness came from something that he was too ashamed to
(14:30):
tell Eliah. It's something he was too ashamed to talk
about with anyone back then. That's coming up after a break.
(14:56):
Welcome back to Sacred Scandal. And can I ask you
when you were on holy Cross? What did they tell
you about interacting with other students? Told us when we're
we're taking classes with all the students, never you know,
(15:16):
talk to them or interact with them, you know, because
you're supposed to be training to be monst Yeah, we
really were not supposed to talk to them. As a
student at holy Cross Academy. This rule that Mike is
talking about is also something that I remember a students,
We were told that we weren't supposed to talk to
the monastic candidates because it could influence them in worldly ways.
(15:37):
And did you want to talk to them? Yeah, of course,
and of course I did. You know I did, But
I felt like you always have to loop over your
shoulder when you did. So if I got caught talking
to a monastic candidate, maybe the worst that would happen
was maybe get a demerit or I don't know, a
Saturday detention. But you never saw the monastic candidates and
(15:58):
detention so back then, and I just assumed they were
never in any trouble twenty years ago. I never knew
or even thought about how those boys might be disciplined
for breaking this rule. For me, it was I was
punished sometimes, I believe it was. It was just like
staying in a room. It was lungy. I stayed there,
(16:26):
especially at the at the end when I told that
I have I want to leave, and and I stayed
in the bedroom a lot, maybe two hours. They they
they go to a restaurant or go to a movie,
and you stay home at that room. Mike told us
that he was also disciplined by being locked in that
(16:47):
little room, but usually his punishment was cleaning or doing
chores for Sister Michelle, the nun in training who he
would one day murder. She was one if you messed
out or from the rules, so he would get punished.
So she was send me to help her everything everything
(17:08):
she said, like what in the house, because she stayed
everything everything that was one of the things we it
is she always just never happened, never like this is
not clear enough, this is good enough, So do this
over again? Has he films over again? And just being
always mean? Yeah, definitely. Eliot told us that he had
(17:31):
to work for Sister Michelle to cutting the grass near
her house or cleaning, but he didn't mind working for her.
It reminded him of churches he had to do at
home in Ukraine. In the end, he said, the priests
had figured out the punishment that would have the most
impact on each monastic candidate. They were good psychologists, so
(17:52):
then they knew who was by work. When Mike first
arrived at holy Cross back in he knew there was
a second priest living there, Father Damien. But Mike says,
back in Ukraine, Father went said nothing about any women
living at the monastery. So when you arrived at holy Cross,
(18:14):
did you already know that there would be nuns there? No?
I didn't. Father once he didn't tell us there was
a nun, Sisty Michelle. I remember. The first impression was
like she for her? Was she was really unfriendly? Friendly
personally just after ever laughed or smiled. Was she in
(18:36):
charge of like getting you guys ready for school? What?
What was her role when it came to you guys,
you and Petro, She was the one in charge of
saying that the mourning players in the Uni prayers during
the weekday. Mike told investigators that the sister Michelle he
got to know was different from what regular students, teachers
and parents may have observed. Yeah, well there were many
(19:00):
institutes that was happening that she was yelling at me
or all the candidates, you know, like I always had
to look over my fader to see the prince or
her around if I talked to talk to all the
students my friends. So yeah, she she she saw that
she see me talking to and all the students. She
(19:22):
would say, yes, definitely yell you know, you're not you're
not allowed. It should be you're not you know, you're
not allowed to talk to the other students. Yeah. Did
she yell at you offer? Yeah? Yeah? And what what
sort of things would she say? For example, she should
you know, code names you use useless and you pray
(19:46):
your trash and just just really just just being really
did she treat the other manacer Canada? It's the same
way as you. She was losto me to them. Yeah,
and what was she mean to the other students at
the school or she Definitely she did different, you know
because the pretty much for her help us there. You know,
we were at our own every part of the church,
(20:07):
and you know, of course she couldn't just be gelling
all the students because they were in the terrible paying
for them to go there, so she couldn't them. Yeah, definitely.
And also he hated the sister Michelle, but it wasn't
(20:28):
like I'm gonna kill her. It just was like Michelle
always telling things about Missas to the beasts, so it
wasn't good for him. But Elia would not be the
only person to see the tension between Mike and Sister Michelle.
I went to different school every year up until holy Cross.
Holycross is the first school I ever went to two
(20:49):
years in a row. Daniela's Pereira spent only her freshman
and sophomore years at holy Cross Academy. She told us
that because she moved from school to school so much,
she often had trouble making friends or fitting in. When
she was always the new girl at school, it was
no different at holy Cross. I was always never great
(21:11):
at I don't want I don't know if it's saying
making friends or you know, interacting because Mong people always
have clicks and stuff like that. So I made a
few friends, but mainly I've really kept to myself, and
you know, I seek other outsiders. As she got familiar
with the holy Cross, she saw that the monastic candidates
(21:32):
were some of those outsiders, the kids no one could
talk to, who floated on the edges of the student body. Well,
I remember it was kind of like Handmaiden's Tale. They
always had to be with another one. They could never
like really be alone, so they were always in pairs.
At holy Cross, Danielle has became the one student that
got to know Mike best during his time there, or
(21:53):
at least as well as she could get to know
someone who she wasn't supposed to be talking to at all.
Despite being apprimanded by teachers, Danielle says she spent most
days eating lunch with Mike and another monastic candidate, the
Elia's cousin. She says she always saw them pair together.
(22:14):
So how did that start? The eating lunch? I remember it.
I was friends with Jessica Um and she was talking,
and she was talking to somebody else, and I wasn't
interested in. I look over at Mikhailo and Vassals. You're
sitting by themselves on the table, and I'm like, you know,
what's good. I get up and I go take my
train and I go over there and sit down with them,
And I remember I went over and I go, hey,
(22:34):
can I sit down here? And he's like, yeah, sure.
Mikailo was the first one was like yeah, sure, sit down.
And I sat down and I started talking and I
started asking questions, so I was interested. I'm like, oh,
so you're from the Ukraine, so you're gonna be a
monk And he's like yeah, and I'm like, okay, that's cool.
After that, Danielle says she made it a point to
sit with the two of them most days. The Seal
was still learning English at the time, so she mostly
(22:55):
talked to Mike about the classes they had together, their teachers,
and some times basketball. But she was also curious about
why a teenager would decide to become a monk in
the first place, you know, because it's like you're so
young to dedicate your life to basically servitude. I remember
kind of like flat out asking him like do you
really want to be a monk, and him like like
(23:18):
like inching towards me and like kind of in a whisper,
going now, you know, no, I really want to be
a teacher, you know, I want to use that I
want to get the American education, and I really want
to be a school teacher. That's something he really wanted
to do, but it was a wonderful opportunity for him.
He saw it as his golden ticket, like you can
do this and you know, go through it for a
(23:38):
few years, get his education, and then get out. Danielle
says that Mike told her about the secret ambitions a
few times, but that he never said how he planned
to become a teacher. She also noticed that their conversations
only ever got more personal like this when they had
a few moments alone. That's when I noticed the whole
thing about how they always had to be to get there.
(24:00):
It was one he'd be more open to me when
Vassil was away getting a napkins or getting something. That's
when he would say something more, you know, like to me,
mind you, I'm sixteen years old, so my mind is
like not noticing all the little things. But I should
have been like, that's not normal. You know Now in hindsight,
you know, I can look back and be like, huh,
total Handmaiden's tale. How they're always together, So something does,
(24:23):
somebody does something wrong, the other one will tell Father
Rabd or Father Damien. They'll get in trouble. One day
during the school year, Danielle's was walking alone between classes
when she witnessed something that made her worry about Mike.
I remember an interaction once I saw his sister Michelle
and Mikailo cofell. I was going up to class, going
(24:45):
up the stairs, and she was yelling at him for something,
and he was standing looking down on the floor, like
looking at his feet while she was belittling him and
talking down to him. He looked like when somebody scolds
a five year old, just completely missive, looking down straight
at the floor while she was talking to him. And
I remember walking away and like that obviously upset me.
(25:11):
The next time she and Mike were alone, Danielle's asked
him about what happened that day. Honestly, I remember that
one time when I confronted him, like I asked him
because I saw that, And then afterwards I asked him,
I'm like, hey, I saw sister Michelle b me and
you are you okay? What happened? That's when he told
me she's not a nice person. She's very mean. She
makes fun of his accent. She makes fun of if
(25:32):
he messes up with a word, like instead of correcting him,
she like literally made fun of it, and she was
just very mean. She was a bully to him. By
March two thousand one, Danielle's which schools again, and she
learned about sister Michelle's murder on the news. When she
first saw Mike's smug shot on TV with cuts and
scratches on his face, she couldn't believe that the boy
(25:54):
she spent so much time talking with could do something
so terrible that was like a punch in the gut.
Last person I would ever suspect to kill anybody would
have been Mikhailo during the time in school. He was
one of my closest friends, and he was just such
a sweet person that I was like immediately, immediately, like
(26:14):
people reversed and like, oh my god, he's a monster
for doing that. I the opposite. I'm like, I immediately
thought of when she I caught her yelling at him
in the hallway that I'm like, there has to be
a reason, Like I immediately knew, like, there has to
be a reason he did this. This couldn't be him
being like evil wanting to kill somebody. There must have
something must have happened for him to, you know, suddenly
(26:36):
snap and kill sister Michelle. Did he ever tell you
that he was depressed? No? Never, never did I really
did feel it, you know, like I felt like maybe
he was sad and stuff, um, but I I didn't.
I didn't know what it could be the cause. Like
he never he never like took the confidence in me
(26:58):
to tell me anything that was going on with him.
So I really don't know. But Mike says there was
more going on in his life than just sister Michelle
that gave him this aura of sadness. We'll get to
that after a break. Welcome back to Sacred Scandal. I
(27:26):
am Paula Barrows and I'm Melanie Bartley. Back in n
when Mike and Petro tarn To first arrived in Miami,
they were both paired off with one of the two
priests to work as their assistant or helper. Petro was
first paired with Father Damien Gibbold, and Mike would help
(27:46):
Father went and the priest would be a sort of
mentor for the monks. In these early days, when Mike
was struggling with adapting to life in Miami and at
the monastery, he said he could go to Father Went
to talk about his problems. But one night when he
went to speak to the priest. Mike says, everything changed.
(28:09):
I remember first the first few months I was ad
to wry about when so you know, when we're talking,
I was going through a really pressing and going through
some really difficult friends. So said, I was announced like
that was in his house, right Went's house, he says,
or you know, uh, you know one of the apostles,
remember put upon his head on Jesus chest. So he says,
(28:32):
it was like, so it's he was that, you know,
I was like, you know something, he said, it was okay,
like context. So I remember him wrinning his hands of
course my chest and private pass and tried. When this happened,
he said his body just froze. He told us he
was uncomfortable and couldn't react. Mike told police in his
(28:54):
confession that this is how the sexual abuse he claims
took place at Holy Cross began, and that this same
situation happened again while he served as Father Wentz assistant.
After about eight months of working as Went's assistant, for
some unknown reason, Mike says, things switched. He was reassigned
to Father Damien and Petro would now assist Father went
(29:17):
Not long after this change, Mike says he witnessed Petro
being touched in the same way that he was when
he needed to go back to Went's house one night
after their curfew. I forgot has has once key, so
I was returned back and turned back once I returned back.
And I've seen the same thing as seen Father who
(29:38):
went like his hands. It wasn't over chess and stole
may just rubbing him. So I've seen my own eyes.
You said he quoted the Bible when he was doing that.
Oh yeah, if we used the Bible, whatever they needed
to know. Toniclidas Mike says that the priest used his
(30:01):
position as a man of God and an authority in
their monastery to create these situations. He also said that
when he switched to working for Father Damien, things were
no different and the abuse didn't stop. He says it
started one day while they were driving to get groceries.
Mike told us Father Damien started rubbing Max Dye in
the car. From there, things escalated and him he was
(30:26):
really yeah, yeah, he he was with more more predator,
definitely definitely more predator. Definitely predator. And were also we
have like confession and during the confession he would also
like touch me, uh my private post and eventually also
(30:47):
gave me maybe his pills because I was going to
drive a defessant, he asked me. He told me you
can have my pillows and you know also his own pillows,
which was anti anxiety pills. How do how did those
pills make you feel? What was the effect? Oh? I
was just high and I guess more relaxed, so you
(31:07):
know that. And yeah, he would give the pills and
I know, yes, So they had this okay, hed TV
right had all the channels, so he was watching watching
like soft porn and stuff. And also during watching the
soft porn, he was just you know, get aroused. And
(31:29):
then of course he'd order me to undress two my
briefs and then um so he was red like so
hippopped all my product piers and then he was just
he was trapping his hands all over my body. Then
(31:50):
he grabbing my penis and just I remember I got
correct and he started he started laughing, and I remember
him saying it something like you like it, and he
was laughing, he was laughing, and I was I was
just really like shog. Mike says that being called to
(32:15):
father Damien's room like this at night happened often and
was done in secret. He also claims that he was
given his own private room as a way of hiding
the abuse from other monks. In the night, Mike says
Father Damien summoned him down to his own room after
everyone went to bed, and none of the other monks
would see him leave. Once in Father Damien's room, Mike says,
(32:36):
the priests would set an alarm for three or four
o'clock in the morning, when he would send Mike back
down to his room before the other boys in the
house were awake. That was why I was in my
last because you always try the priests always he should
obay whatever whatever said, and of course punishments if you
(32:56):
disobey or anything. So my whole mind, it's just just
unimaginably like this, arguing Mike told us some police that
over the years he was touched by Father Damien on
numerous occasions and raped by the priest at least six times,
and he says these feelings of shame and agony hung
(33:19):
over him while he lived in that same house as
Father Damien. He says he wanted to get away, but
also didn't want to go back to his home in Ukraine.
So Mike says he started trying to find a way out.
Remember then GiB wasna I used this computer. I looked
at what the recruitment center like, army army recruitment center.
(33:41):
So now I looked up and got a phone number.
So I called this armory of recruitment guy. I said,
you know, can I be part of the army and stuff?
And he said he told my coulion because I was
not American resident citizen sold. Mike says he felt frustrated
and trapped in his situation. But in two thousand, Mike
(34:05):
graduated from Holy Cross and things changed. After Mike finished
high school, he Petro and father went, we're all taking
classes at Barry University, a Catholic college about five miles
away from the monastery. So to be closer to the school,
the three of them runted a house near the university campus.
(34:26):
It was at this time Mike says he started to
feel more free at school. He told us that he
would take off his tie and jacket to blend in
more with the other students, and he was also able
to drive by himself between Holy Cross and the Barry House.
When in the car with the priests. They had the
dial set to the classical radio stations, but on his
(34:47):
own Mike had the freedom to choose his own soundtrack.
So I remember driving to campus and just turning, just
listened to regular a puplar songs. Do you remember a
song or or an artist that you would like to
listen to? Oh? Yeah, yeah cool? Cryptonite did think all
(35:07):
those down, there's just those songs late nine public songs.
I remember that when it be going back to the house,
go back to station, make sure yea. Even though Mike
(35:30):
started to feel happier once he got out of high school,
those feelings were only temporary. Mike petroin Went only lived
at the Berry House during the week when they had classes.
On the weekend, they came back to Holy Cross to
pray at the monastery and help with church services on Sunday.
It was then Mike says that he'd be called to
Father Damien's room again in the night, and he would
(35:53):
become depressed and angry. Mike told us he'd been holding
in these growing feelings for five years that Holy Cross.
He said he was too ashamed to tell anyone about
the abuse, and too afraid to give up his life
and schooling in the US to move back to Ukraine.
And he told us how he started to question his
own faith and became angry and confused. But it all
(36:16):
culminated on the night of the murder, when he says
was the last time he was raped. The really the
whole thing was already was really building up, the whole
the whole rage was a ready million up more and more.
I pretty much lost my religion by the time. I
was like praising God and hated the police everything, just
hating my life. I remember being suicible. I had had
(36:41):
time I really want to kill myself. I was so
because I was still going to really struggling, still going
struggling inside too from the abuse, through everything you know,
and just little still nice. I had trouble for to sleep.
It was so much just run in my mind, and
so I will just be really suicible. So I had
his knife. I'm was just cutting myself because I felt
(37:02):
I would be better once I cut myself. Just remember
cutting myself. I feel like some scars from from from
cutting myself from the knife. And let me ask, were
you cutting yourself at the time that you were being
abused by Damien. Yes, yes, did he ever noticed your scars,
your wounds? Yeah, And I would specially lie, you know,
honestly something. Oh, I I just you know, I scrushed
(37:26):
myself by accident, you know, I you know, I went,
I was going by the fans, and I caught myself,
you know fans, and just bestically amount I would lie.
And so the night you killed sister Michelle, um, you
were raped by Damien that same night, right, yes, can
you walk me through that? That night, I just remember
(37:50):
I was in his room, right, and he he was
he was really like that move. So I remember just
remember him in pushing me, pushing me down on one
bed and taking taking my uh, taking my my brief
off and just pushed me down and just pushing himself
(38:13):
and hell with me. So yeah, written. And then after
he was done, if he fell asleep, I remember getting
his key because at the time, whenever he was asleep,
it's nory. I would get his key. I would and
I would go to like school as school rooms or
(38:33):
other rooms, and and I was just listen the kids
to go through rooms in in in school. And then
I went to I got got the power of wine.
And that's when you know, election got drunk. Hello, can
you hear me? Hello? Did I lose you? Since Melanie
(39:05):
and I started talking to Mike fifteen years ago, we've
asked each other the same question, if he was being
abused by the priests, why did he murder sister Michelle?
And his answer has been the same every time. He's
told us that he doesn't know, he just lost his
mind and snapped. It's a reason we always struggle with
(39:26):
because it seems so hard to comprehend, so unreal, and
to be honest, we've not always felt like it was
the truth, like there's more to it that he's afraid
to tell us. But this year, when we talked to Danielis,
the girl who ate lunch with Mike at holy Cross,
she told us a story about herself that put Mike's
reasoning into perspective, and it helped us understand how someone
(39:50):
liked Mike, overwhelmed with rage can be capable of doing
something so terrible. So Danielle's came to holy Cross with
her sister, who was a little bit younger than her.
She had a hard time fitting in at the school
and was being bullied pretty badly by other kids. It's
why their mom eventually took them out of Holy Cross.
(40:12):
Danielle said she did her best to get the kids
to stop, but one day an older girl was picking
on her eight year old sister, and Danielle's had seen enough.
I literally grabbed her hair above her ears and I
banged her head in the corner of the cafeteria battle
bench chair. I was bringing her head like that. I
(40:33):
wanted to destroy her. At one point when I hit
her head against that, she opened her mouth and her
eyes got super glassy, and then the two pe coaches
pulled me off. I snapped and I know I could
have killed her. I know I could because I saw
the reaction on her face when I banged her head
in the corner. She was bleeding in the back of
her head. I could have killed her. I snapped back,
(40:54):
and I'm like, what the hell am I doing? Like
I'm gonna kill this girl? And because your rage takes over,
and when your rage takes over, it's hard to control
that when you're anger and rageist goes. So I really,
I really do sympathize, like obviously from Mikailo to have
done what he did. You know, you don't stab somebody
what n six times you don't stab somebody like that
(41:16):
without a being complete loss of control, pure rage. You know,
he probably wasn't even in his own body. It wasn't
until afterwards that he came out of it or I
don't know. Like honestly, this is the sort of reasoning
that Mike's lawyers would use for his defense. But even
though he confessed to the murder, this case would not
(41:38):
be simple. It would drag on through the Miami legal
system for almost five years and take police and attorneys
from both sides all the way to Transcarpathia Mike's home
in search of answers. All that is next time on
Sacred Scandal. Sacred Scandal is a production of Exile Content
(42:06):
Studio in partnership with I Heart Radio's Michael da Podcast Network.
Sacred Scandal was created and produced by Melanie Bartley and
me Paula Barrows. Our senior producer is Dennis Funk of
Written in Air. The executive producers are Rose Red and
Nando Villa. Our production assistant is Emani Leonard. The show
(42:31):
is fact checked by Kimberly Winston. Original music was composed
by Patrick Hart and special thanks on this episode to
Brian Robertson and Travis Roy. If you'd like to reach out,
email us at hello at Sacred Scandal podcast dot com,
and you can follow us on Instagram at Sacred scandal
(43:02):
owe
Host
Jasmine Romero
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