Coronial inquest announced for Elizabeth Struhs after 14 members of killer cult found guilty of manslaughter
A coronial inquest will be held into the death of a young girl who was left to die by her parents and members of a killer cult who took away her insulin.
A coronial inquest will be held into the death of a young girl killed by members of a fringe faith-healing cult after they withdrew her lifesaving insulin, leaving her to die over several days.
Elizabeth Struhs died in early 2022 from fatal diabetic ketoacidosis – brought on after her parents Jason Richard Struhs and Kerrie Elizabeth Struhs made the decision to stop administering the drug as a test of Mr Struhs’ new-found faith in God.
The eight-year-old – who had Type 1 diabetes – grew more and more unwell through the week.
But instead of seeking medical attention or administering insulin, her parents and members of the faith-healing circle known as The Saints opted to pray for God to heal her.
The group holds extreme Christian beliefs – notably believing God can heal ailments and that medicine and medical treatment is to be shunned.
On Wednesday, the group of 14 were found guilty of Elizabeth’s manslaughter following a nine-week trial, which commenced in July 2024.
They will be sentenced in February.
Queensland’s child safety system will now be put under the microscope after Child Safety Minister Amanda Camm on Friday confirmed an inquest will be held into Elizabeth’s death.
“The death of Elizabeth Struhs is a tragedy,” she said.
“She was a beautiful, innocent girl taken too soon.
“I welcome this process and the findings and recommendations that can help fix the broken child safety system we inherited from the former Labor government.”
A date for the inquest has not been set.
Child Safety officers first became involved with the Struhs family after Elizabeth almost died from her condition in 2019.
She was saved after Mr Struhs raced her to hospital, with doctors describing the girl’s condition as being “minutes” from death.
Mr and Mrs Struhs were both charged with failing to supply their daughter with the necessaries of life as a result.
While Mr Struhs pleaded guilty and received a suspended sentence, Mrs Struhs pleaded not guilty and took the matter to trial in 2021.
She was found guilty by a jury and jailed for five months.
During her incarceration, Mr Struhs was baptised into The Saints by its leader, Brendan Luke Stevens, amid his struggle to care for his family in his wife’s absence while overseeing Elizabeth’s insulin intake.
It culminated in Mr Struhs making the decision to cease giving her the drug from January 3, 2022.
The group’s collective inaction led to Elizabeth’s condition worsening until she died on or about January 7.
NewsWire understands Child Safety monitored Elizabeth for several months over 2019 following her near-death experience before the case was ultimately closed.
It is understood no further concerns were flagged for Elizabeth’s wellbeing until her death in 2022.
On Wednesday, Mr Struhs 53, and Mr Stevens, 63, were found not guilty of Elizabeth’s murder, but guilty of her manslaughter.
Mrs Struhs, 49, was found guilty of manslaughter.
Her son Zachary Alan Struhs, 22, Loretta Mary Stevens, 67, – the wife of Brendan Stevens – and the couple’s adult children Acacia Naree Stevens, 32, Therese Maria Stevens, 37, Sebastian James Stevens, 24, Andrea Louise Stevens, 35, Camellia Claire Stevens, 29, and Alexander Francis Stevens, 26, Lachlan Stuart Schoenfisch, 34, and his wife Samantha Emily Schoenfisch, 26, and a third woman, Keita Courtney Martin, 24, were also found guilty of manslaughter.
Supreme Court Justice Martin Burns found each of the 12 co-accused “counselled and aided” Elizabeth’s killing by intentionally encouraging Jason to cease providing insulin, as well as medical care, and by “intentionally supporting his choice to continue to do so”.
He found Mrs Struhs had completely abdicated the legal duty she owed to her child to give her a reasonable standard of care.
“It must be seen as having involved grave moral guilt and disregard for life,” Justice Burns wrote in his judgment.
Justice Burns found Jason Struhs could not be found guilty of murder unless he was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that at some point between the father’s decision to cease insulin and the time when Elizabeth died, he “knew his failure to provide her with insulin and/or medical care and treatment would probably cause her death.”
“In this respect, it must be proved beyond reasonable doubt Mr Struhs knew of the probability, as opposed to the possibility, of death,” the judgment states.
“Nothing less than a full realisation on his part that Elizabeth would probably die as a consequence of his failure to act would be sufficient to establish murder in this way, that is, murder by reckless indifference to her life.”
