Human Wreckage True Crime
Join us as we navigate the wreckage left behind by humanity’s darkest instincts.
Disturbing True Crime Stories, These include, murderers, kidnappings, serial killers. Solved and unsolved.
Human Wreckage True Crime
The Ant Hill Kids: Canada's Most Horrific Cult
Rock Therialt was the maniacal leader of the Ant Hill Kids, a small group that initially appeared to be an innocent community of free-thinking folks who supported themselves through self-sufficiency in their commune in the quaint Canadian wilderness.
Speaker 1:However, life inside the commune was much more disturbing than anybody could have ever imagined. Torture, abuse, mutilation and murder made up the four walls of a literal house of horrors for the members of the group. Welcome to today's episode on human wreckage, where we uncover one of the most disturbing stories in Canadian history. This is the story of Rock Therialt, the maniacal leader behind the infamous Ant Hill Kids, a story of manipulation, violence and the devastating consequences of blind devotion. In the late 1970s, a small commune in the remote Quebec wilderness was formed, an idealistic group searching for truth and freedom. They called themselves the Ant Hill Kids and they were led by a man named Rock Theriot. On the surface, he was a charismatic leader, promising enlightenment and a life free from society's constraints, but what began as an innocent quest for something deeper soon spiraled into a nightmare of unimaginable cruelty. Theriot was not just a leader, he was a master manipulator. His power over his followers was absolute, his control suffocating. What started as a spiritual community quickly descended into a place where violence, fear and punishment were normalized. Theriot believed that pain was necessary for purification, and he used this belief to justify horrific actions, beatings, psychological torment and even mutilation, all in the name of spiritual discipline. He isolated his followers from the outside world, creating a place where only his version of reality existed. The anthill kids became a cult in the truest sense of the word, a group so utterly consumed by their leader's control that they couldn't see the hell they were living in. It wasn't just about power, it was about domination. Daryl twisted their faith, breaking them down, forcing them to believe that they were nothing without him. Over time, his cruelty escalated. Those who tried to escape or question him were met with unimaginable punishment. His followers were subjected to torturous acts that defy belief, actions that would eventually lead to his capture and the unraveling of the Ant Hill Kids. In this episode, we'll uncover the horrifying details of Rock Theriot's reign, the psychological and physical toll it took on his followers, and how his dark ideology led to deadly consequences. The Ant Hill kids were trapped in a nightmare from which they could not escape until the world finally learned of their suffering. Prepare yourself, because the story of Rock Therialt is one that will send shivers down your spine. This is the dark reality behind the anthill kids.
Speaker 1:Rock Theriot was born in the Saguenay Valley of Quebec in 1947 to Hyacinth and Perret Theriot. According to Theriot, his father would be abusive towards him throughout his childhood. However, the elder Theriot would staunchly deny these claims. Theriot dropped out of school at just 13 years old and developed an obsession with the apocalypse and the Old Testament, especially the strict code on masculine authority. While Theriot was raised Catholic, he converted to the Seventh-day Adventist church and followed their way of life. He relinquished alcohol, tobacco and processed foods. His time with the church, however, was short-lived and he was removed after attempting to gain leadership. While Theriot was removed from the church, he had already managed to secure himself a number of followers.
Speaker 1:By the mid-1970s, theriot had convinced himself that he was the people's savior. He strongly believed that he was put on earth by God to save the world from evil and the upcoming apocalypse. Theriot now had a new goal to create a free-thinking commune where his accolades could listen to his teachings and live as equals. He forced his followers to abandon their homes and abandon their families after convincing them that the world and their loved ones were corrupt. Therialt and his followers lived according to his personal representation of the Bible and they accepted him as their God.
Speaker 1:By 1978, therialt's delusions had grown exponentially and he predicted that the world would end in February of 1979. To prepare for the apocalypse, therialt and his followers four men, nine women and four children moved to Eternal Mountain near the Gaspé village of St Jogs. Here the group built a commune of tents and log cabins. However, february of 1979 came and went, and the apocalypse didn't materialize. According to Therialt, the world didn't end because of the differences in the Israelite calendar and the Roman didn't materialize. According to Theriot, the world didn't end because of the differences in the Israelite calendar and the Roman Catholic calendar.
Speaker 1:Soon enough, life in the commune had become bizarre. Theriot had wanted to increase his followers, and did so by marrying all of the females within the commune and impregnating them. He fathered 20 children by nine different women. Therialt had a maniacal streak that triggered brutal punishments. In 1981, he sliced open the penis of two-year-old Samuel Gilger after the young boy had difficulty urinating. When Samuel wouldn't stop crying after the so-called surgery, therialt ordered one of his followers, guy Veer, to beat the young boy, who subsequently died from his injuries. In a bid to conceal the death. The commune then set the boy's body on fire as punishment. Therial castrated Veer and ordered his followers to say that Veer had been trampled by a horse. Nevertheless, the truth came out and police raided the commune and discovered the charred body of Samuel. Therial and eight others were arrested and charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm. They were all subsequently released.
Speaker 1:Following the releases, theriot and his followers established a community near Burnt River, ontario. Here Theriot ruled over his followers, including 26 children, most who were his own, and his remaining followers who remained loyal during his incarceration. Here, his followers supported themselves by making maple syrup, preserves, bread and smoking fish. Theriot compared his followers to ants working on an anthill. Thus the anthill kids were born.
Speaker 1:While initially the commune appeared to mesh within the community, theriot began drinking heavily and his drinking increased. So did his violence. He exerted control over his followers in cruel ways and they were too weak, both physically and mentally, to escape. He forbid them from speaking to each other without his permission and conducted gladiator tournaments. During these tournaments, therialt would force his followers into a dirt ring and fight. He became increasingly paranoid that his followers were thinking of defecting and became more violent. Therialt first of all hit his followers with belts, but soon introduced hammers and the flat side of an axe. If Therialt thought that a follower was thinking of leaving the commune, he would suspend them from the ceiling and pluck their hairs out one by one before defecating on them. Therialt even had his followers prove their loyalty by breaking their own legs with sledgehammers. In addition, he ordered his followers to sit on lit stoves, shoot each other in the shoulder, smear feces on one another and cut off each other's toes. Therialt also took to sexually abusing his followers and forcing them to eat their own feces.
Speaker 1:Even the children in the commune weren't exempt from violence or sexual abuse. They would be stripped naked and whipped, and if one allegedly misbehaved, theriot would nail them to a tree and force the other children to throw rocks at them. Then one evening, during a blizzard, a mother placed her newborn baby outside, allegedly to escape from Theriot's violent outburst. The baby died from the cold. The death led to an investigation and in 1987, 14 children were removed from the commune and placed into foster homes. While this could have a regime of abuse, children's aid were only interested in saving the children and not seeking justice. So the commune continued, with just two men and eight women.
Speaker 1:Following the removal of the children, theriot became even more violent. While drunk, he believed he was a doctor who could perform medical acts on his followers. One evening he placed a rubber band around the testicles of one follower. The scrotum became swollen and infected after around eight hours and Theriot removed the testicle and cauterized the wound with a hot iron. Then, in September of 1988, he ordered Solange Boylard onto the kitchen table and stripped her naked. Earlier in the day, she had complained about a sore stomach. Theriot punched Boylard in the stomach and then shoved a plastic tube up her rectum and performed an enema with molasses and olive oil. He then made an incision on the side of her abdomen and pulled out a section of her intestine with his bare hands. He then ripped a piece of the intestine out and stuffed the rest back in her abdomen. Boylard was then stitched back up. Boylard remained alive and in agony until the next day when she finally died, most likely because of digestive chemicals leaking into her abdominal cavity.
Speaker 1:Theriot next claimed that he had the ability of resurrection. He ordered his followers to remove Boilar's uterus and saw off a portion of her skull so that he could ejaculate into her brain and bring her back to life. However, when she didn't resurrect, therialt instead ordered his followers to bury her body on the grounds of the commune. But first he removed one of her ribs and kept it in a leather case around his neck. Then, in November of 1988, another member of the commune, gabrielle Lavely, complained that she had a toothache. Theriot responded by ripping out a number of her teeth with pliers. Later that night, he chased her with a knife and cut the tendon of one of her hands. Then, in July of 1989, theriot impaled Lavely's hand on the kitchen table after she complained of stiffness in the hand. He then decided he needed to amputate Lavallee's arm. He grabbed a meat cleaver and hacked her arm off. She lay in agony on the kitchen floor until the stump was stitched up. The following morning, on the 16th of August, lavallee managed to escape from the commune. She hitchhiked to a hospital north of Toronto and the disturbing truth of the commune was finally laid bare. Theriot pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated assault and one count of unlawfully causing bodily harm. He received 12 years in prison. However, another member of the cult then led authorities to the body of Boillard. Theriot subsequently pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison, without the possibility of parole until 2000. In February of 2011, theriot was stabbed to death by his cellmate.
Speaker 1:As we come to the end of this chilling journey, the story of Rock Theriot and the Ant Hill Kids leaves us with far more questions than answers. How could one man wield such terrifying power? How could a community fall so deeply under the spell of a leader whose promises of salvation masked nothing but abuse, terror and control? Rock Theriot's actions weren't just the result of twisted beliefs or delusions of grandeur. They were deliberate, calculated acts of cruelty. He destroyed lives under the guise of healing them, and in doing so, he left behind a legacy of pain that continues to haunt survivors and horrify anyone who learns the truth.
Speaker 1:This wasn't just a cult in the woods. It was a prison mental, emotional and physical. The people who followed him weren't foolish or weak. They were vulnerable. They were human. And that's what makes this story so profoundly disturbing, because, if we're honest, it shows just how fragile the line can be between faith and fanaticism, between hope and horror.
Speaker 1:But out of this darkness there are stories of survival, of strength, of people who manage to escape and reclaim their lives, even if the scars, both seen and unseen will never fully fade. They remind us of the importance of vigilance, of education and of speaking out. Abuse thrives in silence, but the more we understand how these situations take root, the better we can prevent them from happening again. Thank you for joining us for this difficult but important story. If you or someone you know is in a situation where power is being abused or where fear is passed off as faith, please reach out. There is help and there is hope. Thanks for joining me on Human Wreckage, and we'll be back soon with another true story that reveals the complexities of the human mind and the shadows it can cast. Until then, stay safe, stay aware and take care of each other. Thank you, outro Music.