Cremated remains of nine victims of the Jonestown Massacre, which took over 900 lives, were recently discovered inside marked containers in a bank-owned funeral home in Delaware.
Almost 36 years after American Preacher Jim Jones led his congregation of the Peoples Temple to drink poisoned Kool-aid, one Temple survivor, Johnston Kohl, is helping to track down family members and turn over the remains. ABC10 NEWS reported that Kohl was not present at the fatal last meal because she wasn’t living at the Jonestown encampment in Guyana.
Kohl and the San Diego-based The Jonestown Institute have located seven of the nine families, including two sets of loved ones on Thursday for Temple members Irene Mason and Katherine Domineck. “I do get emotional. Some call it PTSD — ‘Peoples Temple Stress Disorder,'” explained Kohl.
Rebecca Moore, who lost two sisters and a nephew at Jonestown, co-founded the institute. She said, “I think it’s a feeling of bringing people back home. My own motivation is to treat the dead with respect,” said Moore.
The institute created a website that compiled vital information, including a list of those killed, with birthdates, family and other information, ABC News noted. Kohl was able to locate several of the families by sending emails, making phone calls, and exhausting her network of survivors and loved ones.
“We are all family. I think all of this is very important, as members of my family come back and are given their [peace],” Kohl said.