In June 2018, Imagigen Owen, a 33-year-old architect from Denver, set out on a solo hike in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.

She planned to hike part of the Colorado Trail and return in 5 days.

On June 22nd at 0745, cameras at the Sunrise Fuel Gas Station in Silverton captured Imagigen buying gas for her burner, a map of the area, and several bars.

At 40910, her blue Toyota 4Runner SUV was seen parked at the trail head near the Mullis Pass.

She left a note in the visitor’s log, “Return on Tuesday.” No one has seen her alive since.

Four years later, on September 19th, 2022, a group of geology students from the University of Colorado, while conducting field research in a remote area of Llata County noticed a thin smoke and a makeshift structure in the forest near an abandoned quarry using a drone.

When the county sheriff arrived, an emaciated woman with a pale face and unnaturally stretched lips stood in the doorway of the hut.

She did not respond to the call, only repeated one phrase.

He is building a temple.

We are the foundation.

Fingerprint identification confirmed that the woman was Image and Owen, who had gone missing four years earlier.

In the early days of summer 2018, the town of Silverton, usually quiet and sleepy after the ski season, began to prepare for the influx of tourists.

Among them was Imagigen Owen, a 33-year-old architect from Denver.

A few days before her departure, she wrote to her sister that she wanted to clear my head of city noise and finally hike the part of the Colorado Trail she had been dreaming of since her university days.

She chose a section near Silverton, the highest, wildest, and in her words, least touched by civilization.

According to the owner of the Prospector’s Lodge, where Immigen stayed the night before the hike, she looked confident and wellprepared.

She had a new backpack, a mountaineering GPS, a map of the area, and a satellite phone to communicate in areas without coverage.

“She didn’t look like an amateur,” he said in his testimony.

Someone who knew what she was doing.

That evening, she ordered dinner at a local coffee shop, Miner’s Rest, and had a long conversation with the barista about the old mining routes.

The barista recalled that she was interested in the road to Anderson Peak and wrote something down in a notebook.

The next morning, June 22, she left Silverton around a.m.

At the Sunrise Fuel Station, she purchased gas for her burner, energy bars, and a bottle of water.

A camera near the cash register captured her paying cash, smiling at the clerk and walking toward her car.

An hour and a half later, her Toyota foreigner was found parked at the trail head near Molasses Pass.

The visitor log below her signature read, “Return Tuesday.” According to weather reports, the weather was clear and hot that week.

Tour groups in the Anderson Peak area did not report any emergencies.

Only one couple from New Mexico mentioned in an interview with police that they heard a scream that could have been a human on Sunday night, but then thought it was a fox or cougar.

When Imigen didn’t get in touch on the day in question, her sister initially assumed it was a weather delay or a technical malfunction.

The next morning, after receiving no signal, she called the San Juan County Sheriff’s Department.

The missing person report came in at a.m.

2 hours later, an official search operation was launched.

It involved local rescuers, volunteers, and three dog handlers.

A helicopter flew over the area from Mullis Pass to the old quarry to the west, but found no trace of the man.

According to one of the rescuers, the dogs picked up a trail near the parking lot and followed it to a rocky area about a mile off the road.

There, the smell disappeared.

Excavations yielded nothing, only a few old metal fragments, possibly from hiking equipment.

On the fourth day of the search, thunderstorms began.

Streams of water washed away fresh tracks, making further work impossible.

The sheriff’s report stated that no visible signs of a struggle, fall, or blood were found.

Her belongings remained in the car, her wallet, phone, and documents.

Everything looked as if she had simply walked down the path and disappeared.

The official version sounded restrained at first, a possible accident.

However, there were rumors among the rescuers about the possibility of an outsers’s interference.

One of them later told reporters that they had seen an old truck left on the side of the road nearby, although the owner was never identified.

The police found no evidence of a crime and the case gradually lost its priority.

At the end of June, the search was officially called off.

The report stated, “The trail broke off on an open stretch of rocky slope.

The subject’s location is unknown.” Imagin Owen’s name was added to the Colorado missing person’s registry.

Her sister continued her own search for several months, posting signs on the roads between Silverton and Durango, but to no avail.

So, the disappearance, which at first seemed like a typical story of a bad hike, turned into one of the most mysterious cases in the San Juan Mountains.

No witnesses, no explanation, not even a hint of where the woman who left behind only a short message could have gone.

The weather is perfect.

Be in touch in 4 days.

Don’t worry.

In September of 2022, a group of geology students from the University of Colorado were conducting field research in the Llata area between the town of Hermosa and the slopes of the mountains of the same name.

Professor David Grant had official permission to explore the territory of the old quarry known as Graceale Enterprises.

According to archival documents, the mine was closed in the 80s due to a landslide that blocked the main entrance.

Since then, the site has been gradually overgrown with forest and was considered unsuitable for visitors.

The students were tasked with creating an updated geological map of the area, including using drones and laser scanning.

According to the official report, the team arrived at the site on September 19th around noon.

The weather was dry with little wind.

The area consisted of several levels, an abandoned mine overgrown with aspen, and an area with destroyed buildings where equipment once stood.

It was there that one of the students, Ethan Moore, launched a drone to survey the slopes.

A few minutes later, he noticed a heat spot on the screen that was different from the temperature of the surrounding rocks.

At first, he thought it was an animal, but as the drone approached, the camera captured a thin streak of smoke rising from the trees.

The footage showed a small structure made of fragments of boards, tarpolins, and metal sheets.

It stood in a gorge hidden between boulders and spruce branches.

One of the students said that it looked like a hunting shelter or an old gate house.

The professor ordered them to check the coordinates to make sure it wasn’t part of a former mine site.

A few minutes later, the drone’s camera captured something that silenced everyone.

A face appeared in the window.

The official police report states that Ethan immediately stopped the recording and turned to the teacher.

Grant decided not to approach the place, but reported the discovery to the Llata County Sheriff until law enforcement arrived.

The group remained within the camp, observing the cabin from a safe distance.

According to them, the smoke continued for about half an hour, then stopped.

They did not see any movement.

At , two patrol cars and a rescuer with a search dog arrived at the scene.

The sheriff’s body camera footage shows them slowly climbing the trail, making their way through the dense undergrowth.

The door of the hut was made of several boards held together with wire.

When one of the officers knocked, there was a slight rustling as if someone was moving around inside.

The door opened without resistance.

The woman standing on the threshold looked exhausted.

Her hair was long, graying, and tassled.

Her face was pale and covered with small scratches.

She was wearing homemade clothes made of scraps of fabric and thin leather.

She did not answer questions, just looked straight ahead as if she did not see the people in front of her.

One of the policemen, Sergeant Lindsay, tried to ask her if she needed help, but instead of an answer, he heard a quiet, unintelligible mumble.

The rescuer’s report states that she uttered one phrase, repeating it twice.

He is building a temple.

We are the foundation.

When she was asked to sit down, she obediently sank to the ground, but did not take her eyes off the invisible point in the distance.

Inside the hut, they found several primitive objects, a tin can converted into a burner, a stone knife, a bowl of dried berries, and a pile of dirty rags that served as a bed.

On the wall was a crudelymade wooden cross tied with rope.

Next to it were strange drawings made with charcoal, circles, triangles, and sketchy human figures.

After examination, doctors recorded severe exhaustion, dehydration, and numerous old scars.

The woman’s age was initially estimated at about 30 years.

But later, after analyzing her fingerprints, it turned out that she was 33-year-old Immigen Owen, who went missing four years ago in the San Juan Mountains.

No documents or personal belongings were found in the hut.

Only a few homemade tools and a wooden box with pebbles stacked by color.

The rescuers assumed that she had lived here for a long time, perhaps several years, but there were no traces of a large fire or food remains around, which would indicate regular supplies.

The place where she was found was not a well-known tourist route.

To get there, you had to walk more than 6 miles through dense forest with no marked trail.

Access to the abandoned Grace Veil Mine is officially prohibited due to the risk of a cave-in, but according to Professor Grant, there are numerous trails around the area left by old hunters and gold miners.

The night after the rescue, Imagigen was taken to a hospital in Durango.

The report states that she did not recognize her name, did not answer questions about her family, and occasionally fell into a state of catatonic immobility.

The psychiatrist who conducted the initial examination described her as a person in between a state of fear and ecstasy.

For the students who accidentally stumbled upon her hiding place, the event came as a shock.

In their explanations, they repeatedly said that they could not believe that someone could live in that hut.

One of the witnesses, student Lisa Green, later told reporters, “We thought it was just another remnant of a mining camp, but when the drone showed a face, it seemed to me that it wasn’t looking at us.

It was looking through us.” The discovery quickly became known to local media, but official police comments were limited to a brief confirmation.

A person who has been missing since 2018 has been found.

Her condition is stable.

An investigation is underway.

The person’s location was cordoned off and the mine territory was put under guard.

All materials found in the hut were sent for examination.

Among them are fragments of old metal utensils, ropes, stone samples covered with traces of coal, and a piece of tarpollen with symbols similar to construction plans.

The police did not comment on their origin.

Everyone who saw Image in that day noted her strange frozen expression as if she were simultaneously in the present and in another invisible world.

We are the foundation was included in the police report as the only word she uttered during her first contact with people after 4 years of silence.

Imagigen Owen was taken to Mercy Hospital in Durango on the night of September 1920, 2022.

According to the medical report, she was in a state of extreme emaciation, had numerous old scars, signs of dehydration, and vitamin deficiency.

Her weight was less than half of the average norm.

In the first hours after hospitalization, she did not utter a single meaningful word, only reacting to touch or sharp sounds with short convulsive movements.

Doctors recorded short periods of rest followed by bouts of motor activity.

She could stand up abruptly as if waking up and run her finger along the wall forming a repeating pyramid-like shape.

The clinic psychiatrist who conducted the initial examination noted in his report that the patient is in a state of deep post-traumatic shock similar to the effects of long-term psychological abuse.

He compared her behavior to the phenomenon of induced catatonia when the mind, having no other way of self-p protection, simply disconnects from reality.

The nurse on duty that night later recalled that the patient was awake, just lying there with her eyes open, unblinking.

According to official reports, Imagigen’s sister, Hannah Owen, arrived at the hospital the next morning.

She was called in after confirming her identity through fingerprints.

According to Hannah herself, the meeting was brief.

She looked right through me as if she didn’t see me at all.

I told her who I was, but she didn’t react.

This testimony was later included in the case file as evidence of the victim’s condition.

Doctors established a strict regime.

No press, no unauthorized visitors.

Officially, Imagigen was kept in a psychiatric ward under guard as the Llata County Police were considering the version of criminal detention in isolation.

The detective assigned to the case, Marcus Rhodess, was authorized to visit the patient to establish the facts.

According to the report, during the first encounter, she sat in bed wrapped in a blanket and repeated a phrase that had already been heard at the scene.

He is building a temple.

We are the foundation.

After that, she fell silent, not responding to her name or to questions about the events of the past years.

In the early days, she was kept on an intravenous drip, gradually restoring her water and salt balance.

Doctors found that her body had miraculously adapted to minimal nutrition.

The level of ketone bodies in her blood was high and her heart rate remained stable.

This indicated that she had been living in a state of chronic malnutrition for a long time.

There were dozens of small scars on her body, most of them healed, some inflicted by a sharp object.

According to the forensic expert, the injuries were systematic, but not fatal.

Aimed at keeping her in line, Immigen hardly spoke in the hospital room.

The doctors recorded her movements.

She often took a pencil or pen and drew repeating patterns on paper, stairs, pyramids, circles inside which she marked small crosses.

One of the doctors suggested that these could be fragments of memories, perhaps floor plans, or symbols she had seen.

There were no words in her drawings, just shapes carefully drawn with a steady hand.

Meanwhile, the sheriff’s department arrived in Durango to collect materials.

They questioned Imagigen’s doctors and documented her condition.

In his memo, Detective Rhodess wrote that the patient is showing signs of deep psychological dependence, typical of victims of religious or ideological influence.

His suspicion that the story was not an accident, but a long-term detention for the purpose of subjugation became the working version of the investigation.

On the same day, the forensic team began examining samples recovered from the hut.

The reports indicate that the items included a homemade stone knife, a rope made of wild vine fibers, pieces of syloth, and a wooden box buried under a boulder about 20 yards from the entrance.

Inside were smooth polished stones of various colors, and small animal bones arranged by size.

All of the items had traces of touch, but the fingerprints were images alone.

No one else was reported to have been at the site.

The detective suggested that the box might have had ritual significance.

In his memo, he wrote, “The arrangement of the items and their systematic nature indicate a purposeful action.

This is not just a collection of small things for everyday life, but an act with symbolic meaning.” Image’s sister remained nearby but had no contact with her.

In an interview with a local TV channel, she said that she saw only a shadow of the person she once knew.

After that, the press focused on the medical side of the story, publishing headlines such as woman who disappeared in mountains found alive after 4 years of silence.

Official documents do not record emotions, but the records of the doctors on duty show that at night, Immigen was restless, often sitting in the dark, touching the wall with her fingers as if she could feel its structure.

The nurses said that she repeated the same movement several times, palm down as if smoothing something out.

She had a frozen expression on her face, which experts called a somatized smile, typical of people who have experienced prolonged physical or mental abuse.

A few days after her hospitalization, doctors noticed a slight improvement.

Imagigen began to follow people entering the room with her eyes.

She didn’t speak, but when asked to draw what she remembered, the same shape reappeared.

A pyramid with a short line under it, like a base.

One of the specialists noted, “She hasn’t lost control of her motor skills.

Her movements are precise and balanced.

This is not madness.

This is something deliberate.” Meanwhile, investigators were preparing to re-examine the area where she was found.

Detective Rhodess insisted that the hut could have been just part of a larger shelter system or settlement.

He demanded a second search of the surrounding area, especially the area at the foot of the cliff where rescuers said the ground was unnaturally compacted as if it had been recently dug up.

While these preparations were underway, the hospital corridor remained silent.

Imagigen did not speak, did not recognize her relatives, and did not ask for anything.

In that week’s medical notes, there is a short line written in the hand of the night nurse.

Patient smiles when she hears the word construction.

Okay, here is a shortened version of chapter 4 edited to a documentary length and style consistent with the previous parts.

Length 2980 characters with spaces.

In early October 2022, Detective Marcus Rhodess returned to Silverton, the small mountain town where Imagigen Owen was last seen alive.

The case of her disappearance, which had been in the archives for four years, was officially reopened.

In the fall, Silverton looked abandoned.

Closed coffee shops, empty storefronts, traces of the first snow.

At the San Juan Outfitters, a hiking gear store, Roads asked the owner, Edgar Trill, who remembered Imagin.

He kept a sales log and said that the woman was served by his young employee, a quiet man named Elijah.

He helped tourists with roots and knew the local trails well.

Shortly after Imigen’s disappearance, he suddenly quit his job.

A query in the registry confirmed, “Elijah Stone, 30 years old, lived in Silverton until the summer of 2018, after which he disappeared without a trace.” Roads added a brief note to the report.

Possible connection.

Meanwhile, the geologists who accidentally stumbled upon Imagigen handed over drone footage to the police.

In the photos, the detective noticed details that had not been recorded before.

Several dark holes on the northern slope of the quarry evenly spaced in the rock and a rectangular area of soil covered with stones.

Geologists believed that these could be artificial caves or a place where someone had lived for a long time.

Examination of samples from the hut revealed fingerprints that did not belong to Imagigen.

A comparison with the database yielded a match, Elijah Stone.

This was the first evidence of his presence at the woman’s place of detention.

Detective Roads added to the case.

Now it was not only a case of disappearance, but also of unlawful imprisonment.

In the hospital, meanwhile, Imagigen began to draw complex shapes, triangles, stairs, lines that intersected at an angle.

One of the sheets resembled a map of caves.

The nurse said that while drawing, she hardly blinked and moved her finger through the air as if to outline a path.

When the drawings were compared with geological images, the markings matched the location of the caves.

This meant that Imagin knew about them or was nearby.

Roads then began searching for Stone.

His name did not appear in any database.

The last trace was a rental of a small house on the outskirts of Silverton.

The landlord recalled that the tenant had paid the rent in advance and left, leaving only a broken compass and an old tent frame.

Combined with the new data, this created a clear picture.

Someone had set up a system of hiding places in the mountains, possibly a small community.

While reviewing the photos, Roads noticed a sign on a stone wall, a circle with a cross inside carved with a metal tool.

The expert determined that the symbol had been painted several years ago, and the groove showed traces of a mixture of soot and grease, a primitive paint.

At the end of October, the detective requested a second examination of the old Grace Veil mine area, noting in a memo, “The traces do not lead to the ground, they lead to the stone.

” In November of 2022, the investigation of Imigen Owen’s case officially came under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The agents became interested in the repeated symbolism in her drawings and the coincidence of the signs found in the mine with the materials of old cults that operated in the region in the early 2000s.

They formed a joint team with detective Marcus Rhodess to investigate the origin of the so-called temple.

At the same time, Imagigen began to respond to treatment at Mercy Hospital.

A psychiatrist, Dr.

Carter introduced a new therapy that dampened her catatonic states.

In between blackouts, she uttered fragmentaryary words that the nurses recorded verbatim.

Elijah’s brother, the last altar, cross in stone.

A new symbol appeared on the sheets, a circle with rays growing out of it and a pyramid in the center.

The doctor, not knowing its meaning, handed over copies of the drawings to the police.

The analysis of these images was the first breakthrough.

One of the FBI agents recognized a similar sign in an old photograph from the archives of the Silverton Standard, a local newspaper published in the early 2000s.

The article was about a small religious community called the Light of the East, founded by a preacher named Caleb Stone.

He proclaimed purification through work and the rejection of civilization.

The journalist notes mentioned that his followers were building a sanctuary on the ground, a city that will stand when everything else falls.

Archival documents found later in the Montro’s library confirmed that the community disintegrated after Caleb’s death in a car accident in 2010.

But one of the notes from the funeral ceremony mentioned the preacher’s younger brother, Elijah Stone.

At the time, he was described only briefly, shy and silent, always kept to himself.

This coincidence was decisive.

The FBI officially identified Elijah Stone, a former employee of a tourist shop in Silverton, as the same person mentioned in the Light of the East community materials.

Detective Rhodess traveled to Denver, where the FBI office gave him access to closed cases on small Rocky Mountain sex.

According to an internal analytical report, Caleb and his followers gathered about 30 people, including the unemployed, ex- prisoners, and people with mental disorders.

They lived in campsites, worked on farms, and gradually accumulated money to build a temple of the true.

After the founders’s death, most of the members dispersed, but a few people, including Elijah, disappeared from sight.

Elijah, according to former community members, had a fanatical devotion to his brother.

One witness who agreed to be interviewed anonymously by the FBI said, “Caleb thought he was a prophet, but Elijah looked at him as a god.

He said that his brother would leave him a plan, blueprints for a temple to be completed.

The agents checked Stone’s financial transactions.

It turned out that between 2015 and 2018, he had purchased several large batches of tools, tarps, and food concentrates.

Some of the purchases were made through intermediaries in the cities of Montrose and Durango.

The deliveries were sent to the Silverton area, but the final recipient could not be identified.

The orders were placed under the fictitious name Brother E.

This data was consistent with the evidence of the improvised buildings found in the quarry.

The FBI analysts report contains the phrase there are indications of an attempt to realize an architectural project of a religious nature.

For roads, this meant that the concept of temple was not a metaphor.

At the same time, Imagin unaware of being watched continued to paint.

On one of the sheets next to the sun symbol, she wrote words that were later deciphered as temple of breathing stone.

Doctors could not explain how she could write coherent phrases in a state of fragmented memory.

The detective noted this in his report, adding the comment, “The patient may be reproducing teachings she heard during her detention.

The texts are dogmatic formulas.” In late November, the FBI’s Denver office prepared a summary document describing the suspect’s profile.

Elijah Stone was characterized as an intellectually advanced fanatic with survival skills, prone to manipulation and isolation.

The conclusion contained the hypothesis that he reproduces his brother’s ideas, but in a radicalized form, creating his own version of the cult based on physical labor, submission, and architectural symbolism.

In one of the agents internal documents, there is a note.

The term foundation repeated by the victim may not mean a metaphor, but the literal level of the building.

It is likely that people were used as labor.

At the time, the police had a map of potential shelters in the San Juan and Llata Mountains.

However, without Imagin’s testimony, it was impossible to get to the exact coordinates.

She could only repeat certain phrases.

Three circles, the sun and the stone, the entrance underwater.

The hospital records show that after these words, she fell into a short-term stouper.

And when she came too, she clutched the sheet with the son’s picture for a long time.

Dr.

Carter wrote, “The patient demonstrates a fear response when she sees a stone or shadow on the wall.

It is likely that these images are related to traumatic memories.

The collected facts allowed Roads and his agents to recreate Stone’s ideology.

His belief in continuing his brother’s mission, his desire to build a new Jerusalem among the rocks, cleansed of human dirt.

His purchases, symbols, and residence all pointed to preparations for something big and hidden.

The final part of the November report contains a short line.

The temple exists.

The only question is where.

In December of 2022, a joint team of FBI agents and Llata County detectives conducted an undercover operation in the area of Animus Fork, an abandoned mining town in the San Juan Mountains.

It was a combination of her fragmentaryary diagrams and satellite imagery that narrowed the search to a few square miles around an old mine marked on maps as Miner’s Gulch.

The area has been closed to visitors since the ‘9s due to the danger of cave-ins, but experts noted that some of the tunnels may have remained passable.

On December 9th, a group of scouts recorded a thermal anomaly, a faint heat signature on the rock surface.

This could indicate the presence of people or the use of fire underground.

The next day, the agents discovered a narrow opening between the boulders, camouflaged by branches and stones.

Inside was a slope leading down about 30 ft.

According to the official report, the descent consisted of a metal staircase made in a handiccraft fashion.

Traces of soot were seen on the walls and at the bottom were wooden supports supported by fresh logs.

This meant that someone was not only visiting the mine, but also keeping it in working order.

After entering, the agents described what they saw as a makeshift dwelling equipped for long-term residents.

The main cell, about 200 square ft in size, contained wooden bunks, tables, shelves with cans of food, water cans, and a primitive ventilation system, a hole exposed to the surface.

On one of the tables were tools stacked with meticulous precision, hammers, saws, wire cutters, ropes, leather belts.

The most impressive part of the room was what the agents described as a chapel.

The ceiling here was higher than in the rest of the tunnel, and in the center stood a makeshift altar, a wooden table covered with a rustcoled cloth.

On it lay a pyramid-shaped stone about half a foot high similar in polish to the one found in Immigran’s hut.

On the walls next to the lanterns were painted symbols, circles, crossed lines, triangles.

One agent in the report noted it looked like a ritual was being prepared, not a workplace.

In the far corner of the storage room, behind a rubble area, they found a wooden chest wrapped in canvas.

Inside were notebooks and paper fragments, most of which were damaged by moisture.

One of the notebooks was almost completely preserved.

The first page bore the signature Elijah Stone.

The diary consisted of short passages written in uneven handwriting.

The first entries referred to brothers who did not understand the plan and a stone that needs to feel the hand.

Later entries referred to a new Jerusalem that must be built from those whom the world has rejected.

The author called himself a builder and mentioned apostles who bear the burden of purification.

One passage stated, “He left me a blueprint.

We will create it from flesh, wood, and stone.

The temple will stand when all else falls.” Linguists who analyzed the text noted the fanatical rhythm of the writing and the repetition of phrases typical of religious manifestos.

Several pages contain drawings, rectangular blocks similar to architectural plans, as well as diagrams that could describe the structure of the building.

In the margins, there were marks in the form of the letters I and C, possibly Imagigen’s initials.

In addition to the diary, the agents seized a metal container with documents, old photographs, newspaper clippings, and a copy of an article about the death of Caleb Stone, the founder of the Light of the East sect.

All the materials showed that Elijah continued his brother’s work, giving it an even more radical form.

Five wooden plaques with engraved names were also found in the chapel.

Four of the names were erased by time and the fifth clearly read IO.

Experts suggested that the plates could have identified people who he considered to be the foundation stones.

Based on this evidence, the FBI concluded that at least several people lived in the underground shelter.

This was evidenced by the traces of many pairs of shoes, the remains of dishes, and two additional beds.

Forensic biological analysis of the tissue samples confirmed the presence of DNA from two people who were not identified at the time of the examination.

This meant that Imigen was not the only victim.

Agents also found old plans of the building drawn on tracing paper.

They showed a multi-level structure that resembled a tower.

The documents were labeled with the phrases level of atonement, stairway of light, foundation of the elect.

in the margins in red pencil.

The beginning has been made.

When the seven stones become one, the temple will come to life.

These inscriptions confirmed what Imagin called the foundation.

All the details matched symbols, geometric patterns, even references to a pyramid.

The vault was not just a place of residence.

It was an underground headquarters to prepare for a larger project.

The last entries in the diary date from around the middle of 2019.

In them, Elijah wrote about a betrayal in the heart of one of the apostles and the need for purification through silence.

Then the text broke off.

On the following pages, there are only dates and some sun symbols.

In his report, the head of the operation noted, “The miner’s Gal mine was used as a shelter and warehouse.

However, the site is of secondary importance.

The primary location is likely higher in the mountains outside the range of thermal sensors.

Federal agents evacuated all the findings, sealed the entrance, and transferred the materials to a laboratory in Denver.

In the official chronicle of the investigation, this day was marked as the first confirmation of the existence of an organized structure headed by a man named Elijah Stone.

In early January of 2023, the federal investigation of Elijah Stone entered an active phase.

After analyzing his diary and Imagigen’s drawings, FBI analysts identified a potential search sector for the main camp.

It was to be located high in the mountains between Stony Pass and the Northern Spur that descends to the fictional Moonwell Lake, a place that does not appear on any official map, but was referred to in Stone’s writings as the heart of water and stone.

The operation was cenamed the invisible city.

The agents were divided into three groups: reconnaissance, pursuit, and support.

The main focus was on tracking supplies.

Through the archives of local warehouses, they found out that in recent months, an unknown person had been buying large quantities of canned food, fuel, and medical supplies, paying in cash.

One of the vendors in Durango reported that the buyer arrived in an old dark green truck with a tarpolin tent and always wore gloves.

This detail was noted in the report as characteristic of a person who avoids leaving fingerprints.

After 3 weeks of surveillance, the agents located the same truck.

It was traveling on an old road leading to a closed mountainous area.

On one section of the road, the task force discreetly attached a GPS beacon to the body.

The signal was steady for 2 days, then disappeared.

Its last coordinate pointed to a remote gorge 6 milesi from Stony Pass.

That’s where the special forces agents went.

The area was inaccessible.

Steep slopes, rock piles, deep ravines.

At night, the temperature dropped below – 10° C.

The entrance to the gorge was almost completely blocked by fallen trees, so the group moved on foot.

At dawn, they noticed smoke rising above the forest.

When the scouts got closer, they saw a view of the settlement with several wooden structures arranged in a semicircle.

In the center stood a massive structure similar to a roofless tower.

Its top ended in a stone arch, and the lower part was lined with logs.

The agent spotted a dozen wooden tents that looked like cells or cells.

Most of the doors had symbols on them, circles, triangles, crosses.

Fresh footprints of several people were visible on the ground.

The team quietly approached the central building.

A man in a dark cloak sat on its doorstep, hands in his lap.

He did not move.

According to protocol, the senior agent announced the arrest three times loudly, but there was no response.

As they approached, the man slowly raised his head.

It was Elijah Stone.

The report says he offered no resistance.

His face was calm, his eyes direct.

The agents described him as a man with a cold but deliberate confidence.

One of the witnesses later said that Stone whispered the phrase, “The foundation is laid.

The temple will be built even without me.

” These words were entered into the official record.

During the search of the territory, two people were found, a man and a woman, both in an emaciated state.

They were in a small hut near the tower.

According to doctors, they had been held for at least 2 years.

They called themselves disciples and refused to leave the settlement, believing that the purification is not yet complete.

One of them was carrying a wooden plate with an engraved sun sign.

Stone himself remained silent during the transportation.

According to the agents, he calmly watched everything that was happening like a spectator, not a participant.

In the camp, they found work logs, supply lists, and detailed drawings of the building he called the Renaissance Temple.

The documents contained instructions for stonemasonry work and a note.

Every stone has a name.

The body is the material, and the spirit is the fire that holds the form.

Upon inspecting the central tower, the agents found that its interior consisted of several concentric circles connected by narrow passageways.

At the bottom was a large stone block set into the ground shaped like the base of a pyramid.

On the surface were carved symbols similar to those Imagigen had drawn in the hospital.

According to the experts, the building was meant to be not only a place of worship, but also a defensive structure where one could hide from the weather or external interference.

During the inspection of stone’s personal belongings, a metal container with the inscription, “Seven parts of light was found.” It contained shards of glass, pieces of polished stone, scraps of fabric, and small pieces of paper with the words faith, ashes, and atonement.

DNA analysis showed that some of these fragments contained traces of blood.

At the time of his arrest, Elijah was in a state of physical exhaustion, but without any signs of fear.

Doctors recorded normal blood pressure and a stable pulse.

The report states that the subject behaved as if the arrest was part of a plan.

After the arrest, the camp was sealed off.

According to the protocol, all items were seized as evidence, including blueprints, signs, pieces of construction materials, and personal records.

Elijah Stone was taken to the federal detention center in Denver.

Despite the evidence, including diaries, fingerprints, victims, and the building, he pleaded not guilty.

During his initial interrogation, which was later partially released, he stated that he was doing a favor, not a crime.

In the agent’s memo, there is a short phrase.

Stone speaks of himself as a tool, not a person.

In the official photos from the arrest, he stands barefoot in the snow, hands behind his back, face calm, eyes looking up.

In the shot behind him, there is a stone tower unfinished, its top dissolving into fog.

In March of 2023, the trial in the case of United States versus Elijah Stone began in the federal court of Denver.

The trial lasted 9 days and caused a wide public outcry.

Relatives of the victims, FBI representatives, journalists from Denver, Durango, and even several national publications were present in the courtroom.

The trial was conducted under intense surveillance.

The judge banned the filming of the defendant’s face during witness testimony to avoid the effect of a public cult.

Stone sat calmly, hands on the table, gaze directed downward.

According to eyewitnesses, he showed neither fear nor regret.

His behavior was called a strange mixture of calm and arrogance.

A psychiatric examination conducted before the trial found him sane, intellectually preserved, able to realize the consequences of his actions, but guided by a pathological belief in his own mission.

The report of the forensic psychiatrists stated that he was convinced of the sanctity of his role and perceives punishment as a confirmation of his election.

At the court hearings, excerpts from his diaries were read out.

The prosecutor emphasized that Stone was not acting in a state of insanity, but was purposefully creating a system of subjugation, using people as material for his ideas.

One of the FBI agents testified that more than a 100 pages of instructions and dogmas were found in the camp which defined the rules of the community.

They stated, “Silence is prayer.

Work is purification.

The stone does not cry.

The stone endures.” During the defense, the lawyer tried to prove that Stone was acting under the influence of religious psychosis, but the court rejected this line.

The verdict was unanimous.

Life in prison without the possibility of parole.

When the judge read the verdict, Stone did not budge.

According to a journalist from the Denver Post, he only raised his eyes to the ceiling and whispered a few words that could not be heard.

After the verdict, the FBI officially closed the case, cenamed Temple.

The report noted that some members of the congregation could not be identified.

There was evidence of several other people who may have been under Stone’s influence, but their traces were lost in the mountains.

Image and Owen continued to receive treatment at a psychiatric clinic near Denver.

Doctors recorded a gradual recovery of cognitive functions, but her emotional state remained unstable.

In early March, she agreed for the first time to a therapy session using audio recordings of nature, the sounds of wind, water, and crackling fire.

During the session, she burst into tears.

A nurse who was present noted in the report.

The patient uttered a phrase.

He called it ecstasy.

I was just afraid to breathe.

From the doctor’s testimony, it is known that Imagigen gradually began to talk about the years of detention.

She described how she was forced to work hauling stones, building walls, laying out shapes according to Stone’s diagrams.

She said that her smile seen by the rescuers was not joy but a spasm of fear.

He taught me to smile when it hurts because it is purification.

These testimonies were key to understanding the psychological mechanism of the sect.

Two other survivors, a man and a woman found in the camp, were also in the clinic.

They did not speak to each other and reacted to Elijah’s name only as a ritual word.

Both refused to eat normal food demanding water and dry grains.

According to the doctors, their reactions were similar to the behavior of religious aesthetics.

Psychologists noted that Stone’s phenomenon was not only about violence, but also about the ability to create a belief system where obedience looked like salvation.

His victims were not just afraid.

They believed they had to become part of the foundation.

In April, Image’s sister, Anna Owen, founded the charity Traces of Light, which was dedicated to helping victims of kidnapping and teaching safety in the mountains.

In an address to the press, she said, “If my sister could survive, others can too.

We must learn to see the danger not only in nature, but also in people who pretend to be prophets.” In Silverton, relatives of the dead and disappeared erected a small memorial, a stone circle with the names of those considered temple stones.

In the center, they left an empty slab with no inscription, a symbol of those whose names will no longer be recognized.

Imagin did not attend the unveiling.

According to her doctor, she refused to go, saying only that she was not ready to look at the mountains yet.

The medical records contain a brief note.

The patient avoids eye contact with natural landscapes, especially stone structures.

The latest information about her condition comes from an April clinic report.

Imagigen spends most of her time at the window reading books and taking short notes.

In one of them, the nurse read the phrase, “If the temple is faith, then the foundation of pain is also part of it.” In a photo taken during an art therapy session, she depicts the same San Juan mountains, but without pyramids, without symbols, just outlines like silhouettes melting into the fog.

Her hands are still shaking, but the lines are smooth, precise, confident.