The adventures of my friends Eve & Festus. This is the last news that I have of them. Early Heaven’s Gate.

The Ithaca Journal, October 30, 1975, By Gail Dickinson

Two former Ithacans have joined a group of people from Oregon who say they are preparing to be taken to another level beyond humans by a spaceship.

The whereabouts of the two is not known, but recent letters to their families indicate they are committed to the group and its philosophy.
On Sept. 18, Michael Fiester, 24, and Eve Ujhelyi, 21. who left Ithaca in late 1973 for Oregon, joined the followers of a couple who claim to be "sent from another level above that of human."
Families of the two have received letters from both which tell of their belief in the couple and in their claims that persons who follow them. will be "reborn."

The disappearance of about 20 Oregon residents also with an undetermined number of Californians has been in the national news in recent weeks. There have been reports of people giving away children and property before leaving to join the group.
Dan Staggs, 43, a person with whom the two Ithacans were living in Springfield, Ore., also has joined the group. Staggs gave away his house before leaving, according to Chris Carlson, who now lives in the home.

Fiester's mother, Mrs. John Fiester of Trumansburg Road, Ithaca, said she has written to President Ford and will write Rep. Matthew McHugh (D Ithaca) requesting help in locating her son.

She, said she and. her husband were in Florida when her son left Oregon with the group. When they returned here last week, there were two letters from their son, one written around Sept. 18 before he left and mailed later by a friend, and another, postmarked Enid, Okla., and dated Oct. 12. Both letters were shown to The Journal by Mrs. Fiester.

In the first letter, Michael, known by friends to Ithaca as "Festus," said he was going on a "quest for the truth and my real self." He said he felt "directed to do it" and that it was his own will.

In the second letter, he explained that "in essence we are all endeavoring to be re united with our father creator." He said he was undergoing "the preparations necessary for any human to undergo in order to attain that next level."
In both of the letter. Fiester stressed he is doing this of his own free will  and denied that "hypnosis, death, murder. fraud, etc.,". is involved.'

Eve Ujhelyi's father, who lives in Oregon, said in a telephone interview he has not heard from his daughter. Her sister, Gabriel, who lives in Atlanta, told The Journal she has received two communications. One, mailed from Oregon, was written before the pair left with the group, and the second, dated Oct. 7, was mailed from Yorkville, Ill.

In both letters, Ms. Ujhelyi asked her sister not to worry. In one, she said that she had "gone to see the Wizard and catch a spaceship."
It is not known if Ms. Ujhelyi and Fiester are still together. They told Ms. Carlson before they left that they expected to be separated, and in one of the letters to her sister, Ms. Ujhelyi said that "Festus is 'gone,' too."

Staggs is apparently no longer with the group, Ms. Carlson said. A recent letter, without postmark or date, has been received from him saying that he had "disassociated" himself from any group.

Ms. Carlson said that the three were very optimistic before they left. She stressed that they were "very capable people ... who knew what they were doing." She said she now regrets not having gone to the Oregon meetings to join the group.
"They have been pretty much exposed to the world," she said. "They knew what was real and what wasn't." She said she is not worried about the trio because "these people know when to bail out "

She said she would like to give the pair, "a lot of positive encouragement."

Fiester, Ms. Ujhelyi and Staggs attended three meetings over a two week period before they left on Sept. 18, Ms. Carlson said. She felt that in leaving, and limiting communication, the three were "demanding privacy to do what they want to do with their lives."

Before they left, Ms. Carlson said, they were upset at the criticism by their friends, who thought the whole thing was a hoax. The three people were "totally committed," she said, "and were hoping that their friends would understand."

Reaction from people who knew Ms. Ujhelyi and Fiester in Ithaca was one of surprise at the news. Friends described them as "intelligent and rational" people whom they would not expect to be "taken in" easily.

Ms. Ujhelyi's family was not religious, according to her sister Gabriel. Fiester, according to his mother, was raised to be religious, although he had not practiced any religion for several years. Mrs. Fiester said her son may be "trying to find something." She also said that she believed her son might be "brainwashed."

Besides the letters to Ford and McHugh, Mr. Fiester has gone to see District Attorney Joseph Joch, but Joch was unavailable this morning for comment.

Literature from the group, called by some the "Human Individual Metamorphosis" society, claims the group is not a religious, spiritual or philosophical organization. It claims it is "reality."

Fiester said in one letter that news accounts of the group are "faulty."

The two leaders of the group will be assassinated soon, the literature says, and will return after three days, when their followers will leave in a "space ship."

The two leaders, identified by police as Marshall Herff Applewhite, 43, and Bonnie Lee Trousdale Nettles, 48, both have criminal records. Applewhite spent four months in jail in St. Louis for car theft, and Miss Nettles was charged in Houston on credit card abuse. No record of the disposition of her case exists.

The whereabouts of the almost 90 disciples supposed to be with the couple is not known.

Two lecturers are scheduled to hold a meeting tonight in Oakland , Calif., according to the Portland Oregonian newspaper. The meeting place, the Upstairs Art Association, said it knew nothing about the meeting, according to the Oregonian. The association said a Halloween benefit is planned there tonight.

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