Via JMG:

A Durham man who led a religious group killed a 4-year-old boy who he feared was gay and a 28-year-old woman who couldn't have children and wanted to leave the group, prosecutors said in a court hearing Friday. Prosecutors laid out evidence they believe justifies the death penalty against Peter Lucas Moses, 27, who faces two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Jadon Higganbothan, 4, and Antoinetta Yvonne McKoy, 28. Defense attorneys didn't speak in his behalf at a court hearing Friday.

Prosecutors said the case came to police's attention in February when a young woman escaped from a house at 2109 Pear Tree Lane house, where she had lived with McKoy, Jadon, eight other children and three women charged in connection with the two slayings—Jadon's mother, Vania Rae Sisk, 25, Lavada Quinzetta Harris, 40, and Larhonda Renee Smith, 40.... The women counted themselves as Moses' "wives or common-law wives" and called him "Lord," Cline said. "The arrangement was the women would periodically occupy the master suite with" Moses, Cline said, adding that she wouldn't go so far as to say the group was a cult.

One reason the homicidal chaos on Pear Tree Lane didn't come to the attention of authorities sooner:

The children were homeschooled.