Her allegations brought down megachurch pastor Bruxy Cavey. Then the anonymous trolls came for her.
As a young girl, Ashley Gee knew she didn’t have to conform to the strict dictates of evangelical Christianity. As a young mom, she was in awe of the family she had made for herself and her three children outside of the church.
Her husband, Tom Gee, was the pastor of Mountain View Baptist Church, and she had chosen to be baptized at the First Assembly of God church in the woods between the family’s house and the church, and for a long period of time had been faithfully attending her children’s Sunday school classes.
“I was raised as a good Christian,” said Ashley. “I never realized it had any spiritual ramifications. Not until the last one.”
But that one was a long time coming. Ashley never did find out who was behind the anonymous online bullying that would eventually lead her to the brink of suicide. She didn’t learn that a group of disgruntled believers were plotting revenge against her until they were in her home, armed with guns and holding her husband at gunpoint.
“I still don’t believe the person was Tom,” Ashley said. “And I don’t believe I ever did know who it was. But I do know that I wanted to get rid of him.”
On Tuesday, Ashley was back on her front porch, alone, with a gun in each hand. She had been in shock all day.
“I still don’t believe this was Tom,” she said. “But I know he did it to make it look like he was guilty of something. He was a victim, too.”
Ashley and Tom and their children had just finished playing a game of Wii bowling on the grass when a stranger approached her and told her “a friend” had called. It turned out to be the pastor of Mountain View.
“He said he’d been talking to Tom all day about getting a house together, and that Tom had told him a lot of things,” Ashley recalled. “And then he said Tom was planning to go ahead and close down the church and move the family into the house he was buying.”
The church was in the