California Suicide Group Ran Web Programming Service
****California Suicide Group Ran Web Programming Service 03/27/97 TOKYO,=20
JAPAN, 1997
MAR 27 (NB) -- By Martyn Williams. The deaths of at least 39 people in=20
Rancho Santa Fe, California, in what appears to be a mass suicide, has a=20
connection with the Internet. The group were apparently members of a=20
religious group, World Wide Higher Source, and that they financed=20
operations by running a Web site design and programming service, "Higher=20
Source Contract Services."=20
The company has designed a handful of Web sites including those of the=20
San Diego Polo Club, a
Christian music site called Keep The Faith, a company specializing in=20
British classic cars called British Masters, and a camera retailer,=20
Newsbytes has learned.=20
The group has its own domain, highersource.com, and usually runs a Web=20
server from the address
http://www.highersource.com , but this appears to be offline at present,=20
as are some of the client Web sites which are also run from the machine.=20
The computer in question was, however, still connected to the Internet=20
when Newsbytes checked at 8am EST.=20
Exhaustive Internet searches have revealed little else about the group,=20
and nothing related to religion. Apart from the group's own Web site,=20
for its Web design business, the only other related items are a large=20
number of messages on Usenet from someone appeared related to the group=20
and its business.=20
An idea of the secrecy of the group can be found in the information=20
submitted in the domain name database when it acquired the
highersource.com domain name. "We have no one here of that name and I=20
don't know where the gentlemen ever got that number," a
Ramada Inn employee answered when we attempted to contact "Ben Guiat,"=20
the listed contact person.=20
The e-mail listed as a contact, font@cris.com, appeared in 27 different=20
Usenet messages alongside the name "Stewart Craft." All the
messages found were concerned with Web programming. The most recent=20
messages were posted exactly one month ago, on February
27th. Newsbytes did discover a mirror of the down Higher Source Web site=20
is available at http://www.cris.com/~font , but reveals little
about the group except for its Web design service.=20
(19970327/Reported By Newsbytes News Network: http://www.newsbytes.com=20
/CULT970327/PHOTO)=20
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--- Ryan R. Snyder rye@denver.net Internet Specialist
"To believe is very dull. To doubt is intensely engrossing. To be on the=20
alert is to live, to be lulled into security is to die." -Oscar Wilde