COVID has killed more
than a million people in the U.S.
since the start of the pandemic.
It is currently the third
leading cause of death in this country.
And yet
since the beginning,
many have chosen
to embrace misinformation
about the virus and vaccine.
Randi Kaye now
has the story of one 20 year old who's
been missing for more than two years,
ever since he succumbed
to the teachings
of a conspiracy theorists
and thought
what he thought
would be an island paradise.
We were out of town.
We came back from Chicago.
He was gone.
Abigail and John Damian
haven't seen their son
Isaac since September. Of 20. 20.
That's when they say
he ran off to Hawaii
to follow his so-called guru.
I've known about the end times
for many years.
That guru
Matthew Melo
he goes by the name Mordechai
Eliezer on social media,
including his YouTube channel,
where he offers
sermons about what he says
is Satan's plan to destroy society.
And false claims
about the dangers of the COVID
19 vaccine,
which he calls the mark of the beast.
Today, people don't even know
what the mark of the beast is.
Those who do still don't.
They think it's a RFID chip
or something of that manner.
Melo had posted this
recruitment video online,
encouraging men to join him
and sail to the South Pacific.
In it, he suggested society was doomed.
I'd like to extend an invitation.
I'm basically the coordinator
of this trip
back home in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
20 year old Isaac Damian signed up.
His parents
say his mental health had worsened
since the pandemic began
and that he'd mistakenly come to believe
the vaccine
was the government's way
of controlling the population.
Even the COVID test scared him.
He'd been encouraging his parents
to sell all their belongings
and move to a bunker.
At the time,
they had no idea
he'd been listening to the
teachings of Matthew Melo.
Labor Day weekend 20, 20.
Isaac left home without warning.
He left behind this note
for his younger siblings,
warning them, Do not get the vaccine
or you won't make it to heaven.
Author and journalist
David Wolman investigated this case
for The New York Times.
This
guru clown
who was based in Hawaii at the time.
He convinced them to fly to Hawaii
and join him on this
journey across
a huge portion of the Pacific Ocean
and to find some COVID free place
where they could start again.
And escape Satan's grand plan.
Isaac called his parents
on October 4th 2020 from Hawaii
to say he'd be off the grid
for about 30 days.
He would not say who he was with
or where he was going.
He said it was better if he didn't,
but he always said,
I wish I could tell you.
This is one of the last text messages
Isaac sent his mother.
October 4th. 20, 20.
A photo of a giant fish he'd caught.
His family never heard from him again.
They would learn later
from sheriff's investigators
that he'd connected with Matthew Melo,
who had arranged
for a couple of boat captains
to sail him and his recruits
to the South Pacific,
where COVID hadn't taken hold.
Isaac and another man
from Rochester, New York, named Shukri
Abdul Rashard would go, and Captain
Mike Schmitz boat
while Melo left days later
in another boat.
They actually had a really good time.
He, too. We caught a lot of fish.
Also, The trip took a dark turn, went.
After almost two months at sea,
Captain Schmidt
approached the island of Wallace,
a French territory
between Hawaii and New Zealand.
Schmidt says when he alerted
local authorities about their arrival,
Isaac and
Abdul Rashid
panicked about having to take
a COVID test to enter.
He says they did the unthinkable
and suddenly jumped overboard.
They were afraid of taking the COVID test
as it being the mark of the beast.
They had gotten involved with the guru.
They were convinced that
for sure that the PCR test had
there is things inside.
Along with the vaccine
and the vaccine route
wasn't even really out.
Schmitz says he called
Wallace Island
authorities for help
and flagged down
a fishing boat to search.
He believes
the men had a plan to slip into oblivion
with Melo
giving up all ties to the United States.
They had really been led astray by this
Instagram
era wannabe profit guru
who for some strange reason
just spoke in just the right way
and manner and with the right diction
to draw these two young men in.
It was really this witch's
brew of COVID conspiracy theory meets End
Times, Prophecy meets
kind of DIY Christian fundamentalism,
meets a lot of stress
and turmoil regarding the 2020 election.
Melo didn't respond
to our repeated requests for comment.
According to this French police report,
Captain Schmidt was interrogated
and authorities
confiscated his nine millimeter
pistol,
laptop and Garmin
GPS device from the boat.
Schmidt was eventually cleared
in that investigation.
I never did anything to harm
these guys, ever.
Dove teams searched the area for the men,
but found nothing.
Isaac's parents
filed this missing person
report with the Kent County
Sheriff's Department in Michigan
and have appealed to the State Department
and French authorities for help.
But years later,
they are no closer to finding their son.
We do have hope he's alive
because there hasn't
been any evidence to prove otherwise.
It's possible that he wanted
to go off the grid
and he's in a manic state.
It's possible that he was unwillingly
kidnaped.
It is possible that he drowned
if somebody said to you, your child
probably died,
would you just accept that and move on?
It's not something we can do
Randi,
I mean, there's for parents,
it's just it's an impossible situation
for them.
Any idea where this so-called guru is
There are a lot of questions
about where he is, Anderson,
and a lot of questions
still about this investigation.
Isaac's parents
got a letter from French authorities
saying that they close the investigation
and they basically concluded that Isaac
and the other man drowned.
His parents are now asking
and considering
an appeal in that case
and maybe they would reopen
that investigation.
We also know from Kent County
Sheriff's Office in Michigan
that their missing person
investigation is still open.
But as far as where
Matthew Miller, the so-called guru, is,
David Wolman of The New York Times,
who wrote that article for The Times,
he actually found him and spoke to him
on an island in French Polynesia.
He said he's still there
peddling his nonsense and talking
false claims about COVID 19.
He's riding his bike around,
according to Waldman,
handing out leaflets
telling parents
not to get their children vaccinated.
Talking about the Illuminati,
talking about the mark of the beast
and David
Wolman also asked him, Anderson,
about these men and their disappearance.
And apparently he told them
that he referred to them as his brothers
and he said that they died
in God's good graces.
But of course, Anderson,
we don't know if they're dead or alive
because as you heard Isaac's mom say, no
remains have been found.
And it's just it's awful.
Randi Kaye, I really appreciate it.
Thank you.