A former member of an alleged cult-like Riverside County religious group is speaking out as detectives investigate the group’s possible link to the disappearance of a man who was last seen alive two years ago.
Emilio Ghanem, 40, was reported missing in May 2023. He was a former member of the Hemet-based religious group called “His Way Spirit Led Assemblies.” His disappearance is now being investigated as a possible homicide.
According to his family, Ghanem had spent the last two decades of his life as a devout member of the religious group, whose members worked at a pest control company called Fullshield Inc., now known as “Maxguard,” according to the Redlands Police Department.
In April 2023, Ghanem left both the religious group and MaxGuard behind and moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to reunite with his family and begin a new chapter in his life. His sisters said Ghanem had started his own pest control company in Nashville and went back to SoCal to open a satellite office with the intent of recapturing some of his old clients.
His family said the move allegedly drew the attention of Maxguard, which served him with a cease and desist letter on May 8, 2023, accusing him of competing with the company for business.
While visiting the Inland Empire, Ghanem was staying at an Airbnb in Moreno Valley. On May 25, 2023, he met with another former member for coffee at a Starbucks in Redlands. The former member spoke to KTLA’s Mary Beth McDade, but did not wish to be identified out of safety concerns.
After the Starbucks meeting, Ghanem had plans to meet with a high-ranking member of the religious group, believing the person wanted help to leave the organization as he had, but the former member he met at Starbucks that day believes it was a ruse.
“Emilio asked me about him on a couple of occasions, what I thought,” he recalled. “When Emilio was telling me he was going to help him escape and get out of there, I never felt that to be true. I just felt it was going to end badly and I think that’s what happened.”
Ghanem was driving a rented Nissan Frontier pickup truck that surveillance cameras captured later that day in Grand Terrace. However, that was the last time he was seen alive.
For years, Ghanem’s case was considered a missing persons case. On Aug. 1, 2025, the case turned into a possible homicide after Redlands Police found Ghanem’s truck. Inside, evidence in connection with the case was found, but detectives have not revealed details on the discovery.
They’re now focusing their investigation on “His Way Spirit Led Assemblies” and its leaders, Pastor Darryl Muzic Martin, 57, and his wife, Shelly Bailey “Kathryn” Martin, 62, who calls herself a prophetess. The former member said followers of the group reportedly believe the prophetess is God on Earth.
“Her and God are one, I guess you could say,” he said. “So when the spirit of God comes over her, everything changes in her, like her voice changes.”
He claims the couple operates the ministry like a cult.
“If Prophetess or Pastor said, ‘You’re doing this,’ then you’re doing it,” he said of their orders. “There wasn’t an option.”
He also said they were constantly preparing for the end of the world.
“They have supplies, so if you have to be on the run or not eat, or the mark of the beast comes, there was plenty of food for the main members,” he explained.
He said many members lived in large groups at various properties throughout the Inland Empire, but all the children reportedly lived with the Martins in their sizable home.
“At a young age, they would be living there with the main pastors and following whatever rules they have for them,” he said. “It was always young kids.”
Any children who disobeyed the adults would reportedly be punished, he said.
The former member decided to leave the group because he said priorities changed when they became too focused on earning money, most of which came from Maxguard, the pest control company. However, he claimed the company was initially started by Ghanem.
The company grew quickly and was earning almost $2 million a year, he said. All the funds would reportedly be given to the pastors.
“Emilio was very happy that he started it because it was helping the ministry out,” he said. “It was feeding the ministry and bringing in good money over to them. So even though Emilio would do $20,000 to $35,000 a month in route completions and sell stuff, according to my understanding, he told me he would get $100 a week for it.”
Since finding Ghanem’s truck, with help from the FBI, police have executed search warrants at the group’s Hemet property, believed to be its headquarters and the group’s Anza property.
“During the Hemet and Anza searches, detectives recovered several illegal firearms, including converted fully automatic rifles, short-barreled rifles and unserialized ‘ghost guns’ along with electronic devices and other digital evidence,” police said.
On Aug. 27, 2025, police confirmed Darryl Muzic Martin was arrested on illegal weapons charges, and his wife, Shelly Bailey “Kat” Martin, was arrested, but later released due to what police called a “medical episode.”
Several others were also detained or arrested, though they were later released and no charges have been filed yet.
Detectives are also looking into two separate cases that have ties to the His Way Spirit Led Assemblies group.
Police in Colton are pursuing new leads in the case of Timothy Thomas, a 4-year-old boy who died in January 2010 after his parents gave custody of the child to the religious group.
“At the time of his death, temporary custody … had been signed over from his birth parents to leaders of ‘His Way Spirit Led Assemblies,’” police said. The San Bernardino County Coroner listed the boy’s cause of death as “natural.”
In the second case, Redlands detectives are working with Claremont police to investigate the disappearance of Ruben Moreno, 49, of Perris, who was a one-time member of the religious group. He went missing in 2017 and was last seen at a Claremont residence associated with His Way Spirit Led Assemblies.
Anyone with information about Ghanem’s disappearance is urged to call the Redlands Police Detective Bureau at 909-551-4424.
Anyone with information about Thomas’ death can call the Colton Police Department at 909-370-5140. Those with information on Moreno’s case can call the Claremont Police Department at 909-399-5411.
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