Boarding school staffer left Missouri. Now he’s charged with abusing kids in Kentucky

A former staff member at Agape Boarding School in Missouri who later opened his own Christian school in Kentucky has been charged with abusing students there.

Kelly Vanderkooi, 52, was indicted by a grand jury in Kentucky last month on 21 counts of first-degree criminal abuse of a child 12 or under and 10 counts of fourth-degree assault (child abuse). Vanderkooi, who former Agape students say ran the boot camp on the Cedar County campus until the early 2000s, has operated Pilgrim’s Rest Ministry of Reconciliation School in Dundee, Kentucky, since 2005.

The charges come after a lengthy investigation by Kentucky State Police late last year. Vanderkooi’s son and daughter-in-law also were charged. The three were arrested last week.

“Detectives initiated an investigation at Pilgrim’s Rest School in Dundee (Ohio Co) after Social Services investigated allegations of abuse,” said a news release from the Kentucky State Police. “The investigation started in October of 2022 and detectives presented the case before the Ohio County Grand Jury.”

It’s the second time in as many months that a former Agape Boarding School staffer has been charged with crimes against children.

In mid-November, Steve Wukmer, 66, was charged in Alabama with 215 counts of possession of child pornography. Agape confirmed that Wukmer worked at the school near Stockton from April 2005 to February 2006 and said he left to become an assistant director of a small boarding school in Ohio. He also served as a children’s minister in that state, according to Alabama authorities.

Agape’s attorney, John Schultz, said in November that his clients weren’t aware of any complaints against Wukmer during his time at the school. Wukmer mainly worked in the classroom with other staff present, Schultz said.

Schultz declined to comment Wednesday on the charges involving Vanderkooi.

Vanderkooi and his son and daughter-in-law had been held since last Thursday on $50,000 cash bond and were released on their own recognizance Tuesday, according to media reports in Kentucky. Their next court date is scheduled for Feb. 7.

Johnathan V. Vanderkooi, 28, was charged with eight counts of first-degree criminal abuse of a child 12 or under and three counts of fourth-degree assault (child abuse). His wife, Amanda, 27, was charged with one count of first-degree sexual abuse.

Documents filed with the Kentucky secretary of state show that Vanderkooi incorporated a nonprofit in March 2005 called Pilgrim’s Rest Baptist Association. The corporation’s purpose, according to the filing, includes “the establishing and maintaining of Christian boarding schools, orphanages, shelters, Baptist Bible institutes, leadership academies and the maintaining of missionary activities in the United States and any foreign country.”

Vanderkooi is listed in the corporation’s April 2022 annual report as its president.

Pilgrim’s Rest is a private school and not licensed by the state of Kentucky, said Susan Dunlap, with the office of public affairs inside the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

“The Department for Community Based Services did assist with moving two children out of the school and into licensed facilities,” Dunlap said in an email to The Star.

Agape Boarding School has been consumed by abuse allegations from former and current students for the past two years. In September, the Missouri attorney general and the Department of Social Services filed an injunction in Cedar County saying the students’ safety was in jeopardy and the school should close.

That case is still playing out in court. Tom Pyle, the second judge to handle the case, retired at the end of the year, and Jacob Dawson, who replaced Pyle, recused himself on Tuesday, citing a conflict.

Missouri’s new attorney general, Andrew Bailey, briefly addressed the Agape case after his inaugural ceremony in Jefferson City on Tuesday. When asked, he told reporters he planned to continue the state’s case against the school.

Many men who attended the school in their youth and have spoken with The Star since the fall of 2020 said they were subjected to physical restraints, extreme workouts, long days of manual labor, and food and water withheld as punishment. They said students suffered constant berating and mind games, and some were physically and sexually abused by staff and other youth.

Several students who attended Agape while Vanderkooi worked at the school told The Star that Vanderkooi ran the school’s boot camp and was, at times, abusive to students.

In 2021, five Agape staffers, including one who still works there, were charged with low-level felonies of physically assaulting students.

At a Dec. 8 preliminary hearing for three of those staff members, Scott Dumar, the school’s medical coordinator, and Everett Graves pleaded guilty to lesser misdemeanors and received two years’ probation. The case against Christopher McElroy was dismissed when his alleged victim did not show up to testify. Seth Duncan pleaded guilty on Dec. 14 to one misdemeanor and also received two years’ probation.

The case against former staffer Trent Hartman is set for a hearing on Jan. 9.

And David Smock, a Stockton doctor who for many years treated students at Agape, was charged in late 2021 and early last year with more than a dozen child sex crimes in two counties. He remains in custody, and those cases are still in court.