Christian diet guru Gwen Shamblin Lara among seven killed in Tennessee plane crash
A former dietician who formed a controversial church died Saturday, along with her husband and five others, in a Tennessee plane crash.
Gwen Shamblin Lara, husband Joe Lara, church leaders David and Jennifer Martin, Jonathan and Jessica Walters, and Lara’s son-in-law, Brandon Hannah, were on the plane when it crashed into Percy Priest Lake around 11 a.m., according to the Rutherford County Fire & Rescue.
The private jet had taken off from Smyrna Airport, just outside of Nashville, and was headed for Palm Beach, Florida.
All seven on board are presumed dead and officials began pulling airplane debris and human remains out of the lake Sunday.
Shamblin, who founded Remnant Fellowship Church in 1999 after the success of her Christian diet program “The Weigh Down Workshop,” was dogged by accusations that her church was more of a cult than a religious institution, according to News 5 in Nashville. Followers claimed to view her as a prophet and the station previously reported a recording in which she praised parents for locking up their child as a form of obedience training.
Those parents, Joseph and Sonya Smith, were convicted of murdering their son in 2007. The Remnant Church was raided as part of the investigation.
‘Tarzan’ actor Joe Lara killed as plane crashes into Tennessee lake
During an appearance on Larry King’s show, Shamblin told the interviewer that she looked at concentration camps in devising her weight loss program.
“How in the Holocaust did you have all these people getting down real skinny?” she said on the show. “They ate less food.”
