Bogus Cure Didn't Save Love Has Won Cult Leader, Found Mummified

More than six months after the mummified remains of Love Has Won cult leader Amy Stroud, referred to by followers as "Mother God," were found in Crestone, the El Paso County coroner's office has released the results of an autopsy. While the cause of death for Stroud, who was also known as Amy Carlson and Lia Carlson, was officially determined to be "natural," a likely contributor was her use of colloidal silver, a supposed miracle cure for cancer and a variety of ailments that's been widely discredited by medical professionals.

According to the coroner's report, eight small bottles of colloidal metal, including silver, copper and titanium, were with the body, which was found wrapped in scarves, blankets and Christmas lights at a Crestone home on April 28 — and Stroud had clearly been ingesting their contents. The autopsy calculated the average daily intake of colloidal silver from oral supplements or the environment generally at 70 micrograms, but Stroud's liver contained 470 micrograms.

Carlson's body was believed to have been transported to Colorado from California by followers waiting for her "ascension." Seven people were subsequently charged with abusing a corpse, but even though the accusations were dropped in September, interest in Love Has Won remained high, as witnessed by a Dateline NBC investigation broadcast the following month. And the group returned to the headlines in early November, when the Saguache County Sheriff's Office suggested a link between Love Has Won and the disappearance of Jenifer Ann "Mountain Sun" Driver, who remains missing.

As for Stroud's reliance on silver colloidal treatment, Dr. Emily Russell, part of the El Paso coroner's office team, told KRDO-TV that "it is touted as being beneficial. It's touted as being anti-bacterial and, you know, preventing cancer. I think that that's why she was taking it.... She had told people that she had metastatic cancer. Then I think she was also doing it potentially as a COVID prevention, but she'd been doing it for a long time."

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, a federal agency, sees that as a very bad idea. The NCCIH page on colloidal silver notes that it "consists of tiny silver particles in a liquid that is sometimes promoted on the Internet as a dietary supplement. However, evidence supporting health-related claims is lacking. In fact, colloidal silver can be dangerous to your health.... Colloidal silver can cause serious side effects. The most common is argyria, a bluish-gray discoloration of the skin, which is usually permanent. Colloidal silver can cause poor absorption of some drugs, such as certain antibiotics and thyroxine (used to treat thyroid deficiency). The FDA also warned in 1999 that colloidal silver isn’t safe or effective for treating any disease or condition. The FDA and the Federal Trade Commission have taken action against a number of companies for making misleading claims about colloidal silver products."

Nonetheless, silver colloidal products are readily available at major retailers such as King Soopers, which offers up "Source Naturals Ultra Colloidal Silver Liquid" and "Peaceful Mountain Ionic Colloidal Silver Dietary Supplement," and Natural Grocers, whose "Colloidal Silver 30 Ppm" comes in an eight-ounce container.

Scads of national websites celebrate the therapy, too — among them Connecticut-based Marsillo Chiropractic. Under the heading "Colloidal Silver...Nature's Healer," the site insists that "it's able to fight over 650 disease causing bacteria & viruses, without any known side effects or drug interactions." Among the conditions that colloidal silver is said to aid are acne, arthritis, athlete's foot, colds, sinus infections, strep, staph, tonsillitis, colitis, shingles, parasitic infections, hepatitis, Lyme disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, ear problems, eye infections, the flu, gingivitis, hay fever, herpes, ulcers, urinary or bladder infections, vaginal yeast infections and warts. This ballyhoo is followed by a disclaimer: "The information found here is for educational use only and is not meant to be a prescription for any disease or illness.... These statements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease."

As for the whereabouts of "Mountain Sun" Driver, Saguache County Sheriff Dan Warwick told the Alamosa News that "it's looking like this might be a self-inflicted situation." Among the evidence cited by Warwick is a social media message in which Driver wrote, "I will be leaving my body and going to my star system at the end of September. I stayed to get the most of my journey here but am tired of the upkeep of the vessel."

Although the Driver investigation remains open, Warwick doesn't expect a resolution anytime soon. In his words: "With the time of year and the movement of wildlife in the area, it could be a very long time until we know something for sure."

Just as was the case for Mother God.