Then, in late October 2021, Ricks joined the JFK-QAnon cult where the group’s leader, Protzman, known to his followers as Negative 48, predicted JFK and JFK Jr. would rise from the dead.For over a month, Ricks and her two children stayed with the group. The group was holed up in hotels in downtown Dallas, and there were reports of drug use, all-night numerology sessions, and members drinking bleach from a communal bowl. Eventually, however, things soured. Ricks was ejected from the group, and members accused her of abusing drugs and alcohol, according to Telegram chats and text messages reviewed by VICE News. With no money and nowhere to go, Ricks appealed to an online group that had formed to try and help families affected by Protzman’s cult.One woman, known in the group as NavyMom, volunteered to take Ricks and her two children into her home in El Reno, Oklahoma.What happened next was the culmination of her extremist views and desperate outlook: On August 8, Ricks tried to kidnap her own children.
The woman who took them in also claimed that Ricks was abusing her children, by pretending to breastfeed them even though she was not producing any milk.“I’m a mom, I know what it’s like to have children and the whole breastfeeding part. Her boobs never changed size, nor did she ever weep,” the woman said. “She was not breastfeeding, a six-year-old and a four-year-old.” The family member VICE News spoke with also alleged the same thing.On December 22, the Oklahoma Child Protective Services arrived at the house and placed the kids with a foster family in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
She even started a crowdfunding campaign titled “Help Rescue My Children Kidnapped by Traffickers.” To date, she has received just over $2,000 in donations via GiveSendGo.
Now, the two children are doing well with their foster family, according to the family member who spoke to VICE News. They’re a little behind in school, and are scared of eating meat because Ricks allegedly told them fast food chains sell human flesh, but are doing their best to have normal childhoods. Ricks is currently in prison in Oklahoma, awaiting trial. She will be back in court on September 15 for a preliminary hearing. VICE News was unable to contact Ricks for comment.While she waits for her trial to commence, Meyer and Oldham continue to try and turn her into the victim in order to further their own crusades against child protective services.“The bottom line is that Samantha is ill, mentally ill,” the family member told VICE News. “She's suffering from paranoid delusions, alcoholism, addiction and she needs help. Instead of everyone trying to make her a martyr, we need to protect these kids and if she's ever going to be a healthy part of these kids' lives, which I am not opposed to, she just needs help.”Despite everything, many of Ricks’ online supporters believe she is the victim and that her children were taken from her illegally.