Researching Ricky Rodriguez

Rodriguez and his parents David Berg and Karen Zerby, both of whom were cult group leaders, traveled across the world while they were members of the cult, which was formerly known as Children of God (COG). Berg believed Rodriguez was called upon to become a prophet during biblical End Times. During his early childhood, Rodriguez was brought up in a heavily promiscuous environment and was sexually abused by numerous people, including a cohort of nannies, as described in the COG-published document titled "The Davidito Book". In 1999, he married, left The Family and went to live in the United States but he struggled to adjust to life outside the cult and sought revenge for his abuse. Rodriguez left his wife in Tacoma, Washington, and traveled across the U.S. in an attempt to find Zerby. After learning his former nanny Angela M. Smith was in Tucson, Arizona, he stayed with people he knew there until he settled in an apartment. On January 7, 2005, he recorded a video, saying he needed to take retribution for abuse in The Family—including his own—alluding to murder. The next day, Rodriguez invited Smith to his home for dinner, where he stabbed her to death before driving to Blythe, California, and dying by suicide.

The Family urged its members to disregard media reports about Rodriguez and Smith, and a spokesperson for the group said reports neglected to show Smith as a victim. Former members' reactions to the death ranged from calling it "a monumental event" in the group's history to a devastating situation that was "the only way anybody's listening" to stories of abuse within The Family. Experts on cults noted that Rodriguez's anger towards The Family was understandable, with cult specialist Rick Alan Ross describing the case as a major example of someone who suffered in "one of the most horrifically abusive and destructive cults in American history".