As Elizabeth lay dying, her family turned to God. Now, 14 people face trial

In October 2022, Jason Richard Struhs sat in jail with his head bowed, his hands clasped on his forehead.

His eight-year-old daughter Elizabeth was dead. And he, along with his wife and 12 other members of a fringe religious group, were accused of killing her.

With a camera beaming his every move into a Toowoomba courtroom, he removed his glasses to wipe his eyes.

The prosecution was presenting its case to a magistrate, who would soon commit Mr Struhs to trial.

Police alleged Elizabeth, a type 1 diabetic, died on January 7, 2022, after going days without insulin.

As her health deteriorated, the group, known as “the Saints”, allegedly prayed next to her instead of seeking medical treatment.

The girl would have spent her final days suffering from “insatiable” thirst, weakness and stomach pains, the court has heard.

Just as her parents’ beliefs sat outside mainstream religion, the criminal trial will bend the conventions of the Queensland court system.

But before the trial begins on Wednesday afternoon, the group has made unusual requests of the court.

Mr Struhs, 52, facing a murder charge, last week sat alone in the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre as he appeared via video in the Supreme Court in Brisbane.

Other members of his congregation were split into two groups at different prisons. The group’s leader, Brendan Luke Stevens, 62, who also faces a charge of murder, sat with the men.

Elizabeth’s mother, 49-year-old Kerrie Elizabeth Struhs, who is accused of manslaughter, appeared on another video link with the women.

At an earlier committal hearing, a magistrate said Ms Struhs had gone into detail about being told by “her husband that if Elizabeth did not get her insulin, she would die”.

The magistrate said she had also spoken of “Mr Struhs becoming a believer and, in her words, receiving the Holy Spirit”.

Elizabeth’s mother “thought there was a possibility God could take things to the extreme – meaning death”, a magistrate told the hearing.

Ms Struhs allegedly actively encouraged and supported the cessation of insulin to her daughter.

In the matter of a co-accused, the court also heard Elizabeth had nearly died on a previous occasion from “similar symptoms”.

In recent days, the self-represented group wrote a letter from prison to Supreme Court Justice Martin Burns.

The other members of the group are charged with manslaughter: Zachary Alan Struhs, 21; Loretta Mary Stevens, 67; Therese Maria Stevens, 36; Andrea Louise Stevens, 34; Acacia Naree Stevens, 31; Camellia Claire Stevens, 28; Alexander Francis Stevens, 25; Sebastian James Stevens, 23; Keita Courtney Martin, 22; Lachlan Stuart Schoenfisch, 33; and Samantha Emily Schoenfisch, 25.

They have pleaded not guilty.

In the letter, they requested a four-hour meeting in the Supreme Court building before the trial. And they asked for different seating arrangements, raising concerns about officers being close to them.

“The configuration ... has had you seated at a long table, and you quite rightly acknowledged the Corrective Services officers have tried to maintain a respectful distance, but you’ve felt restricted in your capacity to freely discuss issues,” the justice said.

The group also queried the availability of snacks and refreshments, and the need to be back to prison in time for their evening meal.

Burns granted the meeting request. He also said each day of the trial would finish by 4.15pm, to ensure the defendants were back to their prisons in time for dinner.

The trial, expected to run for three months, will examine Elizabeth’s death, and the group of which her family were part.

A courtroom will be modified to accommodate the larger number of defendants.

Photos of Elizabeth with her family show a happy, smiling girl. She’s pictured on a scooter, wearing a pink Dora the Explorer hat. In another, she grins to the camera as she sits with her older sister, Jayde.

Jayde says her younger sister was a bubbly, energetic soul who was always happy.

In an emotional interview with A Current Affair, Jayde says she discovered after her sister’s death that the eight-year-old had told people she wanted to be a doctor to help others, given her diagnosis.

“She could have been so much for this world.”

Jayde describes how the Struhs family originally attended a mainstream church, but they and another family separated from the parishioners, claiming the church was “corrupt”. Members of that other family are among those charged over Elizabeth’s death.

Jayde says the families no longer celebrate Christmas and their one purpose is to serve God.

Police say they have never dealt with a case like Elizabeth’s, and prosecutors expect the evidence to be lengthy, with hours of recordings and 60 witnesses.

The group has repeatedly declined legal representation.

But the case bears similarities to other faith-based matters in which believers have not pursued medical treatment, and in some instances have relied on divine healing, QUT associate professor Alex Deagon says. There were also cases of Jehovah’s Witnesses refusing blood transfusions.

“But the case is more complicated for children because, legally, they don’t necessarily have the capacity to choose or refuse medical treatment,” he says.

“In those cases, the courts have sometimes stepped in to say, well, we’re going to exercise our special jurisdiction in the best interests of the child.”

Deagon says in the Struhs case, the courts might face the issue of having no established religious doctrines a judge or prosecutor could refer to, because it is a fringe group.

The Queensland government introduced legislation in 2019 to expand the definition of murder to include reckless indifference to human life.

University of Southern Queensland associate professor Andrew Hemming says the government made the change taking into account some child killings resulted in an offender being convicted of manslaughter rather than murder because prosecutors had struggled to establish intent.

“To the best of my knowledge, we haven’t had a situation where people are invoking God rather than what they’ve [allegedly] done,” he says.