Cause of death revealed for mummified cult leader found in rural Colorado

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- A forensic pathologist from the El Paso County Coroner's Office completed the autopsy for a woman found mummified in Moffat back in April of 2021, finding she essentially died of organ failure due to anorexia, alcohol abuse, and the chronic ingestion of colloidal silver.

Despite claims that she had cancer, Dr. Emily Russell did not find any evidence of cancer when she examined Amy Stroud, who also went by Amy Carlson and Lia Carlson.

Stroud was the leader of a spiritual group or cult called, Love Has Won, and she also went by "Mother God" in that group, according to the Saguache County Sheriff's Office.

Stroud's body was found in a Moffat home in late April with surviving members of Love Has Won. Deputies found her body wrapped in scarves, blankets, and Christmas lights. Her face had also been covered with makeup. She appeared to be wearing a crown as well.

Seven members of the group were charged with one count of abuse of a corpse and two counts of child abuse, as court documents revealed two children were home with the cult leader's remains when deputies arrived.

All charges against those seven were dropped weeks later. Officials have declined to comment on why those charges were dropped, but Dr. Russell said it appeared the people who were in possession of Stroud's body went to great lengths to honor her in death.

"I think that they were really trying to take care of her. Reportedly, they were reading to her and spending time with her body," Dr. Russell said, adding that they had carefully applied makeup to her face and law enforcement reported that they were even trying to rub oils into her skin, possibly to keep it hydrated as it dried out during the decomposition process.

Despite previous reports that her eyes had been removed, Dr. Russell clarified that her eyes were still in tact when she performed the autopsy.

"Part of the decomposition is that the eyes will just sort of dry out," Dr. Russell said. "So, it's not uncommon when we have folks who have decomposed to the level that she was decomposed for us to not be able to appreciate their eyes, but it doesn't mean that any trauma occurred to them."

Stroud's body was a blue-gray color when she died, due to chronic ingestion of colloidal silver. Dr. Russell said she received reports that Stroud believed ingesting silver had health benefits, which is likely why was ingesting it.

"It is touted as being beneficial, it's touted as being anti-bacterial and you know, preventing cancer," Dr. Russell said. "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."

Dr. Russell clarified that there are no health benefits to ingesting colloidal silver, and it largely contributed to Stroud's death.

After completing thousands of autopsies over her roughly 10 years with the El Paso County Coroner's Office, Dr. Russell said she has never had to test for colloidal silver before. She sent samples off for testing to a national lab and they had to actually create a new test to even prove that she had that in her system when she died.

"That contributed to the length of time that it took to get the report back," Dr. Russell said, adding that this report took roughly seven months to complete, which is months longer than most reports take.

Stroud was 45 years old when she died. Despite being roughly 5-foot-5, her remains weighed only 75 pounds when Dr. Russell completed the autopsy. She added that a lot of weight can be lost during the decomposition process, but she appeared very thin before her death, which Dr. Russell believes was due to an eating disorder.

"You can see in the videos over time that she is wasting away," Dr. Russell said, referring to the Youtube videos posted of Stroud related to her role in Love Has Won. She added that the videos also appeared to show that Stroud had a pattern of alcohol abuse, which contributed to her organ failure as well.

Dr. Russell ultimately listed that Stroud's death was natural and she did not find any signs of trauma during her investigation.