WARSAW, Ind. -- Hobart Freeman, leader of the controversial Faith Assembly sect that teaches members to shun medical care, died Saturday night at home. He was 64.
Freeman, who founded the religious sect which practices faith healing and shuns doctors and hospitals, apparently died in his sleep at his home0near Shoe Lake in northern Kosciusko County.
Relatives told Kosciusko County authorities, including Coroner Gary Eastlund, Freeman had been ill about a month.
Eastlund said an autopsy showed Freeman, who had a history of heart disease, apparently died of severe cardiovascular disease and mild bronchial pneumonia.
The coroner said there was no way to immediately determine whether medical neglect hastened death, but added authorities might know after results of tissue studies in a week or so.
Kosciusko County police and Eastlund were called to the Freeman residence where0a daughter, who was at her father's bedside, said he died about 8:30 p.m. Saturday.
The family said no doctors attended Freeman during his month's illness.
Freeman was indicted Oct. 17 on charges in connection with the death of a 15-year-old girl whose parents were members of the Faith Assembly and did not seek medical treatment for their daughter.
The Kosciusko County grand jury charged Freeman with aiding or inducing reckless homicide, criminal recklessness and neglect of a dependent.
He pleaded innocent to the charges.
Two Faith Assembly couples have been convicted of child neglect and reckless homicide in the deaths of children who died without the aid of medical treatment.
Authorities have said that as many as 90 deaths have occurred because members of the Faith Assembly, based in northern Indiana, followed Freeman's preachings and practiced faith healing without seeking medical care.
Many of the deaths were among women in childbirth and young children.
Freeman, born at Ewing in northeast Kentucky, studied at Dupont Manual Training High School near Louisville.
He said he made a conversion to Christ in 1952 and began a dedicated and fast-paced study of theology. He completed graduate studies in 1961 and became an instructor at Grace Theological Seminary at Winona Lake near Warsaw.
In 1971, he founded the Faith Assembly with Melvin Greider at Wilmont. The sect claims more than 2,000 members in the Midwest.
