Roch Thériault was a notorious Canadian cult leader who founded the Ant Hill Kids in 1977, declaring himself “Moïse” (Moses) and preaching apocalyptic beliefs rooted loosely in Seventh‑day Adventism. He led his followers—comprised of multiple wives, concubines, and children—in isolated back‑to‑basics communes, first in Quebec and later in Burnt River, Ontario, controlling them through extreme physical, sexual, and psychological abuse including amputations, mutilations, and forced surgeries without anesthesia. By 1989, the commune was dismantled and Thériault was convicted—first of assault in 1989, then of second‑degree murder in 1993 for killing one of his followers, Solange Boilard—and sentenced to life in prison. He died in 2011 inside Dorchester Penitentiary after being stabbed by a fellow inmate while serving his sentence