According to police, a former Indianapolis Colts player is accused of beating his 14-year-old son, Bryson. Cheryl Wright, the boy’s grandmother, filed the report June 16, 2024. Shortly afterward, police declared the teen missing when they didn’t find him in his mother’s car just minutes after she left Wright’s home. The next day, CPS agents asked to speak with Bryson at his parent’s property.
Daniel Muir, told case workers, “This is church property that is constantly berated and harassed, … No one is coming on the premises over an allegation.” The head pastor at Straitway Goshen refused to accept the paperwork indicating the two caseworkers had visited the property. In body cam footage, he said “All we do is live a peaceful life, but because of that, we constantly receive foolishness.”
He added “I’m not going to allow you into my home. The court will never come onto this property. It just is what it is.” A few days later, the police issued a silver alert for Bryson, who was still missing. In the photo, Bryson has a swollen black eye. Within a week, after continued refusal to cooperate, a massive raid, featuring 25 squad cars, four SWAT vehicles, and a helicopter, was launched on their compound.
Police arrested Daniel and Kristin Muir. Their warrants featured felony charges of obstruction of justice and misdemeanor charges of domestic battery. Muir had a limited football career. He played four seasons for the Indianapolis Colts. When he retired from the NFL he had played in 56 games over seven seasons with four different teams. He started in Straitway Truth ministries in 2018, his friends thought he was in a cult.
Members of this group, are encouraged to sell their belongings and donate the proceeds to the cult. Members are pressured to move onto religious communes under the direction of Charles Dowell. The leader runs the ministry from a compound in Tennessee. The sect communes grow food, hunt game, embrace alternative medicine, and are expected to break ties with family members not in the group.
The group also emphasizes training with weapons. Former members who leave, are condemned to Hell by leadership. When Muir took his family in 2018 to visit he said, “From the minute we entered the gate, to the minute we left that gate … I experienced nothing but love,” Muir said in a video posted to his YouTube channel.“Truth be told, I have never experienced anything like this in my life.”
He explained “It takes a man to listen to Pastor Dowell. Keyword: a man, because it was hard. I appreciated it, though, because it was straightforward.” “I can understand why people don’t like him,” Muir added. “Like I said, he’s going to tell you the truth just like it is.” A local described the group as a “black militia” and claimed more members were moving to the area.
The compound, which belongs to the Servant Leaders Foundation, was initially purchased by Muir and another Straitway member. They transferred the land at no cost to the foundation, in 2023. Neighbors say that after the raid, they can still hear shooting from the compound: “When you got people coming out with guns to meet you, I’m not quite sure how welcoming that is,” a local said. “That creates a little bit of a fear factor for some folks.”