Matt Harmon is the son of Hank and Diane Harmon. The Harmons have had a close friendship with Debbie-Jo and Joe White spanning decades and have served Kanakuk in many capacities. Hank and Matt Harmon both served as trip guides and held various other roles with Kanakuk Kamps and Kanakuk International. Matt worked for Kanakuk beginning in 1995 through the mid-2000s. He was on staff at K-WILD where he was dismissed only to go work at K-Colorado under directors Jamie Jo and Andy Braner as a ropes course instructor. He also worked with youth at Highland Park K-LIFE in Dallas, TX, and private schools Trinity Christian Academy (TCA) in Addison, Texas, and Providence Christian School (PCS) in Dallas, Texas. Matt Harmon was arrested in Dallas County on May 28, 2024, for a second-degree felony sexual assault of a female child and since released on $40,000 bond on May 29, 2024. 

The Harmons maintain a residence located directly adjacent to Kanakuk with access to the K-2 campground. It is referred to by Kanakuk staff as the “Harmon Cabin.” Hank Harmon held the title of “Trip Director” for Kanakuk Kamps from 1971-2011 and was present as a chaperone on many international trips during which victims allege Pete Newman abused them and created child sexual abuse material (“CSAM”). 

Like both his parents, Matt Harmon worked at Trinity Christian Academy (TCA) in Addison, Texas; Matt served as an adult chaperone on trips for TCA students in 1997, 2000, 2001 and 2016. Hank and Diane Harmon served as faculty members at TCA from 1983-2023, while concurrently working for Kanakuk. A TCA student who was abused by Kanakuk counselor Paul Green reported that he disclosed his abuse (as documented in this Springfield News-Leader article) to Hank Harmon, but there was no indication that Harmon or Kanakuk reported it to the proper authorities or other parents. Matt also worked at Providence Christian School of Texas (PCS) in Dallas from 2004-2007, teaching Class Six Computer, Class One and Two Boys P.E., Class Three through Eight P.E., Class Eight English and coaching Girls Volleyball, Boys Lacrosse, and Football. 

Due to allegations raised by PCS victims in Fall 2022, the school initiated an independent investigation that led to the opening of a criminal case in May 2023. Diane and Hank Harmon announced their retirement from TCA shortly after these investigations became publicly known.

From 2009-2014, Matt Harmon worked with vulnerable youth internationally as the Executive Director of the Trinity West Christian Dispatch Foundation (TWCD Foundation), a nonprofit he founded and for which he and his father served on the board. In this role, he traveled to volunteer at natural disaster recovery zones and orphanages in countries such as Haiti. 

Kanakuk has provided Matt with frequent access to its campgrounds due to his familial ties to Kanakuk and its senior leadership. The Harmons have been provided with unsupervised access to the Kanakuk property during family gatherings, including as recently as 2022, after child sexual abuse allegations against Harmon had surfaced. It is unknown how many victims Matt Harmon has at various institutions, but Dallas Police Department (DPD) put out a statement that he has had access to “thousands of children through his work and volunteering.” 

If you were abused by Matt Harmon or have more information, please contact DPD at 214-672-4473 or er*******@da**********.gov. You can also submit a Contact Form here.

Bradberry was a Kanakuk Kamps counselor in the summer of 2011 after the camp had implemented and promoted its Kanakuk Child Protection Plan. Arrested the following year for sexual abuse of young boys, he was sentenced in 2013 to four years for sexual misconduct involving a child under 14, seven years for statutory sodomy, and two 10-year sentences for child molestation, to be served concurrently. He was released on parole and now resides in Pelham, Alabama while running Spratlin Design Company, LLC based in Birmingham, Alabama.

If you were abused by Lee Bradberry or have more information, please submit a Contact Form. 

Newman was hired as a Kanakuk counselor from Auburn University in 1995 for Summer 1996. Kanakuk began receiving reports of Newman’s nudity with children beginning in 1999 and put him under disciplinary action in 2003 for these patterns. He moved up through the ranks as a father-son retreat leader, assistant director and was ultimately promoted to the director of K-Kountry in 2005 until his confession to crimes against children in Spring 2009. Frequently highlighted by the organization for national marketing and promotional purposes, Newman was arrested in September 2009 and pled guilty to two counts of first-degree statutory sodomy, three counts of second-degree statutory sodomy, and three counts of enticement of a child. A prosecutor in the case stated that Newman “is the most prolific child molester I have ever dealt with.” In 2010, Newman was sentenced to two life terms plus 30 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections. The subject of multiple civil lawsuits, there were at least 57 alleged victims of Newman prior to his sentencing, but the total number of campers abused by him remains unknown.

If you were abused by Peter “Pete” Newman or have more information, please submit a Contact Form. 

If you would like to participate in opposing Peter Newman’s parole, please click here.

Overstreet worked as a counselor at Kanakuk Kamp’s K-2 in the summers of 2004 and 2005. He was arrested in March of 2010 after pleading guilty to a charge of sexual assault of a child whom he met in 2007 while working as youth group intern at a church in Plano, TX. Overstreet worked in youth ministry at three churches in Texas between his employment at Kanakuk Kamps in 2005 and his arrest in 2010. It is unknown if he engaged in sexual misconduct while at Kanakuk Kamps.

A pilot for the private plane used by Joe White, Morgan was charged with sodomizing a female victim under the age of 14 in 2000. White invited him to stay on Kanakuk grounds while awaiting trial. White later testified for Morgan’s defense as a character witness, stating that he would have no problem allowing the man to babysit his own children and encouraging the judge not to imprison him. It is unknown if Morgan abused any campers during his multiple years of affiliation with Kanakuk and his off-season residence on camp property.

Morgan was found guilty of statutory sodomy in 2009 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was released in 2019.

If you were abused by Robert John Morgan or have more information, please submit a Contact Form. 

Robert Shiflet was convicted in 2021 of crimes related to child sex trafficking and sentenced to 33 months in prison for multiple incidents that took place between 1996 and 2003. Shiflet was released from prison early for good behavior on January 11, 2023, after serving only 25 months. Shiflet was an employee of Kanakuk Kamps during the summers of 1993 and 1994. He was later awarded contract work by Kanakuk through his company Tailfish for web design and launched a new web site for Kanakuk Institute in 2010. Shiflet was still working for Kanakuk via Tailfish as recently as 2017. Kanakuk Institute president and K-7 director Keith Chancey previously worked with Shiflet at Denton Bible Church in North Texas. Chancey led high school youth ministry when Shiflet was the youth leader for junior high until 2001. Shiflet was not promoted at Denton Bible Church in 2001 due to “his pattern of being alone with girls” and went on to work at Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, AR after receiving a recommendation from Denton Bible Church’s Pastor Tommy Nelson. It is unknown if Shiflet engaged in sexual misconduct while at Kanakuk.

If you were abused by Robert Shiflet or have more information, please submit a Contact Form. 

A staff member at Kanakuk Kamps from 1998 to 2005, Kerr was arrested in Colorado in 2011 for the abuse of adolescent girls. After pleading guilty to multiple charges, he received 45 days in jail and 10 years of sex offender probation. In 2014, Kerr returned to prison after he was found guilty of failing to register as a sex offender. A former K-Kountry camper has alleged that in 2002, Kerr exposed himself to boys in his cabin and exhibited grooming behavior at Kanakuk. Pete Newman was K-Kountry assistant director at the time.

If you were abused by Paul Kerr or have more information, please submit a Contact Form. 

Ringheim was a counselor at K-1 until a camper’s parent brought forth allegations of misconduct in the early 1990s He was not fired or reported but rather moved to maintenance at Kanakuk Kamps, then later volunteered with the K-LIFE Orlando program. Ringheim was accused of criminal misconduct that occurred in 2008 and 2011. He regularly chaperoned bus trips to Kanakuk’s Missouri camps and other activities. He was ultimately charged with seven felony sex crimes against underage boys. He was arrested in 2011, was found guilty of seven felony sex charges involving underage boys, and was sentenced to 15 years in Florida state prison. He is expected to be released in 2031.

If you were abused by Ed Ringheim or have more information, please submit a Contact Form. 

Price is a former Kanakuk Kamps counselor who, according to a May 2022 Springfield News-Leader article, is alleged to have sexually abused multiple campers while working at Kanakuk Kamps in the 1980s. It is reported that Price’s Kanakuk employment was terminated in 1990 after abuse was reported to Kanakuk leadership and Price admitted to having touched campers inappropriately. Because Kanakuk Kamps did not report victim testimony nor Price’s confession to law enforcement, Price has continued to work with children in other school, sports, and ministry environments, including Kanakuk’s own affiliate, Urban KLIFE St. Louis. He was also photographed back on Kanakuk property with Joe White in 2017. “Price, who has worked with at least three schools and is a girls volleyball coach in St. Louis, continued to volunteer with the Kanakuk-affiliated KLIFE youth ministry until at least February 2022.”

If you were abused by Chuck Price or have more information, please submit a Contact Form. 

Grimes worked at Kanakuk Kamps from 1978-1989. In addition to working as a counselor, Grimes held various leadership positions including assistant program director, head of trips and head of counselors-in-training. He was referred to as “Creepy Corbie” and eventually terminated after being caught for sexual misconduct with campers, but the incidents were not reported by the camp to law enforcement. As a result, Grimes went on to work in youth ministry, was caught abusing children as a youth pastor at another institution, and was finally convicted of sexual abuse in Texas in 2002.

If you were abused by Corbie Dale Grimes or have more information, please submit a Contact Form. 

William French Anderson allegedly abused Kanakuk boys in the late 1950s/60s era when the camp was under the leadership of Spike and Darnell White.  According to his victims, when the incidents were reported to camp leadership, they were dismissed. He went on to abuse beyond Kanakuk and was finally sentenced in 2007 to 14 years in prison after being convicted of molesting a young girl. The trial made headlines, as he had become a famous scientist known as “the father of gene therapy.”

If you were abused by Dr. William French Anderson or have more information, please submit a Contact Form.