Ivan Shelden (1938 – 2009) was a Mormon church member in Long Beach, Mississippi; accused of sexual abuse; allegedly molested hundreds of children across several US states over a period of decades; died in 2009.

Ivan Woodworth Shelden was a Mormon church member who allegedly sexually abused a child in 1997 in Long Beach, Mississippi.

Shelden allegedly molested hundreds of children over a period of decades in several US states.

Shelden died in 2009.

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Other Mormon sex abuse cases

    • Shonn Ricks was an LDS church member in Benson, Cache County, Utah; accused of sexual abuse; found guilty by a jury in 1997; served about 14 months in prison; attempted to serve a Mormon mission and was supported by his stake president, Jerry Toombs; his mission call was withdrawn
    • View report »
    • David Gomez (1946 – ) was a former LDS bishop and department of corrections administrator in or near West Valley City, Utah; arrested in 2004 and charged with 125 counts of sexual abuse; charges were dropped in 2005 due to issues related to the statutes of limitations
    • View report »
    • Dennis Empey (1957 – ) was a Mormon church member in Driggs, Idaho and scout leader in Provo, Utah; accused of sexually abusing many children between 1981 and 1990; a stake president and four Mormon bishops allegedly failed to report abuse for years; convicted in 1991 in Utah of child molestation; sentenced to one year in jail and three years probation; charged in 2025 in Idaho with sex crimes
    • View report »
      • "This man has molested so many children that it involved four Bishops from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints."
      — Joe Empey's neighbor, pre-sentencing letter to Utah County judge George Ballif, Sept. 13, 1991
    • Larry Johnson was a Mormon mission president from 1989 to 1992 (Virginia Roanoke) and a longtime LDS institute teacher in California; accused of sexual abuse in a lawsuit filed in 2021 in Orange County, California against Johnson and the LDS church; case ended in a settlement
    • View report »
    • Larry Deutsch (1966 – ) was a Mormon bishop in Missouri; arrested in 2020 and charged with possession of child pornography (child sexual abuse material, or CSAM) and accused of luring an underage teenager from Arizona to Missouri; pleaded guilty; sentenced in 2021 to 12 years in federal prison plus a lifetime of supervised release; in 2024, the victim filed a civil lawsuit against the LDS church
    • View report »

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Timeline

  • 1938
    Born

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