Wade S Christofferson

URGENT: Please contact Floodlit if you are a survivor or know a survivor of alleged sexual abuse by Wade Christofferson, if you have any information about his history in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or if you personally knew him. Thank you so much!

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UPDATE Dec. 5, 2025 8:00 am ET – The Salt Lake Tribune has confirmed that the current criminal allegations against Wade Christofferson have to do with events that allegedly occurred as recently as Nov. 5. Excerpt:

“The federal prosecutors allege Christofferson had been using this secret language to shield his sexually explicit requests of the 7-year-old girl in letters he had been sending her from Ohio for at least six months. The Utah father discovered the code on Nov. 5, prosecutors say, after he overheard a FaceTime conversation between his daughter and Christofferson and began asking them questions.

“Police started investigating a week later, after the Utah man’s brother in Ohio reported that Christofferson had allegedly sexually abused his daughter, too.

[…]

“The father told investigators that Christofferson had been sending his daughter letters over the past six months that used these and other sexual ‘code words.'”

Full article »

Floodlit is seeking a copy of the charging document in this case. We’ve updated our timeline below.

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UPDATE Dec. 4, 2025 11:30 pm ET – Wade Christofferson was moved into U.S. Marshals custody on December 3, 2025, according to the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office. His current location is unknown. However, according to court documents he is being extradited to southern Ohio.

After communicating with four alleged victims and relatives of two other alleged victims of child sexual abuse by Wade Christofferson, Floodlit has learned:

• Mormon apostle D. Todd Christofferson allegedly knew as early as 2018 that his brother Wade Christofferson allegedly sexually abused a child in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
• Wade Christofferson has at least nine to 12 alleged child sexual abuse victims dating back to 1985, in three U.S. states (Illinois, Ohio and Utah).
• According to multiple alleged victims and their relatives, Wade Christofferson was excommunicated in the 1990s, several years after church officials first became aware of allegations of child sexual abuse against him.
• Wade Christofferson was rebaptized into the Mormon church, and church officials removed an annotation on Wade Christofferson’s church membership record, allowing him access to children at church, according to multiple alleged victims and relatives.
• Between 2006 and 2025, the Mormon church assigned Wade Christofferson to work in three ward bishoprics and two other church leadership positions, according to records obtained by Floodlit.
• Two bishops and a stake president in the 1990s and an area authority seventy in 2025 all allegedly knew prior to Wade Christofferson’s 2025 arrest that he had allegedly perpetrated child sexual abuse. Another stake president allegedly confirmed in 2024 that he knew the church had placed and then rescinded child protection measures against Wade Christofferson. None of these five church officials told police about the alleged abuse, according to alleged victims. In at least four instances (both bishops, the 2024 stake president and the 2025 area authority seventy), alleged victims told Floodlit they reported their abuse personally to church officials.

Federal charges against Wade Christofferson announced today pertain to alleged sexual abuse of two children since 2010, but Floodlit’s research has uncovered a much more expansive set of allegations.

Floodlit has helped three alleged victims and relatives of two other alleged victims in this case to contact each other, prompting a cascade of revelations.

Floodlit has compiled a timeline of events in Wade Christofferson’s life, including allegations of child sexual abuse, based on communication with alleged victims or their relatives, and on court and church records we’ve obtained.

Wade Christofferson Sex Abuse Case Timeline

• 1985: Wade Christofferson moves from the United Arab Emirates to Crystal Lake, Illinois and begins attending the Crystal Lake 1st Ward in the Schaumburg Illinois Stake, with bishop Lee Donaldson, an LDS church CES coordinator for local seminaries and institutes.
• 1985 or 1986: Christofferson begins sexually abusing children in his LDS ward within months of moving to Crystal Lake, Illinois, according to Victim 1, who later tells Floodlit her abuse began in approximately 1985. This is the earliest alleged abuse by Wade Christofferson, as far as Floodlit is aware.
• Between approximately 1988 and 1992: Christofferson allegedly sexually abuses a girl (Victim 2) in Sandy, Utah; at his home in Crystal Lake, Illinois; and in Nauvoo, Illinois. She is 9 years old when the abuse begins and 13 when it ends, she later tells Floodlit.
• Summer 1990: Wade Christofferson allegedly sexually assaults a 13-year-old girl (Victim 3) while hosting a sleepover at his home.
• Late 1990 or early 1991: Several months after allegedly sexually assaulting Victim 3, Wade Christofferson is assigned to be Lee Donaldson’s first counselor in the Crystal Lake 1st Ward bishopric, Victim 3 later tells Floodlit. He and Donaldson are close personal friends. “I was really upset,” she later tells Floodlit. In a temple recommend interview, Victim 3 tells Bishop Donaldson what his new counselor, Wade Christofferson, did to her the previous summer. As months go by, she waits for Wade Christofferson to be released from his bishopric position. “It never happened,” she later tells Floodlit.
• Approximately 1991 or 1992: According to Victim 4‘s relative, Wade Christofferson allegedly attempts to sexually assault Victim 4 at a sleepover at his home. It is two o’clock in the morning. While pretending to look for the family cat, Wade Christofferson approaches Victim 4 and attempts to sexually abuse her, Victim 4‘s relative later tells Floodlit. Victim 4 “got out of the situation” and calls her parents to come pick her up, the relative later recalls. Victim 4‘s father tells Bishop Donaldson, who says he will “take care of it.”
• Approximately 1992: Wade Christofferson is released from his position as first bishopric counselor, according to Victim 4‘s relative. Christofferson “continued attending but didn’t take the sacrament” for some time, Victim 4‘s relative later tells Floodlit.
• 1993: Wade’s brother, Todd Christofferson, becomes a Mormon general authority and member of the First Quorum of the Seventy.
• 1994 to 1996: John (pseudonym), brother of Victim 5, attends the LDS church in Crystal Lake as a young teenager. He later tells Floodlit, “My family knew the Christoffersons very well and spent a lot of time with them. I have now learned that my female friends from that period were either victims or nearly so (they woke up at sleepovers to Wade hovering over them, or lying on the floor by their bed, or trying to get into the bed with them). From what I have learned from talking to friends is that he used to […] hold sleepovers with girls in the ward. He also used to take photographs of girls […] (nothing ostensibly inappropriate, but those photos weren’t shared with the girls, and were for himself).” Victim 3 also later tells Floodlit about the photographs, saying Wade Christofferson “enjoyed doing photo shoots with the girls.” However, she says, “I never saw the pictures.”
• Mid- to late 1990s: Victim 6 allegedly attends a sleepover at Wade Christofferson’s home in Crystal Lake. It is her first – and only – sleepover there. Victim 6 later tells Floodlit, “I woke up in the middle of the night and saw Wade sleeping on the bedroom floor between our […] beds. When I asked [another child] about it later, she said he was protecting us from [another male] and making sure we didn’t sneak out, which was really odd. I never slept over again.”
• July 21, 1996: Lee Donaldson is released as bishop of Wade Christofferson’s LDS ward. The new bishop is James “Jim” Sherwood, who replaced Wade Christofferson as bishopric counselor in approximately 1992.
• Late 1996: Bishop Sherwood meets with Victim 3, who is preparing to leave for college, and asks her if she ever had an “uncomfortable experience” with Wade Christofferson, she later tells Floodlit. She says yes. Bishop Sherwood asks if she can tell him about it because “some other girls had come forward.” Victim 3 tells Bishop Sherwood that Wade Christofferson sexually abused her in 1990, she later tells Floodlit. Bishop Sherwood initiates the church disciplinary process that leads to Wade Christofferson’s excommunication from the Mormon church. In all, according to multiple survivors or relatives of survivors who spoke to Floodlit, Wade Christofferson has at least seven to 10 alleged victims from the Crystal Lake 1st Ward in the 1980s and 1990s. (Victim 7, whose experience is not reported above, is a sibling of one of the other alleged victims.)
• Approximately 1996: The Mormon church allegedly excommunicates Wade Christofferson for child sexual abuse. A story circulates among Crystal Lake 1st Ward members that the excommunication is due to a romantic extramarital affair with an adult coworker who blackmailed Wade Christofferson, according to multiple survivors or their relatives who spoke with Floodlit. Wade Christofferson continues to attend church meetings.
• Approximately 1997: Wade Christofferson is allegedly rebaptized in Illinois.
• Approximately mid-1997: Wade Christofferson moves from Crystal Lake, Illinois to Dublin, Ohio and begins attending the Dublin Ward, later renamed the Dublin 1st Ward, in the Columbus Ohio Stake.
• 1998: Wade’s brother Todd Christofferson becomes a president in the Mormon church’s Presidency of the Seventy.
• Between approximately 1998 and 2006: An “asterisk” or annotation on Wade Christofferson’s church membership record forbidding leadership positions with access to children is removed, according to a survivor who told Floodlit that a stake president she spoke with in 2024 confirmed the prior existence and removal of the annotation.
• 2006 to 2011: Wade Christofferson is the second counselor in the bishopric of the Columbus Young Single Adults (YSA) 2nd Ward, Columbus Ohio Stake.
• 2008: Wade’s brother Todd Christofferson becomes a Mormon apostle.
• 2016 to 2019: Wade Christofferson is first counselor in two different bishoprics in the Dublin 1st Ward, Columbus Ohio North Stake.
• Between approximately 2016 and 2020: According to federal charging documents in 2025, Wade Christofferson “allegedly admitted to [an] Ohio father that he sexually abused his 10-year-old daughter [Victim 8] […] more than a dozen times.” Because the charging documents say “several years ago,” Floodlit is estimating this alleged abuse took place between about 2016 and 2020.
• October 2017: In a video published by KSL about Wade’s brother Tom Christofferson’s spiritual journey as a gay Latter-day Saint, Wade Christofferson recalls thinking, “How can you betray our family?” when he learned Tom was gay, divorced and had left the Mormon church. Wade says he was “mad, upset, angry.” (see approximately 4:40 mark of video) KSL is owned by the Mormon church.
• Approximately 2018: A relative of apostle Todd Christofferson alerts him of abuse allegations by an alleged victim, the survivor later tells Floodlit.
• 2019 to 2023: Wade Christofferson is ward clerk, Dublin 1st Ward, Columbus Ohio North Stake.
• 2022: An abuse survivor confronts Wade Christofferson in person and asks him if he was excommunicated and rebaptized. He admits that he was, she later tells Floodlit.
• September 2023 to November 2025: Wade Christofferson is second counselor in the stake Sunday school presidency of the Columbus Ohio North Stake.
• Early 2025: An alleged victim meets in person with LDS area authority seventy Kevin Birch (North America North East area) and reports child sexual abuse by Wade Christofferson to Birch, the alleged victim later tells Floodlit.
• Approximately May 2025: Wade Christofferson allegedly begins “using [a] secret language to shield his sexually explicit requests of [a] 7-year-old girl [Victim 9] in letters he [is] sending her from Ohio,” per a Dec. 5, 2025 Salt Lake Tribune description of federal charging documents. This alleged behavior continues until Nov. 5, when the girl’s father discovers the code, according to prosecutors.
• October 2025: Wade’s brother Todd Christofferson becomes second counselor in the LDS First Presidency.
• Nov. 5, 2025: According to 2025 charging documents, Wade Christofferson is FaceTiming a 7-year-old girl in Utah [Victim 9] and asks to see her to see “snow” and “friends.” Her father enters the room to find her lifting up her shirt to the camera. The Utah girl later tells investigators that Christofferson touched her inappropriately in the past and told her “she would like it when she got older,” the 2025 charges say.
• Nov. 6, 2025: Wade Christofferson allegedly admits abusing Victim 8 and Victim 9 to their fathers, according to the charging document, and tells the Utah father in a text message: “I am deeply sorry for what I have done and will be meeting with my bishop to start the repentance process.”
• Sometime in November 2025: Wade Christofferson looked online about leaving the United States, according to the charging document.
• Nov. 11, 2025: Wade Christofferson texts an Arizona family member to ask if he can come there for “an open-ended stay” starting on Nov. 13, according to charging documents.
• Nov. 12, 2025: Dublin, Ohio police start investigating after the Utah man’s brother in Ohio (Victim 8‘s father) reports that Christofferson had allegedly sexually abused his daughter, too.
• Sometime in November 2025: Police in Dublin, Ohio search Wade Christofferson’s home, and a review of his phone allegedly reveals a search history for criminal defense attorneys in Ohio and Utah, as well as the phrase, “In Ohio do clergy have to report child abuse confessions.”
• Nov. 20, 2025: Floodlit breaks the story of Wade Christofferson’s arrest and pending federal criminal charges. No mainstream news outlets mention the story until Nov. 25.
• Nov. 20 to Nov. 25, 2025: Floodlit researches public records and communicates with several alleged abuse survivors and their relatives. Victim 3 tells Floodlit she is “sickened that it is 40 years later” and asks, “How many more people were harmed that didn’t need to be?!” Victim 4‘s relative says, “I’ve been waiting for years for this to happen and for justice to be served,” adding that they were “disgusted” when Todd Christofferson was called to be an apostle in 2008.
• Nov. 24, 2025: The LDS church releases Wade Christofferson from his calling as stake Sunday school presidency counselor, per a Floodlit source.
• Nov. 25, 2025: The U.S. Department of Justice, Southern District of Ohio announces that Wade Christofferson has been “charged federally with sexual exploitation crimes against minors.” Floodlit.org publishes another update on its website, almost a full hour before mainstream news outlets begin to cover the story. Mainstream news articles do not mention allegations of additional victims or abuse prior to approximately 2010, or any alleged failures by several Mormon officials over a 35-year period to report abuse to civil authorities or prevent Wade Christofferson from having access to children at church.
• Dec. 4, 2025: Floodlit breaks the news that Wade Christofferson has been booked out of the Salt Lake County Jail and is in U.S. Marshals Service custody.
• Dec. 5, 2025: The Salt Lake Tribune reports on the federal charges against Wade Christofferson. Newly unveiled details from the charging document confirm Floodlit’s prior reporting regarding the nature and timeframe of the alleged abuse of Victim 8 and Victim 9.

Wade Christofferson’s 2025 federal criminal case: Details

• The timeframe of the alleged abuse in Wade Christofferson’s criminal case is unclear, but involves two victims not listed above, Victim 8 and Victim 9. Their alleged abuse took place sometime between 2010 and 2025, based on Wade Christofferson’s alleged use of FaceTime calls.
• According to court documents, Christofferson allegedly searched online for “In Ohio do clergy have to report child abuse confessions” and for defense attorneys who represent people accused of sex crimes.
• A criminal complaint merely contains allegations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
• Floodlit is continuing to gather information in this case.

Why was there no mainstream news coverage of this story from Nov. 20 to Nov. 25?

On Nov. 20, Floodlit.org broke the story that Wade Christofferson, brother of Mormon church apostle Todd Christofferson, was arrested pending federal charges for alleged child sexual abuse.

We also broke the story that the church excommunicated, then rebaptized Wade Christofferson and placed him in at least three bishoprics, according to multiple reports to Floodlit by abuse survivors or their relatives, and according to church records obtained by Floodlit.

While the mainstream media remained silent for five days, we spoke with several alleged victims and their relatives, and gathered information about the allegations against Wade Christofferson, and about what Mormon officials knew and did in response.

This experience is not new for Floodlit. We’ve broken numerous stories that received no mainstream coverage. Examples:

• BREAKING: Mormon church accused of omitting 19 pages of evidence in “deeply disingenuous” attempt to stop sexual abuse lawsuit after rejected $250M immunity bid
• BREAKING: “There is no ‘sexual abuse’ file,” Mormon church risk manager declared in 2023 lawsuit
• Rinse & Repeat: Mormon church trying to force BSA victim to dismiss sex abuse lawsuit
• $59 million, five years: what Mormon officials spent to stop a sex abuse lawsuit
• Timeline: LDS church sued insurers to collect $90 million, after settling 5-year-long child sex abuse suit
• Where are the letters? Alleged sex abuse coverup by Mormon First Presidency
• Findings re: Mormon official’s declaration on church knowledge of sexual abuse
• Uncovering the Mormon Church’s Knowledge of Child Sexual Abuse: The 1984 Lawsuit
• For 26 years (1963-89), LDS-BSA top execs knew of “perversion files,” but allegedly did not tell LDS church

We’ve also been the first to break stories where we provided more details and access to court documents not seen in subsequent mainstream reports. Examples:

• BREAKING: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints faces 91 new child sexual abuse lawsuits in California
• BREAKING: Washington lawsuit says Mormon church covered up child sexual abuse by convicted priest
• BREAKING: 211 plaintiffs file new lawsuit against Provo, Utah Mormon OB/GYN David Broadbent
• BREAKING: Mormon Church Nears Massive Settlement of Over 100 Sexual Abuse Claims
• BREAKING: Mormon church files appeal after losing civil suit against sex abuse insurers

In November 2025, Floodlit’s work was featured in the docuseries Surviving Mormonism with Heather Gay.

Thank you to the individuals who sent us photos of Christofferson for this report.