URGENT: Please contact Floodlit.org if you are a survivor or know a survivor of alleged sexual abuse by Wade Christofferson, if you have any information about his leadership/membership history in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or if you knew him personally. We (Floodlit.org) are currently helping several abuse survivors to assemble information they can give to civil authorities or service providers. Thank you so much!
Since breaking the news on Nov. 20 of pending child sexual abuse charges against Wade Christofferson, Floodlit.org communicated with several alleged abuse survivors and their relatives, helping some of them contact each other and giving them contact information of civil authorities investigating the case.
One alleged victim said she was “sickened that it is 40 years later” and asked, “How many more people were harmed that didn’t need to be?!” Another victim’s relative said, “I’ve been waiting for years for this to happen and for justice to be served,” adding that they were “disgusted” when the Mormon church made Wade Christofferson’s brother, Todd Christofferson, an apostle in 2008. The church is led by fifteen apostles; Todd Christofferson is the second counselor in the First Presidency, its presiding governing body.
Today, Floodlit updated our case report on Wade Christofferson. So far, we have identified at least nine alleged child sex abuse victims in this case, dating back to 1985. We need your help to confirm details that may aid accountability and help survivors heal.
Examples of what we’ve uncovered:
- One survivor told Floodlit she was sexually assaulted by Wade Christofferson in the summer of 1990, during a sleepover at his home in Crystal Lake, Illinois. She was 13. Several months later, he became a counselor in her ward’s bishopric. Upset, she told Bishop Lee Donaldson that Christofferson had sexually assaulted her. As months went by, she waited for Christofferson to be released from his bishopric position. “It never happened,” she said. A few years later, another bishop approached her as she was preparing to leave for college and asked her if she ever had an “uncomfortable experience” with Wade Christofferson because “some other girls had come forward.” She told him about the alleged 1990 incident, ultimately leading to Wade Christofferson’s excommunication.
- At a sleepover at Christofferson’s home in 1991 or 1992, he allegedly attempted to sexually assault another girl, her relative later told Floodlit. At two o’clock in the morning, while pretending to look for the family cat, Christofferson approached the girl, who “got out of the situation” and called her parents to come pick her up, the relative recalled. The alleged victim’s father told Bishop Donaldson about the incident; Donaldson said he would “take care of it,” and Christofferson was soon released as counselor but kept attending church, the relative told us.
- An alleged victim and a relative of another alleged victim told Floodlit that, in the mid-1990s, Wade Christofferson took photographs of underage girls in his LDS ward, but did not share the photos with them afterwards.
If you have any information about Wade Christofferson that may be helpful to survivors, investigators or service providers, please contact Floodlit.org. You can remain anonymous. Thank you so much!
