Tragic Abuse Case Uncovered: Children Endure Horrors and Witness Family Dog’s Death, Authorities Report

A pastor and his wife from South Carolina are facing numerous charges related to child abuse following disturbing allegations made by their adopted children. The children claim that they were made to eat from dumpsters and sleep in trash cans.

Myron Chorbajian, aged 73, is confronted with a slew of charges including two counts of assault and battery with intent to kill, 15 counts of unlawfully placing a child at risk or harm, and eight counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor. He serves as the pastor at First Southern Methodist Church in Greenville, according to the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office.

His wife, Kathleen Chorbajian, who is 71, faces at least 10 counts of unlawfully placing a child at risk or harm. The alleged abuse surfaced in April after the couple’s adopted children came forward with accusations that stretch back to the 1980s.

The couple was apprehended in May at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. They have since been returned to South Carolina to face the charges.

Details of the allegations are outlined in arrest warrants obtained by local Fox affiliate WHNS. Among the accusations against Myron Chorbajian are claims that he struck a naked child with a paddle 50 times, hit a child with a belt until they lost consciousness, and forced a child to sleep in a trash can. He is also accused of compelling a child to search dumpsters for food and consume rotten and discarded items.

In addition, the pastor is accused of sexually assaulting female children. The pastor also allegedly shot the family dog in the kitchen and made one of the children bury it.

All the while, his wife allegedly looked the other way and never reported the abuse.

On Friday, Kathleen Chorbajian appeared before a judge for a bond hearing. According to a courtroom report from WHNS, her attorney argued that “this case is not as the state has advertised.”

He said the accusers have allowed their children to stay at the Chorbajian home overnight.

“If Kathy and Myron were as bad as they say, why would they ever let their children stay with them, unsupervised, overnight? I think that’s very important,” he reportedly said.

But the state argued that the pastor’s wife is a danger to the community because she not only allowed the abuse to happen, she also used religion to manipulate the children.

“This case is essentially about the weaponization of Christianity to justify the abuse of children,” the state’s attorney reportedly said. “The time the abuse occurred, these victims were small children in foster care. They had nowhere else to go. These sadistic acts of abuse that were justified by religion against some of the most vulnerable members of our society, I don’t know a situation where someone could present a more clearly present danger to the community.”

The judge set Kathleen Chorbajian’s bond at $120,000. She remains at the Greenville County Jail along with her husband, who has no bond.