Attleboro cult members attend funeral in shackles

Five jailed members of an embattled Attleboro cult, including two parents accused of starving their son to death, were taken yesterday in shackles to the graveside funeral of a sect founder who died Friday of an apparent heart attack.

Jacques and Karen Robidoux, who are awaiting trial on charges they starved their 10-month-old son Samuel to death in 1999, were taken to the Greenwood Cemetery in Rehoboth in a sheriff's van for Roger Daneau's funeral. Daneau, who is Karen's father, had been having health problems and died at the group's Attleboro home. Karen, in a prison jumpsuit and shackles, trembled and sobbed as she viewed her father's casket.

Also at the cemetery in the sheriff's custody were Rebecca and David Corneau and Michelle Mingo, who is accused of concocting a vision from God that told the group not to feed Samuel. The Corneaus, who came under suspicion when their infant son, Jeremiah, died during a 1999 home birth, are in jail for refusing to provide evidence of what happened to their most recent child. The couple, who weren't charged in connection with Jeremiah's death, contend Rebecca had a miscarriage but they won't say where the baby is buried.

Daneau, 62, was one of several cult members who spent six months in jail in 2000 for stonewalling investigators probing Samuel's death. He and the group's current leader, Roland Robidoux, formed a prayer group in the 1980s that prosecutors say evolved into a ``dangerous'' cult called The Body.

Police say Daneau's death is not considered suspicious.