Bodies Found Of 16 Involved In Cult

The burned bodies of 16 people thought to be connected with a doomsday cult involved in a mass murder-suicide last year were found Saturday in a hilltop forest in southeastern France.

The dead, 13 adults and 3 small children, were found in a circle around the remains of a campfire, laid out on the bare ground in a sunburst pattern. Police said some of them had been shot.

The Swiss and French police had been searching for 16 people declared missing by relatives over the last week, 10 of them Swiss residents. The adults were believed to be members of the Order of the Solar Temple, a sect that preached the coming end of the world and told its adherents that death for them was “pure illusion.”