They abandoned all, sold everything they had acquired and left for a "higher spiritual calling" in the wilds of Shakahola in Kilifi County.
This is a tale of a couple, Everline Kerubo 33, her husband Joseph Ntabo 38, a G4 security guard, and their two children, Dan aged 15 and Hiram, 12, according to their family members.
Tracing their origin in the remote village of Nyabobora in Emanga, Nyamira county, the couple's family is distraught.
Relatives who spoke to the Star claimed Kerubo, her husband and children sold everything they had and left for Kilifi to join controversial Pastor Paul Mackenzie's alleged cult.
Christine Nyabati, Kerubo's sister, says the couple put their house on sale before abandoning everything for the new calling.
"They hawked off their house in the Josca area in Nairobi and apparently set off their journey to visit controversial Good News Church in Kilifi-never to return," Christine told the star.
Prior to that, she says, Kerubo and Ntabo had pulled their children out of school over beliefs that education had satanic links.
That was January 2020.
Fast forward, to Monday, May 1, 2023, Christine has pitched a tent in the expansive 800-acre Shakahola forest believed to be owned by MacKenzie.
As police work round the clock to exhume the bodies of the victims of alleged religious indoctrination, Christine is clinging to hope that she stumble on her relatives alive.
A teenage boy rescued and brought to an orphanage in Kilifi - and who knew the couple well back in Nairobi told Christine that the Kerubo's entire family were on their eleventh day of fasting when he was rescued.
Speaking to the Star on the phone, Christine spoke of waiting on the wings of hope of seeing them once more even though anxiety and fear are stealing into her soul.
Back at home parents Agnes Nyanduko and Alex Nyambati cross their fingers waiting against hope.
"Sometimes it is news of the discovery of more souls found alive, and it jolts my soul with hope," she says.
"Other times it is more bodies still. I am fixated on both, it may be a death or a rescue," she said by phone.
" I wish they be found alive, " she said with a sob.
The sister and husband were staunch Seventh-Day Adventist members and used to fellowship at the Kangemi Church before apparently drifting away and falling in love with Paul MacKenzie's teachings.
Christine says the her sister and husband learnt about MacKenzie and his teachings through his TV channel.
She was keen on business, before travelling, raking in good money that helped them purchase various properties before MacKenzie popped up in their living rooms on TV.
He persuaded them shed off the 'chase for worldly wealth' and quickly they heeded.
She says Ntabo, the Inlaw, was the first to desert his job and sold off everything his hand could lay on before checking out.
Shortly after, his wife picked up his two children and followed him.
By then she was expectant. It is suspected she had lost the child.
But even as more bodies are being recovered, more remain unaccounted for.
"We had noticed some change when they sold their plots and their house. Still, it did not sink to us it would reach here," Christine said.
Like other families, she sits here to wait, hoping for good news.
It is distressing, she says, but she keeps the faith alive.
Both (the couple) are an aunt and uncle to Nyamira County's Kemera Ward MCA Tom Matinga.
"I have not heard much from them since they left, we are all anxious," Matinga told the Star Sunday night.
"We are devastated, we are hanging on that thread of hope that perchance they are alive as the search goes on."
Matinga says the mother Agnes Nyanduko and Alex Nyambati are anxious to know the fate of their loved ones.
Nyanduko, in a phone call, said anxiety was wearing her thin.
" I spend every waking minute thinking of my daughter and her children. I can't eat," she told the Star.
Nyambati says lack of money holds them in Kebobora at their Manga Isecha home
No round of chores by the old couple helps to reduce the tension in the home, adds MCA Matinga.
Similar disappointing news of disappearances has been reported in Borabu, still in Nyamira County.
In the Mogusii area, at least 11 people are unaccounted for after they left to attend prayers at Shakahoola.
Area Assistant Chief Joshua Tome said the pilgrims first travelled to Nairobi before heading out to Kilifi.
That was five months ago, and are yet to return sparking anxiety.
"We caution our people to ensure their children are within reach, especially at a time when we are experiencing an upheaval of churches being led by spiritual cons," said Tome.
In Kisii, Retiring Chief Samuel Omambia also asked residents in the Mokubo area to increase surveillance on their children during the holidays.