This could be far bigger than I originally thought. As I made my first pass through the 1st report I noticed this section:

As soon as I saw the word ‘school’ I thought of the McMartin pre-school scandal in the 1980s. The long redacted names section also suggested the many alleged perpetrators were listed here. Although the trial did start in 1987 it certainly did not finish then, and my understanding is that there was never a solid conviction. For these reasons I brushed off the thought as a coincidence.

But then, further through the file, there is a forensic report detailing the very tunnels at the McMartin pre-school that were eventually decided to have been a hoax. This report, although entitled ‘preliminary’, seems extremely detailed and contains phrasing that suggests it is describing actual discoveries rather than children’s descriptions. For example, it describes evidence found in tunnels, very specific tunnel dimensions and mapping, and phrases such as ‘a 9 foot chamber was found under Classroom 4’. Most disturbingly: "Children described entrance and exiting tunnel in triplex yard exactly where tunnel and exit were found".

Here is a sample, unfortunately the pages aren’t numbered so I can’t reference it exactly:

I can’t decide what to make of this. I am familiar with the McMartin case and many others that could be labelled under the ‘Satanic Panic’ era, and I had dismissed many as exaggerations if not outright hoaxes. But this has really shaken that belief.

Some further digging has left me quite confused – it turns out that the McMartin Tunnel Report in my prior post was not an official FBI document (although you would think that its inclusion in an FBI report would make it so…) . The page was lifted from Ted Gunderson’s extensive report on the whole McMartin excavation in 1990. It is available here: http://tedgunderson.info/index_htm_files/McMartin%20Scientific%20Report.pdf
Therefore I suppose there are two questions to answer:
– did the FBI include the report extract because they believed it?
– was Ted Gunderson’s investigation and report correct?

Ted Gunderson was a very divisive character. His involvement with a few very high-profile cases led many to think he was seeing conspiracy where there was none, or doing it for personal gain. I highly doubt the second point but, as for the first point, who knows…

After much resaerch down this road it appears that the FBI report, commissioned in 1993, was prompted by an original investigation report by US Customs in 1987.
This is where it gets really disturbing. We can forget Ted Gunderson for now , and the McMartin pre-school scandal. Not to dismiss it, but it adds unnecessary complication to the Finder story.

The Customs report was written by Special Agent Walter Kreitlow, who documents the event that prompted his report. In February 1987 two well-dressed men were reported to police for supervising 6 dishevelled and under-nourished children at a Tallahassee park. Suspecting abuse, the police took the men and children into custody. The men refused to talk, but their vehicle was traced back to Washington DC. Contact with police there led to the connection with the Finders Cult who were being investigated by Washington DC PD.
Agent Kreitlow attended a raid on two Finders properties. A house, where no other children were found but toys and children’s clothes were in abundance. An office was found with a wealth of paper and computer records. Amongst them was included detail about the Tallahassee incident, along with general instructions about how Finders members should transport children across states undetected. This was just the tip of the iceberg.
Kreitlow describes finding detailed investigative files on specific children and families that the Finders were probably going to target:

Further, there were specific instructions on the kidnapping of children. But even more evidence would turn up at the other location that was raided.

The thing with this report is, there is no grey area here, nothing open to misinterpretation. This is a sample of Kreitlow’s findings at the warehouse:

This was not a flamboyant D.A, lawyer or investigator trying to sell a book. These are the honest observations of an officer doing his job. But he did not count on the powers-that-be not liking what he and Washington PD found. Within two months, the entire investigation was shut down:

"No further action will be taken". One wonders what Kreitlow felt as he had to type those words. Something was definitely happening with the Finders Cult, and the investigators were told to back off.

The full US Customs report is available on my Google Drive here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11Lg9EPh2niFtWyqbWdod0kWUknHMCfsp/view?usp=sharing