Background: The Cooper County Emergency Management Office in Booneville, Mo. (Google Maps). Inset: Sam Shetler (Cooper County Sheriff’s Office).
A Missouri man who billed himself as a healer for the Amish community has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Sam Shetler, 42, was arrested in connection with a number of unrelated crimes, including sex trafficking and kidnapping, in March. Police said that over the course of that investigation, they connected Shetler to the death of a 6-month-old boy who was found unresponsive by his parents in March 2025. The baby died, and his parents told detectives that they brought their son to Shetler, whom they knew as a “holistic doctor” in the Amish community in Booneville, Missouri.
According to a probable cause affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime, Shetler ran the Mercy and Truth Retreat, which was already under investigation by the Cooper County Sheriff’s Office after allegations were made that Shetler was sexually abusing several teenage girls and young women. When the parents brought their 6-month-old son to Shetler for treatment after noticing he was “turning blue,” he allegedly performed a “lavender breathing treatment” on the boy on March 6, 2025, and sent him home.
The parents found the boy unresponsive and “blue in color” when they tried to wake him from a nap. When they could not find Shetler, they went to a neighbor who was not Amish to call 911 for help. Emergency medical personnel arrived at the scene and determined the baby was already deceased.
Police said the autopsy of the baby revealed that he had several viral infections including RSV and COVID-19 when he died. His cause of death was listed as “pneumonia complicating polyviral respiratory infection.”
One year later, while authorities were investigating the sex crime charges, detectives spoke to someone who worked for the Mercy and Truth Retreat under Shetler’s direction. The employee told detectives that the Amish community viewed Shetler as an “actual” doctor or “healer” who led the community to believe that “English,” or non-Amish, medical doctors “do not know what they are doing.”
When it came to treating the alleged victim, the employee told detectives that Shetler instructed the staff to treat the baby’s breathing issues with an oil diffuser. The employee said Shetler allegedly neglected to check on the baby, something he reportedly promised the boy’s parents he would do, because he was “too busy with the girls and the horses.” Police said the staff noticed the baby’s condition was “declining.”
According to the medical examiner, the baby may have been saved if he had received traditional medical treatment.
Shetler was charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the baby’s death. He also faces three counts of sex trafficking, four counts of kidnapping, and one count each of sodomy and sexual abuse. He is being held at the Cooper County Jail without bond. His next court date is scheduled for May 13.
