Pentecostal Pastor Dies After Daughter Sits on Her in ‘Prayer Position,’ Authorities Say
A Texas woman has been arrested in the Nov. 21 death of her 70-year-old mother, Pastor Gloria Farmer Jordan, whose death was originally ruled to be from natural causes, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Gloria Ann Jordan, 41, who has admitted to sitting on her mother in what she says was a “prayer position,” has been arrested and charged with manslaughter in the elder Jordan’s death.
Farmer Jordan’s obituary says she was “baptized in Jesus name and filled with the Holy Ghost at an early age at Christ Temple Blue Rock Holiness [Pentecostal] Church” in Vernon Hill, Virginia. Two years after moving to Wichita Falls, Texas, she and her husband, Elder Glossy B. Jordan, started the First Pentecostal Church in 1981. Her obituary says she “served faithfully and assisted her husband in any capacity she could” and “finally accepted the call to minister His word” in 1983. She was installed as pastor after her husband’s 2015 death.
Police responded to Farmer Jordan’s home in what was first believed to be a medical death, the Star-Telegram reports. But a follow-up investigation led to an autopsy after a family friend raised concerns. Police say the autopsy confirmed that Farmer died of “mechanical asphyxia” in what was ruled a homicide.
“While praying, Jordan put her hand on Farmer [Jordan]’s forehead and pushed her backwards in an office chair until Farmer and the chair fell backwards,” says a police affidavit from an interview with a roommate of Jordan and Farmer Jordan, obtained by the Star-Telegram. The roommate also said Jordan remained in this position while the pastor yelled that she could not breathe.
The roommate told police she tried to intervene but was unable to stop the alleged crime, adding that “Jordan stayed in that position until Farmer stopped breathing,” the affidavit says, noting that Jordan later admitted to this behavior in a Nov. 24 conversation with police.
For unknown reasons possibly related to a delay in the autopsy report, police did not obtain a warrant for Jordan’s arrest until Feb. 1, posting the following notice on social media with an update after her subsequent arrest in Burkburnett, Texas, about 15 miles northwest of Wichita Falls. She has been held on a $150,000 bond.
Jordan also faces charges related to a separate incident on Nov. 25, in which she slammed a woman’s head into the wall multiple times, shouting, “I rebuke you in the name of the Lord,” police say.
Please join the Charisma News staff in praying for all those involved. {eoa}
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