POWDER SPRINGS, GA – An eyewitness has spoken out after DeLana and Myles Rutherford of Worship With Wonders church denied covering up sexual assault three years ago. The mother of the teen victim responded to the church’s recent decision to re-issue its letter regarding the 2023 incident.
“That letter was indeed sent out to everyone in the congregation,” the victim’s mother said in a voice recording shared with Sarie Reads last Thursday (Mar. 5).
“The dates of the abuse, and when the pastors actually found out, was early September,” she further explained. “They didn’t address the congregation until the end of October. So it was exactly a month and a week later that that statement came out.”
DeLana and Myles Rutherford are presently under fire for the way they handled the sexual assault of a Worship With Wonders church member in 2023. The victim, a teen boy, was invited by the perpetrator, Marcus Kendall Turner, to attend a church youth group called “Hangout Life Crew” in May 2023.
The five months that followed involved more than 12,650 text message exchanges that included sexually explicit content. Turner ultimately committed repeated acts of sexual abuse against the teen boy at his home between August 2023 and September 2023.
According to the victim’s mother, DeLana and Myles Rutherford learned of the sexual abuse inflicted on her son by Marcus Kendall Turner during the first week of September 2023. The pastors did not immediately contact law enforcement but instead attempted to convince her not to involve the authorities in the matter.
“They told me not to go to the police, and we just need to handle this as a church,” the victim’s mother said in her voice recording.
“The reports – police reports, D.A.’s reports – none of it matches up to what the pastors are saying,” she added. “The D.A.’s office publicly said that they did not [contact law enforcement].”
In the church’s October 21, 2023, statement, signed by DeLana and Myles Rutherford, an outline of procedures was provided as a way to explain the response time to the situation.
“Upon being informed, we as pastors, immediately began meeting with all parties involved to get additional facts,” the letter said. “Upon completion of those meetings, we then met with our covering pastors and local authorities and sought counsel to determine next steps.”
In the letter, the Rutherfords claimed, “Based on all the information we gathered, we as pastors personally made a call to report suspected abuse to local law enforcement authorities.” The victim’s mother refuted such a claim in her response last week.
“There is no report that can be found in the system, in Cobb County or Cherokee County, that says that the pastors called the police,” the victim’s mother shared. “If that was the case, [then] they would have had a report, case number, and all of that,” she questioned.
“The only person who reported was myself,” the victim’s mother said. “The pastors knew he was arrested [and] did not tell the church or anything for a month and a week.”
As for the timing of the statement itself, “That statement had been put out by the pastors because either the day of that statement, or the day before, that was when someone on the Internet found his mugshot and posted it, and all wildfire broke out. And they hurried up and typed up that letter and sent it to the congregation.”
Marcus Kendall Turner was sentenced to 25 years in prison on February 9, 2026, for sex crimes involving a teenage child. In the state of Georgia, mandated reporters include individuals who provide care, treatment, education, or supervision to minors. Georgia law requires mandated reporters to report suspected child abuse or neglect within 24 hours of suspicion.