Marion Pettie was the leader of [[The Finders]], a group that law enforcement and researchers have described as a commune or cult operating in the Washington D.C. area. The children in the group called him the game-caller. Pettie was a former Air Force Master Sergeant, a background that provided him with military training and connections that would later become relevant to investigations into the group's activities.[^1] Pettie's personal connections extended into the intelligence community. His late wife, [[Isabelle Pettie]], had been a CIA employee. One of his sons had worked for Air America, a CIA cutout used to traffic heroin in the golden triangle region during the Vietnam War. These family connections to intelligence operations became central to inquiries into whether The Finders maintained operational links to the CIA or functioned as an unacknowledged asset.[^1] The investigation into The Finders intensified in February 1987 when two members of the group were arrested in Florida for transporting children. U.S. Customs agents and Metropolitan Police in Washington D.C. discovered preexisting information from an informant stating that a group calling themselves the Finders were conducting brainwashing techniques and that children were used in rituals. Search warrants were secured for a warehouse and a nearby duplex house owned by Pettie, which were raided on February 5.[^1] Inside the warehouse, investigators discovered hot tub and sauna facilities, various film sets, a video screening room, a library containing books on mind control, and a room full of networked computer equipment with a satellite link on the roof. Files seized during the raids contained detailed instructions for obtaining children for unspecified purposes, including the impregnation of female members of the community, purchasing children, trading, and kidnapping. Other files contained printouts of telex messages sent to networked computer terminals across the United States and abroad, including a purchase order for two children in Hong Kong to be arranged through an official at the Chinese Embassy.[^1] The 1993 Department of Justice inquiry into CIA involvement with The Finders revealed that Future Enterprises had provided software training for CIA employees, and that an employee of the company named Robert Garder Terrell was a member of The Finders who had been let go in February 1987. The Washington Times published an article in December 1993 citing a Metropolitan Police document dated February 19, 1987, quoting a CIA agent as confirming that the agency was sending personnel to a Finders Corp., Future Enterprises, for training in computer operations.[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Dovey, S. (2023). Eye of the Chickenhawk. United States: Thehotstar.