Woman Sues Former Missouri Missions Group Over Alleged Abuse at Mexico Children’s Homes

A Mexican woman identified in the lawsuit only as Jane Doe, now 23, is suing a now-defunct Missouri-based missions organization and six former leaders for negligence. Doe says she was raped repeatedly between the ages of 14 and 17 at a Niños de Mexico home for neglected and vulnerable children. Her “house parent,” Javier Colosia Lopez, was convicted in Mexico of aggravated rape and sentenced to more than 11 years in prison.

Doe alleges that the harm she suffered “occurred within a broader pattern” of abuse dating back to the 1960s. She says Niños leaders ignored reports of abuse spanning five decades, refused to investigate allegations, and tried to “undermine any sunshine on the criminal activity.”

The lawsuit also claims that Steve Ross, Niños executive director from 2012 to 2025, “engaged in an active effort to conceal prior knowledge and mishandling of allegations of harm” and instructed staff to destroy documents or video footage. These are allegations in the lawsuit.

The claims are supported by a 2025 investigative report from Godly Response to Abuse in Christian Environments (GRACE). According to the 256-page report, more than 80 victims had accused 20 different staff members and missionaries of abuse, beginning with founders Merlyn and Wanda Beeman. The report concluded that Niños leaders “consistently failed to protect children, actively concealed abuse, retaliated against whistleblowers, and in some cases, were accused of personally abusing children.”

Several staff members told GRACE they were instructed to destroy records. One said he disobeyed a direct order from Ross and secretly preserved evidence the executive director had told him to discard. Ross has denied the allegations and said he did the best he could at the time. He told GRACE that, in retrospect, he regrets not taking reports of abuse to authorities. “Had this been in the U.S., I would’ve reported it immediately, but in Mexico, it just didn’t seem to be the right thing to do or the normal thing to do at that point,” Ross said. “I now fully understand that reporting or not is not up to us and our feelings of the validity of the testimony.”

GRACE recommended that Niños issue an apology and establish a fund to care for victims. Niños shut down operations in 2025 without doing either. A public statement from the board acknowledged that the investigation had concluded but did not address its findings. Instead, it thanked donors and celebrated the organization’s years of work, saying “countless lives have been blessed.” Honest dealing with people who trusted the ministry, and with those harmed by it, was the lesson the findings pointed toward (Proverbs 11:1).

Doe filed suit in September in Franklin County, Missouri, where Niños was headquartered. She is asking for “such sums as are reasonable and necessary to compensate” her for personal injuries and damages, including moral and punitive damages.

The missions work began in Mexico City in 1967, when the Beemans, supported by independent Christian churches aligned with the Stone-Campbell movement, started taking in orphans. Within a year, according to Niños fundraising letters from the time, the homes had children “wall to wall.” Niños eventually established nine homes, each designed to function as a family unit with a mother, a father, and about a dozen children, a design believed to be more nurturing than institutional orphanages. Niños told supporters that raising children in Christian homes was part of a long-term strategy to evangelize Mexico, with the goal that the children would become “mature, educated, Spirit-filled Christians” with a passion to share “the Gospel message of salvation through Jesus Christ.”

Source: Read the original report