Wendy Lineweaver sensed something was up when she arrived at a Ann Arbor warehouse last month for a hastily arranged memorial service for a fellow Hutaree member.

The warehouse’s parking lot off Varsity Drive was empty, with the exception of a white moving truck.

Hutaree members had arrived in two cars about 6:10 p.m. after meeting at the Lineweaver's home in Manchester an hour earlier.

Five of them wouldn't be going home that night.

A large sticker of Hutaree’s distinctive green patch was plastered on the warehouse door, which Lineweaver thought was tacky because the Christian militia unit didn’t own the property.

The Hutaree patch.

When Lineweaver, her husband Ken, their 18-year-old son, and five other Hutaree members walked inside, she was struck by the apparent lack of effort put into organizing the service. A few sandwiches, some bags of chips and bottles of pop had been plopped on a table.

While members were there to mourn “Dan,” also known by his Hutaree name, “Keebelik,” his family was nowhere to be found. On a cinderblock wall, "weird nicknames" were written in black marker, she said.

On their way inside, Hutaree leader David Stone had told them they would each have to select a name from the wall, she said. Lineweaver had no idea what purpose the names served or who wrote them.

“What it told me is that he had been in that warehouse before,” she said.

Keebelik’s "battle dress uniform" was draped over a chair sitting on a table, with a white candle lit beside it, Ken Lineweaver said. Roughly 20 folding chairs were arranged around a brand new television hooked up to a DVD player. At one point, Wendy Lineweaver saw a loft with boxes on it, but steps leading up to it were missing. The first step was more than five feet above the floor.

“All the stairs were freshly sawed off except the top two,” she said.

Hutaree member "Scott," who organized the service and told Stone that Keebelik had died, was there when everyone arrived. Lineweaver said he was "extremely nervous."

She wondered how he got there because she didn't see his nice truck with New Jersey license plates parked outside.

“His voice was shaking when I spoke to him,” she said.

“I asked this Scott guy, ‘How come you didn’t call us and tell us to bring some food?” she said.

According to Lineweaver, he replied, "Oh, I told Dave he doesn’t need to worry about it."

Despite the eerie feeling, everyone stayed at the service to honor Dan, the Lineweavers said.

Joshua Clough, Michael Meeks, David Stone's wife Tina Stone and his son David Stone Jr. were the other Hutaree members there, Wendy Lineweaver said. That made nine people total. One hasn't been seen or heard from since, Lineweaver said.

“Every instinct was telling me to get out, but I liked Dan or thought I did,” she said.

The phony service

Hutaree members helped themselves to some food, then sat down to share their memories of Dan. Wendy Lineweaver told David Stone he would have to retire the Keebelik nickname because Dan had passed away.

He replied, “Oh yeah, we’re definitely gonna do that,” she said.

Stone had been making up his own language, said Ken Lineweaver, who had a nickname of his own but couldn't recall it.

Scott said his "wife" put together a slideshow, but was "sick," so couldn't make the service. He turned on the DVD player and started the program. There were photographs of Keebelik with a soundtrack of Hutaree's favorite band, "Poker Face." The music was blaring. Wendy Lineweaver noticed mistakes in the program, including a misspelling of Keebelik's name and a reference to Hutaree as "The Hutaree."

"There must have been about 15 red flags that I totally ignored," she said.

There were photographs from David Stone's wedding, pictures of Stone and Dan together and photographs of Joshua Stone's wedding a couple weeks earlier. Wendy Lineweaver remembered seeing Scott's "wife" at the recent wedding and noticed how much effort she put into taking photographs.

“She was taking pictures of everyone at all different angles,” Lineweaver said.

The FBI raid

Fifteen minutes into the service, Scott tapped David Stone on the shoulder and motioned for Stone to follow him outside, Ken Lineweaver said. The door slammed loudly behind them. Everyone perked up.

“We all looked at each other like, 'What in the hell was that?'” he said.

The music was still blaring. Twenty seconds ticked by. Then more than 20 men in "riot gear" stormed in, carrying M-4 assault rifles, Wendy Lineweaver said.

A law enforcement official walks out of an armored vehicle in a staging area in Hillsdale County, Mich. during a search for a fugitive who is part of a Christian militia group March 29. Associated Press photo

“Don’t move! Don’t move!” they were yelling.

“Everybody sat there and just stared at them,” she said. “Nobody moved. We all had this glazed look in our eyes like it was a joke. I thought, ‘What, is Dave testing us?”

Lineweaver looked at the men in their olive drab uniforms, Kevlar helmets and bulletproof vests, searching for something that would identify them.

“Then I saw the FBI patches,” she said.

Lineweaver said she told herself she would cooperate because she didn’t do anything wrong. The agents ordered everyone to put their hands on the back of their heads and lock their fingers together. One by one, Hutaree members were told to stand up against the wall with their backs to the agents, Wendy Lineweaver said.

Their hands were put in zip ties, their shoes removed, and they were assisted to a face-down position on the floor and searched, the Lineweavers said.

The reason no Hutaree members had weapons, Wendy Lineweaver said, was because they didn't carry them everywhere they went. Members were not in uniforms, but in everyday clothing, Ken Lineweaver said.

David Stone, Tina Stone, David Stone Jr., Joshua Clough and Michael Meeks were arrested, the Lineweavers said. The Lineweavers were told they weren't being charged and were questioned in separate rooms. Wendy Lineweaver was questioned for 45 minutes, but her husband and stepson were questioned for about two hours, she said.

Agents asked what they knew about Hutaree members building explosives or possessing automatic weapons, Lineweaver said. Neither she nor her husband had any relevant information, she said.

Ken Lineweaver told AnnArbor.com no Hutaree members ever discussed explosives. He attended about 10 Hutaree trainings, he said.

“Nobody talked about making bombs,” Lineweaver said. "We never had any bomb-making classes and if somebody was, I never heard about it.”

One agent asked Lineweaver if he hated the government, he said. Lineweaver said he didn't.

“We (the people) are the government,” Lineweaver recalled telling the agent.

An agent asked Wendy Lineweaver whether she hated cops, she said.

Lineweaver said she explained she worked with Washtenaw County sheriff's deputies to search for missing Bridgewater Township residents. She told AnnArbor.com she doesn't have any issues with local cops or federal law enforcement agents.

"Those guys that interviewed me are federal agents and they treated me with respect,” she said. “Those guys were nice.”

A traumatic experience

Lineweaver, her husband and their son returned home. Lineweaver said her stepson went to bed, but she and her husband went to a Manchester Township home to talk to members of the Michigan Militia Corps Wolverines, 9th Division, 13th Brigade. The members had just finished a meeting.

Michigan Militia member James Schiel, second from left, holds a debriefing with fellow members of the Michigan Militia, from left, Wendy Lineweaver and her two dogs Bella and Brix, and a member who goes by the name Chainsaw during the Bridgewater Township search. Lon Horwedel | AnnArbor.com

"We went through the whole thing with those guys, and naturally they were upset," she said.

"It's just been horrible. We didn't sleep for two days."

Meanwhile, FBI agents in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana executed eight search warrants in a four-and-a-half hour span during the raids targeting Hutaree. The indictment wasn't unsealed until two days later.

That's when the Lineweavers learned nine Hutaree members were accused of conspiring to levy war against the United States. Among other allegations, investigators say members discussed killing a cop, then attacking the funeral procession motorcade with homemade bombs.

“When the indictment got unsealed, it was really hard to believe that was the case,” Wendy Lineweaver said. “It was a really hard pill to swallow.”

Lineweaver is a nursing assistant, and her husband of nine years is a contractor. They were members of the unit for roughly two years. To join, someone simply had to show up for training, Ken Lineweaver said.

The Lineweavers said they are not aware of any Hutaree members making threats against law enforcement. If someone wanted to harm a cop, Wendy Lineweaver said they would have had to get past her first.

She said she wasn't aware of the e-mail prosecutors say David Stone sent Dec. 8, 2008, encouraging militia members to fight the ATF.

"We have nothing to hide, and we didn't have anything to do with it," she said. "I don't condone any attack on any form of law enforcement."

Scott, his wife and Dan

The Lineweavers suspect Scott and his "wife," whose name they don't recall, are both undercover agents. They suspect Dan is an undercover agent or informant, they said.

FBI Special Agent Sandra Berchtold, a bureau spokeswoman in Detroit, declined to comment Friday about the memorial service.

The FBI has said an undercover agent infiltrated Hutaree.

Dan told the Lineweavers he was a former Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia (SMVM) member, but joined Hutaree because he liked the unit more.

SMVM members have said they cooperated in the FBI's probe.

But SMVM spokesman Mike Lackomar said Friday he's never heard of Dan.

Dan appeared to be in his mid-50s and complained of minor health issues, the Lineweavers said. At one training, his knee was hurting him, Ken Lineweaver said. At another, he said he wasn't feeling well, but simply wanted to watch.

When the Lineweavers look back on everything, one training in Manchester Township stands out, they said, but they don't recall the date. Dan had a bandage on his hand.

“He said a "cop's weapon discharged at a shooting range and grazed his hand," Wendy Lineweaver said. Lineweaver said she told him she felt bad for him.

Ken Lineweaver recalled the night of March 25, when David Stone called to tell him about the memorial service that was scheduled for the 27th.

"He said Scott had called him, saying that Dan had died and his wife already had the funeral and come get this Hutaree (expletive) out of my house," Lineweaver said.

The Lineweavers never met Dan's wife. Like Scott, they didn't know Dan's last name. Dan claimed to work for an auto company, they said. When people showed up at trainings, Wendy Lineweaver said she didn't get involved in their business.

Waiting for the details

Of all the Hutaree members, the Lineweavers said they know Michael Meeks and Thomas Piatek the best. Both men are charged in the indictment. The Lineweavers cannot believe those two would be involved in illegal activity, they said.

Ken Lineweaver said he met Piatek at militia member Mark Koernke's house in Dexter a couple years ago. He met Meeks at an event Koernke attended in Livonia three years ago, he said.

Prosecutors say Meeks, an ex-Marine, was a heavy gunner and trusted member of Hutaree's inner-circle. Investigators say he made a hit list of federal judges and elected officials. Wendy Lineweaver said she never heard of any such list.

"That's what I'm most upset about is Mike," she said. "He would have run a million miles the other way had he even had a whiff of any of this."

This combo of eight photos provided by the U.S. Marshals Service shows from top left, David Brian Stone Sr., 44, of Clayton, Mich,; David Brian Stone Jr. of Adrian, Mich,; Tina Mae Stone; Jacob Ward, 33, of Huron, Ohio; and bottom row from left, Michael David Meeks, 40, of Manchester, Mich,; Kristopher T. Sickles, 27, of Sandusky, Ohio; Joshua John Clough, 28, of Blissfield, Mich.; and Thomas William Piatek, 46, of Whiting, Ind.

The Lineweavers weren't that close with David Stone, they said. But when Wendy Lineweaver was around him, she never heard him preaching, she said.

"If I had thought these people were right-wing wacko Christian freaks, I wouldn't have even gone near them," she said.

She acknowledges she wasn't always around Hutaree members, including when prosecutors say David Stone gave a speech recorded by an undercover agent, saying it was "time to strike and take our nation back."

Wendy Lineweaver isn't aware of a covert reconnaissance operation that prosecutors say Hutaree planned for this month that could have put an unsuspecting member of the public at risk.

"If there's any validity to it, it would be really unfortunate that (David) would put his friends and family in danger like that," she said.

Ken Lineweaver trained with Hutaree mostly because he enjoyed the exercise. He liked playing capture the flag during training, he said.

"That was fun," he said. "We’d split the group into two teams. One team would go out and hide and the other team would try to find them until they walked into their ambush or whatever.”

One time, David Stone set up fishing line during training on his Dover Township property and if somebody stumbled upon it, a "party popper" would go off, Lineweaver said.

Wendy Lineweaver wants people to know that the word Hutaree doesn't mean anything, she said. "Dave said it just sounded cool - that's why he picked it," she said.

The Lineweavers estimate there were about 20 members in the unit. It wasn't sophisticated enough to carry out any of the alleged plans, Wendy Lineweaver said.

"They couldn't have planned their way out of a paper sack," she said. "Trying to make these bozos into a paramilitary organization is ludicrous."

Ken Lineweaver is waiting to see how it plays out in court.

“I’d like to see the truth come out about what really went on,” he said. “I hope and pray that happens. Was Dave really plotting to do this? I’d like to find that out.”

Wendy Lineweaver said: "It's best to reserve judgment."

"These guys are innocent until proven guilty."

Lee Higgins is a reporter for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at (734) 623-2527 and email at leehiggins@annarbor.com.