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A longtime youth pastor in New Hampshire killed himself just two days after he was fired from his church over “credible allegations” he was sexually assaulting children he was tasked with leading.
Jarrett Booker, 37, had served as the Pastor of Worship and Youth Ministry at Nashua Baptist Church for nearly a decade when his alleged victims came forward last month.
“Regrettably, on the evening of November 27, Jarrett Booker took his own life, refusing to face the consequences of his actions,” the church’s elders and deacons said in a statement.
“This event has added immeasurably to the complexity and pain of the situation.”
Officials at Nashua Baptist Church said they became aware of a criminal investigation into the alleged sexual assault just five days before Booker’s suicide.
Booker, a married father of one, worked “specifically with teenagers,” the church’s archived website shows.
A swift internal probe “revealed further evidence of misconduct,” religious leadership said, slamming the accused pervert’s actions as “inexcusable.”
The church is cooperating with the criminal investigation and “had encouraged Jarrett to do the same.”
The details surrounding the alleged assaults and how many victims Booker may have targeted remain unclear.
Nashua police had been investigating Booker for child sex offenses at the time of his suicide.
“We learned of the alleged crimes through an investigation by another police department,” a Nashua Police Department spokesperson told Patch. “The investigation is still ongoing even though the suspect is deceased.”
The nearby Hollis Police Department was also involved in the investigation, according to church officials.
Booker had not been charged with a crime relating to the accusations at the time of his suicide, records show.
The disgraced pastor described himself as “an unfaithful and unholy sinner changed by a faithful and Holy God,” according to his Facebook profile.
Before spending nearly a decade working with teenagers at Nashua Baptist, Booker worked as the youth pastor at Childrey Baptist Church in Nathalie, Virginia.
His mother, who still lives in Virginia, declined a request for comment from The Post.
Booker’s wife described the horrifying saga as “a blender of emotions, one that is still spinning violently at every turn.”
“JB had his demons, I won’t pretend that he didn’t. His choices caused harm. The hard truth I am learning is that there are questions for him that will go without answers in my lifetime,” she wrote on Facebook.
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