It was advertised on Craigslist as “a job of a lifetime.”And two men in search of work apparently fell for the bogus ad that promised $300 a week and use of a two-bedroom trailer on a “secluded and beautiful” 688-acre piece of southern Ohio farmland.“It will be a real get away for the right person,” the ad read.Of the two men who responded to the ad, one is dead, the other is wounded.Authorities have charged 16-year-old Brogan Rafferty, a Stow-Munroe Falls High School junior, with attempted murder and complicity to attempted murder.Rafferty’s longtime church mentor and friend, Richard Beasley, 52, is being held in the Summit County Jail on unrelated prostitution and other charges. The pair was arrested Wednesday. Authorities say they conspired to place the ad as a trap for robbery or murder.Beasley, a career criminal who called himself a chaplain and ran a Christian-based halfway house in Akron until last year, is considered a suspect in the shootings that took place in the rural farm setting near Caldwell in Noble County, several police sources have confirmed.On Friday, family members and church friends from The Chapel in Akron described the years-old relationship between man and boy. Beasley, they said, acted as Rafferty’s mentor after the last round of the Akron man’s 15 years in prison.They were, especially at church, inseparable. No one saw them as killers.“That just doesn’t sound like Richard,” said Carol Beasley, 71, the suspect’s mother. “He was trying to mentor Brogan for years. I just hope to God this is all false.”Rafferty, a strapping teen hovering over 6 feet tall, was quiet, but well-groomed when attending Sunday services. His home life was troubled, they said.The teen’s church days grew fewer this year as Beasley once again ran afoul of the law, accused of trafficking painkillers and later, running a prostitution ring out of his former Yale Street home near South Main Street and I-76.Authorities say the Craigslist ads first appeared on the classified ad website in early October. The first victim became known to police Nov. 6 when a former Canton man, now living in South Carolina, visited the farmland for work and wound up shot in the arm.On Tuesday, the body of a Florida man was found buried in a shallow grave on the farmland. The man’s identity has not been released.Mentor blamedRafferty’s parents blamed Beasley for involving their son in his crimes.Yvette Rafferty met with her son Thursday in a Zanesville juvenile detention facility and said his lip quivered in anger toward Beasley. She said her son told her he did not witness either shooting, but on one occasion, saw Beasley return out of breath and “distraught” after meeting with the man who had been shot but survived.He said he did not know about the man killed, she said.She believes her son would have been killed himself had he turned on Beasley.“A detective told me if Rich thought Brogan said anything or did anything against Rich, I wouldn’t have a son,” she said.Michael Rafferty, the teen’s father, said Beasley manipulated his son during what was supposed to be a Christian-based friendship.“There’s a monster involved, but [my son’s] not the one,” he said.Rafferty, 52, said he has known Beasley for about 20 years and called him a friend. He believed Beasley’s claims of being reformed and said he trusted his friend to guide his son. Church appeared to be a solid bond between the two. It was a mentoring friendship that spanned about a decade, the father said.But earlier this year, when he learned Beasley was facing a return to prison for what could be a long stint, he cautioned his son to avoid Beasley. The warnings, he said, were not heeded.“Rich was desperate, but I never thought he’d do something like this,” he said. “He’s certainly stripped my life and my son’s life at this point.”He said his son is represented by a public defender.Rhonda Kotnik, an Akron attorney representing Beasley, said she has spoke only briefly with her client. They did not discuss the latest accusations over the phone. She said she intends to meet him in person on Monday and declined comment on the Noble County case.A Noble County judge on Friday placed a gag order over law enforcement that bars them from giving more details on the shootings.“Brogan had a hard life and shame on Richard for taking him with him,” a church member said Friday. “I never thought of Brogan as violent. He had a kind spirit.”Lured to farmlandNoble County Sheriff Stephen Hannum said Thursday that his department’s investigation began after the South Carolina man survived seven hours in the heavily wooded land after being shot in the arm.The man, identified as Scott W. Davis, according to court records cited by the Columbus Dispatch, told deputies he was lured first to Marietta to meet with two men about an ad on Craigslist seeking a worker to help on a 688-acre cattle ranch.After eating in Marietta, the victim and the two men drove to Caldwell and then to Stock Township. At some point, the men got out of the vehicle to walk. It was then that he heard a gun being cocked from one of the two men who placed the ad.He deflected the weapon and ran, but wound up shot in the arm. After seven hours, he found a woman’s home and called police.The land is near the home of Beasley’s friend, a man he met years ago in prison.Days after the shooting, a Boston woman called deputies about her missing twin brother who she said answered the same Craigslist ad. On Tuesday, cadaver dogs found the body in a shallow grave. He had been missing since late October.Neither man has been publicly identified.“We believe the attempted murder of victim number one and the likely murder of victim number two are connected and possibly committed by the same person,” Hannum said in his statement.Crime and redemptionBeasley’s parents, Carol, a retired popular Buchtel High School secretary, and Charles, a local trucker, have been married for 48 years. On Friday, they were praying for the victims as well as their son and Rafferty, a boy they’ve known for years through church.The Beasleys raised three children on the city’s west side. Richard was the oldest sibling to two younger sisters.His parents say Beasley’s IQ was once measured at 156, but he only lasted two years in the U.S. Navy and a short time at the University of Akron before heading to Texas in the 1980s to find work.Instead, he found prison.Beasley served about seven years for a series of break-ins, his parents said. Later, he served seven more years on a firearms conviction. A daughter was born before he was incarcerated in the mid-90s. A divorce followed.When he returned to Akron in 2003 or 2004, Beasley told his church-going parents that he had found God. A back injury he suffered in a traffic crash gave him a settlement that allowed him to buy the Yale Street house. He turned it into a boarding room for people coming out of prison.He also began attending church at The Chapel and encouraging Rafferty to do the same.Over the years, Beasley became a regular at the Summit County Courthouse, advocating for inmates, ensuring judges that the defendants were seeking counseling for their addictions or wayward ways.“He was reformed and he was taking defendants into court trying to help them,” said Kotnik, his attorney. “He was taking these people under his wing and speaking on their behalf. We all know him. The judges all know him.”‘Con man’Beasley’s popularity grew as he spoke for more and more defendants. Some came to call him “Chaplain Rich.” Others called him something else.“He was a con man,” said the Rev. Fred Lester of the Akron Bible Church.Lester and the church pastor, the Rev. Randy Baker, said they developed a relationship with Beasley, who briefly volunteered at the church and aided their mission of helping people coming out of prison. Afterward, Beasley opened his own halfway house.But while Baker and Lester assisted men adjusting to life, Beasley was offering help and shelter to men and women at his converted boarding house. A break occurred between Baker’s church and Beasley soon after.Later, according to court and police records, prostitution was taking place at the Yale Street home. “He was always up to something crazy,” Baker said. “He was smooth.”“He was clever enough to make you believe his lies,” a family friend added.Friendship developsMeanwhile, over the years, a young Rafferty took a liking to Beasley, a friend of his father. Coming from a divorced household, Rafferty would jump at the chance to attend services at The Chapel, friends said.As a young boy, the teen would wear ties and sometimes a wrinkled shirt or oversized suit, trying to fit the role of an adult at church services. He would ride to The Chapel and sit with the Beasleys — Richard, Carol and Charles. He was quiet and rarely joined in with the younger church members.“He was a great kid, always polite,” Carol Beasley said. “Very clean-cut. Very quiet.”School officials have declined to comment on Rafferty. Friends say he was an average student who wore a dark trench coat for a period, but was ecstatic about getting his driver’s license this fall. He thought of attending a trade school or joining a motorcycle club when he got older, just like his father.“He was a good kid with a troubled life,” a church friend said.For the past several months, Richard Beasley had been on the lam. He skipped a court date in August in Summit County Common Pleas Court. His parents said they haven’t seen him since then.Meanwhile, Rafferty’s appearances at church also dwindled. Friends said that if Beasley wasn’t at church, it was unlikely that Rafferty would be there. He last attended church in October, shortly after the Craigslist ad appeared.“This is all a mystery to us,” said Charles Beasley, sitting in his living room chair. “We can’t even picture something like this. What could possibly be the motive?”Phil Trexler can be reached at 330-996-3717 or ptrexler@thebeaconjournal.com.Beacon Journal staff writers David Knox, Ed Meyer and Paula Schleis contributed to this report.