It was supposed to be a new start when Misty Griffin - just shy of 19 - went to live with the strict Amish community.

After an isolated childhood on a remote mountain farm – raised in Amish ways and dress since she was around aged six – Griffin was initially hopeful. However, her new community’s emphasis on forgiveness, she says, meant they allowed a convicted sex offender to live nearby and the way they dealt with molestation and rape was up to six weeks of ‘shunning,’ what they called placed in the Bann.

But it was an early spring night that set Griffin’s life on a different trajectory after the bishop – the head of the church and a leader of the community – allegedly sexually assaulted and physically attacked her.

‘I had nowhere to go. I was going to go to a woman’s shelter because I honestly believed that the bishop was going to kill me. I was so scared. It was so terrifying,’ Griffin tells DailyMail.com.

Despite a lifetime of following restrictive rules and a cloistered childhood, Griffin gathered her courage and took the unusual and brave step to go to the police to report the bishop – and would ultimately leave the Amish. Now 36, Griffin is married and a nursing student working toward her bachelor’s degree on the West Coast, and is the author of the newly updated book, ‘Tears of the Silenced: An Amish True Crime Memoir of Childhood Sexual Abuse, Brutal Betrayal and Ultimate Survival.’

The bishop’s alleged attack on Griffin spurred her to leave the community, but it was her worry for the bishop’s children - she feared he was molesting one of his daughters - that would give her the strength to go to the police that spring night 13 years ago.

DailyMail.com verified through police reports, court documents and interviews that the bishop is currently in prison for molesting his daughter. Two other daughters accused him of molesting them, according to the documents. DailyMail.com contacted the bishop seeking comment, but did not receive a response.

Aired Nov 13, 2018