About misty
Misty Griffin is the best-selling author of Tears of the Silenced, a memoir that sheds light on child abuse and sexual assault cover-ups in Amish and other strict religious communities. She wrote the book to raise awareness—and to break the silence surrounding abuse where reporting is often actively discouraged or forbidden.
Her powerful story follows her journey from a severely abused childhood on a remote mountain ranch, through years of isolation in an Amish community where abuse was never reported or punished, to her escape and fight to protect her sister and bring her abusers to justice—all while navigating a modern world she had never known.
Tears of the Silenced has sold over 500,000 eBook copies and reached Amazon’s Top 100 Bestseller list seven times. In 2022, it was adapted into a dramatic screenplay by six-time Emmy Award winner Elizabeth Page. The memoir is widely recommended by health professionals, educators, law enforcement, and social workers, and has empowered countless abuse survivors to recognize that what they endured was not their fault.
Now a registered nurse, happily married and a mother, Misty has devoted her life to protecting children from the horrors she lived through. She served as a consulting producer on Sins of the Amish, the groundbreaking documentary series about abuse in cloistered communities, which premiered on Peacock in May 2022.
Misty has personally advocated in Washington, D.C., meeting with a member of congress to discuss sexual abuse among the Amish and Mennonites and she is currently pushing to expand Erin’s Law to private and religious schools and introduce new federal protections through her proposed Child Rights Act.
Her ongoing petition calls on Congress to take action—and give every child, no matter where they live or how they’re educated, the legal protection they deserve.
TEARS OF THE SILENCED
a true crime memoir
by Misty griffin
When Misty was six years old her family started to live and dress like the Amish. Misty and her sister were kept as slaves on a mountain ranch where they were subjected to almost complete isolation, sexual abuse and extreme physical violence. Her step-father kept a loaded rifle by the door at all times to make sure the young girls were too terrified to try to escape. They also knew that no rescue would ever come because only a couple of people even knew we existed or did not know them well enough to care.
When Misty reached her teens, her parents feared we would escape and took us to an Amish community where they were adopted and became baptized members. Misty was devastated to once again find herself in a world of fear, animal cruelty and sexual abuse. Going to the police was forbidden. A few years later, Misty was sexually assaulted by the bishop. As Misty recalls,”I knew I had to get help and one freezing morning in early March I made a dash for a tiny police station in rural Minnesota. When I refused to recant my police report I was excommunicated from the Amish and found myself plummeted into the strange modern world with only a second grade education and no ID or social security card. To all abuse survivors out there, please be encouraged, the cycle of abuse can be broken. Today, ten years later, I am a nursing student working towards my Masters degree and a child abuse awareness activist. This is my story.”
“A must read for everyone who has ever felt imprisoned by others as well as by their own beliefs.”
―Susyn Reeve, Heart Healing: The Power of Forgiveness to Heal a Broken Heart
“As a physician and having a close relationship with a sexual assault treatment center, this book illustrates very well the evils that are perpetrated on victims of sexual assault and abuse. Also, the addition of brainwashing makes the pain even greater. This book is a must read.”
-Marvin Eastlund, M.D.