Megan Hutchinson
Staff Reporter
On July 22nd, 1995, Elyse Pahler left her house to meet up with three teenage boys and to later smoke marijuana with them. That evening, the three boys had held her down, stabbing her. After she was murdered, they continued to rape her lifeless corpse.
Royce Casey, one of her perpetrators later confessed to the crime after converting to Christianity and changing his faith. Casey had led authorities to the crime scene eight months earlier. In addition, he gave up the names of the other perpetrators, Jacob Delashmutt and Joseph Fiorella. Elyse Pahler’s autopsy had revealed she had been stabbed twelve times but none of those wounds were fatal; she had bled to death. Casey had also told authorities that Pahler was crying for her mother while being attacked.
The three boys had explained that this murder was a sacrifice to Satan as part of a ritual to make their band, Hatred, incredibly successful. Additionally, the boys had returned to the crime scene and had planned to kill her sooner. At the trial, the boys spoke about their idolization of the band, Slayer. The Pahler family had filed a civil lawsuit against the band claiming the band had some responsibility in their daughter’s murder. They stated that the bands songs such as “Postmortem” and “Dead Skin Mask” instructed rape, torture, and murder. However, the judge presiding over the trial had thrown out the case and stated, “There’s not a legal position that could be taken that would make Slayer responsible for the girl’s death. Where do you draw the line? You might as well start looking through the library at every book on the shelf.” During their trial, all three boys pleaded no contest and are serving life sentences for their crimes.
According to Film Daily, “Casey came forward because of his new religious beliefs but also because he feared Pahler wouldn’t be the only victim. He testified that he believed Delashmutt and Fiorella had planned to kill again. He also believed that he could be their next target after a falling out. Jacob Delashmutt later claimed that the boys carried out the murder because Joseph Fiorella was obsessed with Elyse Pahler”.
This case would later be the inspiration of the 2008 movie, Jennifer’s Body in which a band had sacrificed a believed virgin in order to gain popularity and success. However, the sacrificed girl is not truly a virgin and becomes a boy eating monster.
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