Crime Stories

The Satanic Sacrifice of Fifteen-Year-Old Elyse Pahler

In March of 1996, the body of fifteen year old Elyse Pahler was discovered brutally murdered near her home in Arroyo Grande, California. Three young boys that were acquaintances to Elyse, Jacob Delashmutt, Joseph Fiorella and Royce Casey were arrested for her murder after Royce converted to Christianity and confessed to her murder. Shortly after, Jacob and Joseph were arrested and all three pleaded no contest and received 25 years to life in prison.

On July 22, 1995 the murderous trio lured Elyse to a remote Eucalyptus field on the pretense of smoking marijuana. After the group smoked, Delashmutt strangled Elyse with a belt while Fiorella stabbed her in the neck; Casey restrained her hands. After her body was examined, a forensic pathologist determined that she received twelve fatal wounds and slowly bled to death. After her death, the three boys engaged in sexual intercourse with her corpse and one of Delashmutt's friends claimed he often boasted about returning to her body and repeatedly having sex with it.

According to Casey's testimony, Delashmutt and Fiorella wanted to sacrifice Elyse because she resembled the Virgin Mary; she had blonde hair, blue eyes, and was reportedly a virgin. They wanted to sacrifice a virgin because it was the "ultimate sin against God" and used it as a way to please satan in order to earn their ticket to hell and help their band, 'Hatred' become successful. The band was modeled off the popular death metal group, Slayer.

David and Lisanne Pahler, Elyse's parents believed that the Slayer songs "Postmortem" and "Dead Skin Mask" gave the killers a sort of manifesto to stalk, rape, torture, murder and commit acts of necrophilia on their daughter. They initially erected a law suit against the band in 1996 but it was postponed until the conclusion of the legal trial. In 2000 a judge dismissed the case under the grounds that there was no legal position to prosecute Slayer for their song lyrics. Shortly after, a second law suit was filed claiming that the band knowingly distributed harmful material to minors; this case was dismissed when the judge claimed he didn't find their music obscene or harmful to children.

In an interview with Washington Post, Delashmutt stated that the music was indeed destructive but that it wasn't the reason Elyse was murdered. He claimed that Fiorella was obsessed with her and was obsessed with killing her.

All three killers are still in prison.

CTTO