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If you thought that ruining Rhea Grunewald's life and slaughtering three of her friends would be enough for Cecilia's stain, then perhaps you haven't yet fully grasped the depths of her depravity. The witch was far from done with her crusade but, thanks to Mr. X, it would have to wait. He ignored her orders to kill Rhea's son, Joshua, and double-crossed her instead.
However, after a crooked cop ruined his attempt at exposing Cecilia's murderous cult, he was forced to go into hiding. He wasn't alone. Ria also disappeared.
She hoped that cutting all ties with her loved ones would save them from suffering the same fate as Natasha Berger, Joy Bunzire, and Pastor Reginald Bendixon. Of course, this only fueled Cecilia's desire to cause Rhea pain, so she made another attempt to have Joshua murdered.
She struck a deal with three outsiders, but the men never followed through. After Cecilia's plans to execute Joshua were thwarted once again, she and her followers lay dormant for two years. The investigation into the satanic murders went cold and the cases remained unsolved.
the detectives still hadn't found any concrete evidence that connected their prime suspects to the homicides. And, thanks to Colonel X, those who knew the truth about Alectus Brudeus were too scared to come forward. The cult eventually reemerged in 2015, more bloodthirsty than ever. In the space of just six months, their body count almost doubled. Something was different though. Rather than killing to rid Kruger's Dorp of evil,
they began murdering for greed. Cecilia no longer had to fabricate elaborate stories or twist biblical scripture to convince them to kill. Zach Valentine and Mirinda Stane had become accustomed to murder, and Mirinda's children, Marcel and LaRue, were trapped. All Cecilia had to do was make the call. Part 1: Broke and Bloodthirsty Cecilia lived a life of luxury during the years Electus Brudeus was idle.
When her followers began asking questions, she lied and told them it was her inheritance, gifts from relatives or the perks of Andrii's newest promotion. In reality, Cecilia squandered their hard-earned money on furnishing her flat, a Kawasaki Ninja motorbike, expensive biking gear, quad bikes, name brand clothing and parties.
The rest of her followers' donations were spent on bribes, burner phones, and a cache of weapons and ammunition they started stockpiling during their 2012 killing spree. Cecilia was practically broke by November 2015. Worse, her most generous benefactor, Zach, had nothing left to give her. He'd already relinquished around 2 million rands over the years, which is a little over 100,000 American dollars.
Along with this money, Cecilia also squandered most of Michaela Valentine's life insurance payout. After quitting his job, Zach tried to start his own business using money he borrowed from his parents and those of his murdered wife. However, he was making far less than he used to. He could barely look after himself, let alone fund Cecilia's lavish lifestyle. Instead of living within the means of her husband's salary or getting a job herself,
Cecilia devised a deadly scheme. Earlier that month, Electus Brudeus had befriended John Barnard, a drug addict who lived an aimless existence at the bottom of the food chain. Sensing that he'd be easily manipulated to murder, Cecilia welcomed him into her inner circle. John was elated to finally have like-minded people in his corner, but knew he would have to earn his keep.
One day, the group convened to discuss their dwindling funds. They needed money fast, so Cecilia declared that they'd take it by force. John saw this as an opportunity to make himself useful and offered up his employers, Peter and Joan Meyer, as their first targets.
The couple owned a particularly fruitful printing company that they'd started from scratch. However, the drug addict felt that they weren't paying him fairly, so he threw them to the wolves. He told Electus Prudeus that the Myers had stashed a boatload of cash in their 15 million rand mansion in Nordheave Hall, an upmarket suburb of Kruger's Dorp. At least, that's what he'd heard from the guys at work.
Impressed with John's initiative, Cecilia began colluding with the drug addict to get the Myers' money. They did some digging and discovered that the couple had recently procured an enormous property that they planned to turn into a water park. However, their progress was being suffocated by a lack of funding. Cecilia was thrilled. This was the opening they needed.
She instructed Zach and Miranda to pose as government officials and contact the Meyers under the pretense of investing in their new business venture. Miranda agreed to finance the project, but first required 1 million rands to cover the costs of the legal work that would be involved. Astonishingly, it worked. The pair managed to secure a meeting with Peter and Joan at the residence on November 27th to discuss the matter further. The couple wasn't completely convinced though.
Peter was particularly hesitant to meet Zach and Marinda alone. Something felt off about their proposal, but he and his wife desperately needed funding. Peter confided in a friend about the dodgy situation and asked him to sit in on the meeting. The Meyers' son, Nicholas, was going out that evening and they felt that their friend's presence would be helpful. In a tragic twist of events, their friend ended up running late.
Rather than waiting for him, the Myers reluctantly met with Zach and Marinda alone. Part two, money, murder, and the Myers. Nicholas arrived home later that evening with his girlfriend. It was relatively early, but all the lights were off and the house was eerily silent. He called out to his parents before being interrupted by an agonized shriek coming from their living room.
Your parents! His girlfriend cried. Nicholas bolted into the room and found her staring at the floor in horror. There, next to the coffee table, were his mother and father. They were lying face down with blood smeared all over the floor around them. Nicholas fell to his knees and turned them over. Their upper bodies, throats, and faces were riddled with deep gashes and puncture wounds. Any hope Nicholas had of tending to their injuries was dashed at that moment.
Peter and Joan Meyer were long dead. There was no helping them now. The police arrived shortly after their bodies were discovered and initially chalked their murder up to an armed robbery. Nicholas and her sister, Nina, had other theories. They suspected that the shady government officials who met with their parents that afternoon had something to do with it. They were right.
hours earlier, after the Meyers had let Zack and Marinda into their home. The pair turned on them. Marinda held the couple at gunpoint, while Zack restrained them with cable ties. He rummaged through their home for the small fortune they supposedly hid there. However, he could only come up with a measly 700 rands and the couple's cell phones. Enraged, Zack tried to beat the truth out of Peter and Joan. It worked, though he didn't like the answer.
Like most South Africans, the couple kept their money in the bank to avoid being targeted by the desperate have-nots that surrounded them. There was no jackpot to be found in the Myers' home. John was wrong. The deadly duo couldn't leave the couple alive after blowing their cover. So, Zach whipped out a knife and stabbed them to death in the characteristic frenzy he would later become known for. We don't know which victim was forced to watch as their spouse was sliced to pieces. Perhaps that's for the best.
What we do know is that Peter and Joan Meyer died on their living room floor over a few hundred grand and two cell phones. The Meyer family hired a private investigator who managed to obtain footage from a nearby security camera. It captured a car driving up the Meyer's Road a few hours before the couple was brutally murdered.
the detective handed the tape over to the police, who immediately identified the vehicle as belonging to Zach Valentine. Zach was interrogated soon after and admitted that he and Marinda had met with the Meyers at their home that day. The investigating officer took a statement from the pair, who both denied any involvement in Peter and Joan's deaths. According to them, their meeting was cut short when another couple, who were already at the property, got into a heated argument with the Meyers.
The investigator found their story dubious. If it were true, why did they never come forward to identify the apparent killer couple? Part 3: Pseudocide. Mirinda managed to convince the police that she was an innocent, church-going bystander caught up in a sinister coincidence. They honed in on Zach instead and ordered him to submit to a polygraph test. Knowing he would fail, Zach turned to his divine leader, Cecilia, for help.
She graciously came to his rescue and called a group meeting to address the situation. After much deliberation, Electus Prudeus devised a heinous scheme that would not only liberate Zack from police persecution for good, but solve their financial problems too. He had to die, but not in the way you might think.
The cult decided that Zack needed to commit pseudocide. In simple terms, they wanted him to fake his own death. After taking out a substantial life insurance policy in his name, of course, he was happy to oblige. The former insurance broker opted for a policy that would pay out a whopping 3.5 million rands in the event of his untimely death and listed Cecilia as his beneficiary. However, there was one problem with their plan.
they couldn't claim the cash without a body. Electus Brudeus needed to find a man who was roughly the same age, build, and height as Zach. Facial features weren't too important. They had a plan to get rid of those. It only took a few days before they found the perfect victim, Jared Jackson, a 41-year-old recovering addict and local street vendor who often sold snacks near Cecilia's flat. The cult befriended Jared and his pregnant fiance, Candace Ellison.
On a few occasions, they even bought all his stock under the guise of helping the couple pay for a few more nights in the homeless shelter. Their generosity eventually got the vendor to trust them enough for them to make their move. On December 16th, two days before Zach's scheduled polygraph test, he and the then 20-year-old LaRue asked poor Jared to join them on a fishing trip. The vendor eagerly agreed. He hopped into the passenger seat of Zach's BMW with LaRue sitting directly behind him.
Zach then drove off towards the Free State, a South African province almost four hours away. Marinda and John followed in Zach's other car, a Mercedes. About halfway into their journey, LaRue offered Jared some juice. He gratefully accepted the refreshment, not knowing that it had been spiked with several of Cecilia's sleeping pills. As the drugs kicked in, Jared gradually became lethargic and eventually unresponsive.
After a silent nod from Zach, LaRue reached over the headrest and strangled the helpless vendor with a nylon rope. Zach then pulled off onto the side of the road, just a few kilometers from Petristain, a small farming town near the Free State. Marinda and John joined them shortly afterward. The group then dragged Jared's lifeless corpse into the driver's seat of the Mercedes and pushed it off the road until it hit a fence.
Satisfied that it resembled the scene of an accident, they poured paraffin over the car, set it alight, and sped off toward Petrus Dane and the BMW. After about five minutes, the foursome made a U-turn and headed back to Kruger's Dorp. They drove past the Mercedes on the way home to evaluate their handiwork. It was engulfed in flames with black smoke billowing above. Part Four: Dead Man Walking
Jared's remains were charred beyond recognition by the time the Petra Stain police found the staged wreck. Even so, they managed to trace the Mercedes back to Zach Valentine. The small town officers clearly didn't examine the scene for evidence of skid marks or the source of the blaze because they immediately labeled it an accident. Posing as Zach's fictional sister, Miranda showed up at the mortuary the following day and falsely identified his body, crocodile tears and all.
Incredulously, her performance worked and the coroner issued a death certificate for Zach Valentine. Just two days after Zach's tragic death, LaRue called the insurance agency to claim his life insurance on behalf of Cecilia. Apparently, her grief had rendered her speechless. It didn't stop her from trying to cash in on her so-called lifelong friend's death though.
Thankfully, the agent was more perceptive than the police. She immediately flagged the early death claim as suspicious, resulting in it being rejected. Shane Chatzkilowitz, a life insurance forensic specialist, was assigned to vet the case after Cecilia bombarded the agency with daily calls inquiring about her claim. He agreed to meet with her at her Kosano flat.
As per company protocol, Shane recorded their interaction and captured every cringe-worthy second of Cecilia's act. She spent the entire interview with her arms crossed defensively over her chest. Worse, an obviously agitated LaRue could be seen pacing through the corridor behind her. Even for those without Shane's impressive title, it was obvious that the pair were hiding something.
The specialist, who himself knew more than he was letting on, instantly picked up on Cecilia's deceptive body language. He began asking her questions he already knew the answers to, hoping to catch her out in a lie, which he did many times. She offered an especially telling answer to one concerning the nature of Michaela Valentine's death in 2012.
"She died," Cecilia stated. Noticing Shane's disbelief, she explained that Michaela was murdered in an apparent armed robbery and fabricated several unnecessary and obviously false details. Then, out of nowhere, Cecilia started rattling on about how Zach's death was an accident and described the state of his blackened, limbless remains without a tear in sight.
Overall, Cecilia centered the conversation around herself and the inconveniences that Zack's tragic death had caused her. She seemed particularly concerned about her already deteriorating health, but Shane wasn't convinced. According to him, those who try to convince others of their fragility are the most dangerous of all. Once your guard is down, they go for the jugular, which is possibly the most apt description of our story's villain yet.
Shane started to suspect that Cecilia was involved in Zach's untimely death. His suspicions were confirmed when she stated that she went to boarding school in Petristane, where the supposed accident occurred. After their meeting, Shane had a blood typing test conducted on the remains found in the Mercedes. Of course, the results didn't match those in Zach's file. Shane realized that Zach hadn't been murdered. He hadn't even died. He was still alive.
Part Five: An Appointment with Death Unaware that Shane Chatzkilowitz was onto them, Electus Pradeus busied themselves with a more obvious dilemma: faking Zach's death was a mistake, and a particularly stupid one at that. The former insurance broker was the cult's financial lifeline, until he was declared legally dead. Zach Valentine no longer existed and thus couldn't be employed or even open a bank account.
Mirinda tried her best to support the cult, but she and her two adult children were already struggling to survive on her meager teacher's salary. Zach resorted to renting a room in a cheap hotel under the name Jacques de Villiers using a fake ID. Soon, even that became too expensive for Mirinda. Zach quickly grew bitter. After devoting his life to Cecilia, he was left with no wife, income, or identity.
Now, he was about to be homeless too. Zach threatened to go to the police if his situation didn't change soon. Cecilia knew this was no idle threat, so she masterminded another murder for money spree. In early 2016, Alektis Prudeus began singling out professionals who Zach knew personally. He specifically targeted previous clients and individuals he'd worked with in the past, as he had a good idea of how much money they kept available in their current accounts.
There was no room for error at this point. Zach chose Glenn McGregor as their newest victim. The 57-year-old tax consultant lived alone in a neighboring mining town where Electus Pradeus wasn't yet known. Marinda posed as a potential client and set up a meeting to discuss her tax needs. On January 27th, she arrived at Glenn's small holding with Marcel and LaRue in tow.
The tax consultant welcomed the seemingly innocent family inside, only to have Marinda pull a gun on him the moment the door closed. The scene was so outlandish that Glenn found it hard to believe. Apparently, when Marinda demanded that he hand over his banking details, he actually laughed at her. LaRue decided to call his bluff and got in his face. But Glenn wasn't kidding.
He bravely lashed out at the 20-year-old, although he didn't get very far before Marinda shot him twice in the lower back. She then screamed at her children to restrain the bleeding man and, once he was under control, took his cell phone and ordered him to surrender his bank pin. Glenn complied, hoping it would save his life, but his fate was sealed the moment he trusted the mother of two. Marinda was eager to impress Cecilia with a substantial payday.
However, when she logged into Glenn's banking app, her stomach dropped. He only had 6,000 rands in his account. That wouldn't last them very long. Still, after firing two rounds, there was no time to waste ruminating. Marinda cleared out his account and hastily made an instant transfer. She also made an amateur mistake. Marinda was no criminal mastermind. She was merely a pawn, one who sent stolen money directly into her personal account.
Once the transfer was complete, she turned her attention back to Glenn. Surprisingly, the tax consultant was still breathing, so LaRue quickly put an end to that by squeezing out whatever breath was left. The stained children then dragged Glenn's limp corpse into the bath and filled it with scalding hot water to wash away any fingerprints.
In just a few minutes, the Staines had more money in their pockets and more blood on their hands. However, it wasn't long before the 6,000 rands they stole dried up and Zach was once again facing homelessness. In April of 2016, he was forced to sleep in rough conditions, bouncing from shelter to shelter and began putting pressure on Cecilia to do something about it.
She decided that it was time for Electus Pradeus to take another victim and fatten their collective wallet. But they didn't stop there. The cult went on to commit three more murders by appointment, a pattern that led to the media christening their killing spree as the Appointment Murders. Part Six: The Appointment Murders. On May 10th, Cecilia aimed her cult at Anthony Schollfield, a 64-year-old financial consultant, and pulled the trigger.
She had LaRue call him to schedule an appointment for 6 p.m. that evening at a nearby mall. However, when Anthony texted that he was on his way, LaRue made up an excuse to lure him to his mother's flat instead. The consultant parked in front of the Cosanna apartment building and followed LaRue to the second floor, not knowing that Marinda and Marcel were waiting for him.
Once inside, Anthony was ambushed by Marinda. Just like before, she aimed a gun at his head and ordered her children to restrain him. Marcel and Leroux obediently tied Anthony to a chair and relieved him of his wallet. Marinda then threatened the consultant with death if he didn't reveal his PIN number, but he remained tight-lipped until they began torturing him.
The stains inflicted unimaginable suffering upon Anthony while John blared music from another room to drown out his screams. Eventually, unable to endure any more pain, the consultant caved. Marinda gave his bank card to Marcel and John and sent them to the closest ATM with orders to confirm that his PIN number was correct. Marcel withdrew 16,600 rands from his account and called her mother as instructed.
Satisfied that her daughter had the money in hand, Miranda turned to her son and nodded. A few seconds later, Anthony Schollfield died with LaRue's hands clamped around his throat. After Marcel and John had returned home, the group wrapped the consultant's body in black bin bags and stuffed it into a wheelie bin and wheeled it outside. They then squeezed Anthony's corpse into the trunk of his own car and drove it to a primary school where they abandoned it.
The consultant's remains were discovered by the neighborhood watch later that evening. The Rue tried to withdraw more money from Anthony's account the following day, but his cards were already blocked. So, Electus Brudeus arranged another appointment. On May 26th, financial consultant Kevin McAlpine called his wife Kezia, who was seven months pregnant at the time, and let her know that he'd be late for dinner. He had a meeting with a new client at 6 p.m.,
When Kevin didn't arrive home that evening, Kezia worried that he might have been hijacked and called the tracking company to find his car. Just 15 minutes later, the mother-to-be received a call that left her in such a state, she had to be rushed to the hospital. Kevin's car had been found and his lifeless body was discovered inside. The responding officers immediately noticed the similarities between the 29-year-old's murder and that of Anthony Schofield.
Both were financial consultants who were strangled during a 6pm appointment. And, just like Anthony, Kevin's body was found wrapped in refuse bags in the trunk of his car, with money missing from his account. Journalists quickly caught wind of the story and rumors of a possible serial killer targeting financial advisors swept through Kruger's Dorp like a virus.
Those who usually did business through appointments became increasingly paranoid and started canceling their meetings. Hun Lee Luttagon was one of those professionals. However, as the 52-year-old estate agent didn't work in finance, she continued meeting with clients.
On May 30th, just four days after Kevin McAlpine's murder, Hundley headed to the Cassana apartment building for an appointment with Marinda. As a woman living in a country with some of the world's highest rates of gender-based violence, she was used to being on guard. She parked at the hospital across the road in full view of the security cameras and informed her husband that she'd arrived. Ten minutes later, Marinda showed up and took Hundley up to their flat.
The moment the door closed, the estate agent was ambushed, just like Anthony and Kevin. However, unlike them, Hunley was prepared. Earlier that day, she told her husband to alert the authorities if she didn't contact him by 7 p.m. She realized she had a chance to save herself and bravely took it. The estate agent insisted that her money was kept in separate accounts and said she needed to make a transfer on her phone before they could withdraw it.
Marinda handed it over and Hunley cunningly transferred 3000 rands from a joint savings account that she and her husband never used, knowing he would get a notification. She then gave Marcel the wrong PIN number to buy herself more time. It worked, to a degree. After getting warning messages about the transfer and several failed withdrawals, Hunley's husband knew she was in danger. He contacted their son, Francois, who raced to the hospital where she'd parked her car.
What followed can only be described as devastating. Francois wasn't stupid. All signs pointed to his mother being the next headline in the appointment murder saga. His hands shook as he measured the space between her trunk and the road. He was trying to see if it was weighed down, but truthfully, he didn't want to know.
As they waited for the police to arrive, Francois, his wife, and a few friends who came to help formed a circle and prayed together. Meanwhile, in the apartments across the road, Marinda had caught on to Hunley's delayed tactics and began beating her in a rage. Oblivious to the ongoing search outside, the estate agent finally gave up her PIN number. Once Marcel had withdrawn the cash, Hunley Ludegon was strangled to death by Leroux just meters away from her distraught family.
Once again, Electus Pradeus found themselves with more money and more problems. The police had cordoned off the street in front of their apartments. Marcel was stuck outside the perimeter and they were trapped inside with Hunley's body. They decided to wait it out and watched as the police broke into their victim's car. Hunley's relatives left the scene once it was clear that she wasn't inside. With no leads as to where the estate agent had been taken,
The authorities eventually followed and took her car with them. By 11 pm, the street had returned to its usual stillness, so Electus Perdeus gathered downstairs at Cecilia's bedroom to receive their orders. She instructed Leroux and John to drive out of town and dispose of Hunley's body. The pair did as they were told and dumped her corpse in an empty field. It was discovered the following day by a group of young children walking to school. Part 7:
Captain Ben Boyson, and the war room. Hunley's heart-rending demise marked the cult's 11th known victim. More so, it highlighted the appalling inadequacies of the Kruger's Door police force. Cecilia and her followers had been on their radar since the Overcomers Through Christ patrol bombing,
They were also the prime suspects in the satanic murders of 2012 and the more recent homicides of Peter and Joan Meyer. However, the cult was largely left alone by the police, aside from the colonel who protected them, of course. Worse still, the only officer who actively tried to bring Alectis Perdeus to justice, Captain Johann von Weick, was mysteriously taken off the case just as he came close to solving it.
Had he been allowed to continue building evidence against the cult, our story would have been far less bloody. Things were about to change though. Unley's murder, although tragic and senseless, also marked the moment the police were forced to pull up their socks. Every resident of Kruger's Dorp was now living in fear. The murderers weren't targeting financial advisors anymore. They were slaughtering ordinary individuals who were just doing their jobs.
The town consisted of a small community of people, most of whom had known each other since birth. They knew the victims, and they certainly knew the killers too. Yet, the police had three murders and zero suspects. The story quickly garnered nationwide media attention, and the townsfolk took it upon themselves to implement an unofficial curfew of 6:00 PM. Something had to be done, and the pressure was on for the police to do their part.
That's when Brigadier Money Victor, the provincial head of crime intelligence, stepped in. He was also the leader of the war room, a special task force of officers from various disciplines who came together to tackle difficult cases. They took over the appointment murders investigation and devoted their time to finding the links between the homicides. During one of these meetings, Captain Ben Boyson's name came up. He was experienced, respected, and stubbornly persistent.
Simply put, he was exactly the man Brigadier Victor needed. Captain Boyson was elected as the lead investigator on the case and quickly coordinated the war room's efforts. He took the footage the task force had obtained from the ATM security cameras and publicized photos of the individuals who'd used the victims' bank cards. It didn't take long before an anonymous resident identified them as LaRue and Marcel Stain.
Thanks to the tip, Brigadier Victor was able to have them detained, questioned, and photographed. The photos were then compared to those taken from the ATM footage and a facial image analysis report confirmed, without a doubt, that the Stain siblings were the culprits. In early June 2016, just three weeks into the investigation,
20-year-old LaRue and 18-year-old Marcel were arrested in connection with the appointment murders. The police were elated to have finally made a breakthrough in the case, but their work wasn't over yet. The fact that the Stain siblings had made the withdrawals didn't mean that they'd murdered the victims. It didn't prove that they worked alone either. The police still had several questions and needed a confession to answer them.
Marcel, who'd just graduated from high school with six distinctions, was anything but cooperative. She fought the investigators every step of the way and eventually gave them a flimsy explanation as to how the bank cards ended up in their possession. She claimed that Leroux had gotten the cards and PIN numbers from a gang of Nigerians and subsequently blamed the murders on them.
Surprisingly, LaRue offered no resistance. He hated the life of crime his mother had forced him into and was relieved to finally be able to come clean. He made a full confession without hesitation. However, not wanting to implicate his family and friends, he placed the blame squarely on his own shoulders. Captain Boyson was no rookie and immediately realized that LaRue was protecting someone.
He was far too timid and scrawny to have murdered and disposed of the three adult victims himself. Still, Boyson had no evidence to prove otherwise until the war room started digging into local homicides that bore striking similarities to their case. Part Eight, Connecting the Dots.
Eventually, the task force came across an unsolved double homicide that occurred in November 2015, the Meyer murders. Brigadier Victor looked into the case and noticed that the victims had an appointment on the day they were killed. The couple was scheduled to meet with Marinda Stane, the mother of LaRue and Marcel.
Captain Boyson speculated that the appointment murders might have been a family affair, but once again, he had no concrete evidence to prove it. At this stage, the rest of Electus Prudeus hadn't yet been implicated in the case.
That quickly changed when their pathetic attempt at faking Zach's death came back to bite them. Shane Chatzkilowitz, the life insurance forensic specialist, had handed his findings over to the police back in May when he realized that Zach was still alive. Zach's photograph was distributed to officers and informants across the West Rand. However, the tip that eventually cracked the pseudocide case came from an unlikely source, the girlfriend of a local policeman.
the woman volunteered at homeless outreach programs that were held by her church over one weekend every month. Zach, who went by the name Michael, had recently become a regular attendee but stood out from their usual bedraggled guests. After her boyfriend brought Zach's photograph home from work, the woman realized why. She waited until the next outreach event and took several shirtless photos of Michael while he swam.
After analyzing the tattoos and the pictures, the police were able to identify the man as Zach Valentine and arrested him for insurance fraud. Word of the arrest eventually reached Captain Boyson. Marinda Stane, his newest suspect, was implicated in the case after posing as Zach's non-existent sister to obtain his death certificate. Another name was also mentioned, Cecilia Stane. Boyson still couldn't conclusively prove that Marinda was involved in the recent murders.
However, this new information gave him an idea. Boyson needed to buy the war room more time to build evidence against Marinda and determine where Zack and Cecilia fit in. So, in June of 2016, just three days after the Stain siblings were caught, he arrested all three and charged them with intention to commit fraud.
Captain Boyson took a leap of faith when he made that decision, but it turned out to be well worth the risk. A few days after the arrests, one of his informants contacted him with an unexpected tip. Apparently, Marinda's classroom had a wealth of secrets pertaining to his case. Boyson approached the principal of the high school Marinda worked at with this information. However, the man was blinded by Marinda's facade as a devout, respectable teacher and was hesitant to give the police access.
The principal's reluctance didn't bother the captain though. It was nothing a warrant couldn't fix. Boyson returned to the school with a search warrant and a team of officers got busy hunting for evidence in Mirinda's classroom. To the captain's dismay, the search turned up nothing. He dismissed his team and took a moment alone to survey the room.
Boyson suddenly noticed something strange. There were two ovens in the classroom. They bore no significance to the subjects Marinda taught, so he decided to check inside. When he opened them, he smiled. The ovens were filled with bags of live ammunition. The principal's wife was also a teacher at the high school. After finding out about the ammunition Marinda stashed in her classroom, the woman approached Boyson with an interesting detail that had previously seemed insignificant.
She revealed that Mirinda had made changes to her will after her children were arrested and left a copy of it at the school for safekeeping. Intrigued, Captain Boyson took it in for evidence. The revised will showed that Mirinda had disowned her children and left everything to Cecilia Stane. Boyson wondered if LaRue would still be so tight-lipped upon hearing that his own mother had turned her back on him. So he decided to find out. Part 9. The End of Electus Perdeus
Captain Boyson knew that Marinda's betrayal would break her son's heart and hopefully prove that she wasn't worth protecting. He was right, though he wasn't prepared for the confession it led to. When LaRue read what his mother had written about him and his sister in her own handwriting, he broke down in tears. He was done protecting the woman who'd ruined their lives. Finally, LaRue revealed the truth, the whole truth.
He exposed Cecilia Stane as the cold-blooded criminal mastermind she was and told Captain Boyson the story of Alectis Brudeus. The detective was speechless. His suspect's body count jumped from 3 to 11 in a matter of hours. LaRue had not only linked Alectis Brudeus to the appointment murders, but every single homicide and crime the group committed since its formation in 2012.
He'd also mentioned a name that was new to Boyson, John Barnard. The drug addict was promptly brought down to the station for an interrogation, during which he was presented with LaRue's full confession. That was all it took for John to turn on his friends. The drug addict confessed to Captain Boyson, who was able to corroborate his story with LaRue's. The detective then approached the men and offered them reduced sentences in exchange for turning State's witness in the coming trial against their co-accused.
Both John and LaRue agreed. Boyson then locked himself in his office and spent the following two months painstakingly gathering evidence. He was so relentless in his pursuit of justice that he worked himself to the point of hospitalization. And even then, that didn't stop him.
Thanks to his dogged determination, the state built an impenetrable case against Alectus Brudeus. The trial of the Kruegersdorp cult killers began in late 2016, but only John Barnard faced conviction that year. As agreed, he pled guilty to the murders of Peter and Joan Meyer, Glenn McGregor, and Jared Jackson.
The drug addict was given 30 years in prison. However, 10 years were shaved off his sentence for agreeing to testify against his fellow fanatics. The original members of Electus Brudeus remained in prison to await their trial while the prosecution centralized their cases. There was another particularly interesting reason for the delay though.
State prosecutor, advocate Garrett Roberts, knew that Cecilia could potentially evade first-degree murder charges as she wasn't directly involved in the killings. He decided to prosecute the cult as a criminal organization, which would automatically make Cecilia the kingpin and indict them for racketeering. That way, he wouldn't be expected to prove that she physically participated in the murders, only that she benefited from them. That part was easy.
The unemployed couch potato's bank statements were teeming with deposits from her followers that dated back to 2012, one of which occurred directly after Glenn McGregor's murder. LaRue was next in line to stand trial, as he had already agreed to plead guilty. In an unexpected turn of events, his mother opted to do the same. When asked why, Marinda explained that God had told her she would be forgiven if she confessed. The mother and son were sentenced separately on May 16th, 2018.
Leroux Stain, who was then 22 years old, pled guilty to seven counts of first-degree murder and 11 other charges related to robbery and racketeering. He was sentenced to 35 years behind bars, which was reduced to 25 years in return for his cooperation. Although Marinda also pled guilty to her crimes, she never turned into a state's witness. More so, she was one of Cecilia's most active and eager underlings and was punished as such.
51-year-old Mirinda Stain was given 11 life sentences for the murders and slapped with an additional 115 years for several related charges, all of which would be served concurrently. After pleading not guilty, being denied bail, and sitting in jail for two years, it was time for Cecilia, Zach, and Marcel to face the music. Their much-anticipated trial commenced in October 2018 at the High Court of Johannesburg.
Like their murder spree, it proved to be nothing short of sensational. The court heard, from grown adults no less, that Cecilia was a 42nd generational witch. Several witnesses testified about her demonic powers, the High Knights, and her vendetta against Rhea Grunewald.
Rhea herself took the stand and offered an emotional testimony about how Cecilia's campaign left her traumatized, ostracized, and financially ruined. "Rhea Grunewald is dead. I lost everything." She sobbed. Cecilia denied everything, of course. She asserted that her followers had acted on their own accord.
Worse, she even went as far as claiming that she and Rhea had been in a romantic relationship and the feud had actually been a bad breakup caused by Rhea's supposed possessiveness. The only thing she admitted to was that she wasn't a witch with supernatural powers. Several eyewitnesses exposed Cecilia's blatant lies, one of whom was Candace Rajevec. She had originally been one of Cecilia's closest confidants and was the first to leave after seeing through the woman's act.
With Cecilia safely in custody, Candace was finally ready to testify about how the woman tricked Rhea's ministry into caring for her and, eventually, following her. According to Candace, Cecilia drew her own blood to make blood bags that she hid in her mouth on high nights. She would then pop them during the supposed fits, knowing that spitting up blood would make them more believable.
Cecilia also purchased animal blood from butcheries that she used as proof of the demonic attacks she claimed to endure. The evidence and accusations against Cecilia, Zach, and Marcel continued pouring in from all sides. Astonishingly, the most damning testimony ended up coming from Marcel herself.
She explained that she only stood her ground because she truly believed Cecilia's claims of being God's voice. She felt that disobeying their divine leader equated to disobeying God. After spending two years in a cell and away from Cecilia's influence, she realized the truth. Cecilia was no saint. She was a sick woman with a penchant for puppeteering. Finally, to the obvious dismay of Cecilia and Zach, Marcel took the witness stand and confessed to everything.
She remained calm throughout her testimony, but eventually allowed her emotions to escape in a tearful closing statement. "I know that me testifying and telling the truth and admitting to what I had done and how sorry I am doesn't bring them back. And all I can say is I'm sorry. I'm very sorry." She wept. Judge Ellum Francis, who presided over their case, acknowledged Marcel's remorse. However, it didn't sway his decision.
"The evil deeds committed by the accused were heinous, barbaric, and cold-blooded. Nothing less than the maximum penalty suffices," he declared. On June 3rd, 2019, Judge Francis found the three defendants guilty of all the charges against them. 34-year-old Zach Valentine received eight life sentences and an additional 93 years for the same related charges as his co-accused.
38-year-old Cecilia Stain was given 13 life sentences and a further 155 years. Finally, although she had been a minor when most of their crimes were committed, 21-year-old Marcel Stain was sentenced to seven life sentences and an additional 144 years behind bars. In my opinion, Cecilia, Zach, and Marinda got what they deserved. I can't say the same for Marcel and LaRue, though.
While LaRue's sentence was rightfully reduced, he, like his sister, had his childhood ripped away and was forced to murder. In LaRue's testimony, he recalled the moments before Hunley's death. "I don't want to kill the lady, Ma," he pleaded. Marinda responded by pointing a revolver at him and threatening to kill them both if he didn't do his job. In her own testimony, she described how the murders had been a thrill, an adrenaline rush,
Then we have Marcel. She was just 14 years old when Marinda indoctrinated her into a killer cult. Now, she will likely die in prison along with her monster mother. Too many lives were lost in this sad story, including LaRue and Marcel's.