Elyse Marie Pahler, a 15-year-old girl residing in Arroyo Grande, California was found dead in the March of the following year, 1996.
She was found in a grove in the Nipomo Mesa, near where she was initially murdered and found a quarter mile from her house. When her body was found, authorities almost couldn’t identify the body as it was incredibly decomposed, withstanding eight months of weather and wildlife.
Her body was found with 12 different stab wounds, however none were fatal. Her eventual cause of death was blood loss.
The perpetrators of said crime were, at the time, 14-year-old Joseph Fiorella, 15-year-old, Jacob Delashmutt, and 16-year-old Royce Casey. Casey was the one to come forward, confess to the murder and lead the authorities to Pahler’s body out of fear that the other two perpetrators would kill him.
The night of the murder, Pahler was lured out from her house by the boys with the promise of drugs. Before she was even able to partake in narcotics, she was attacked. She was strangled, then stabbed several times before her death. It was hinted at that the body was sexually assaulted after death, but the autopsy couldn’t confirm for certain due to the remains being decomposed and almost mummified.
Both Fiorella and Delashmutt were served sentences to 26 years in prison, while Casey would have a 25 year sentence.
The planned murder was a ploy to “enhance their guitar playing” by sacrificing Pahler to the devil. Pahler was chosen because “she had blonde hair and blue eyes, and because she was a virgin, she would be a perfect sacrifice for the devil.” The chief investigator of the case, Doug Odom, stated “That would make them play harder, play faster. And by making this perfect sacrifice to the devil, it might help them [their band, Hatred] go, quote, professional.”
The motives for this case seem to have inspired part of the 2009 movie, “Jennifer’s Body”, where the band in the movie, Low Shoulder, attempted to sacrificed Jennifer Check to the devil in order to gain fame and fortune.
In November of 1996, the Pahler family began to sue the metal band, Slayer, alleging that the band gave the killers the motivation to kill their daughter. The lawsuit was delayed until the case was over, which ended up being in the year 2000, but was declined as it had no legal precedent. The Pahler family tried again in a different lawsuit, saying that the lyrics were “harmful to minors”, but lost again.