Ritual homicides committed by true believers reflect a serious knowledge of the particular theology, a high level of skill, and meticulous attention to detail. Essentially, ritual murders committed by true believers are contemporary acts of human sacrifice. The perpetrator considers the murder to be a sacred act and the crime scene will reflect this. The victim is selected according to the purpose of the ritual and can be a stranger or a member of the group. The death will occur in a designated sacred space determined by the group’s doctrine, often an isolated outdoor area. The date is often significant and may correspond to an occult holiday or a group holiday. Since human sacrifice is a blood ritual the most common weapon is a ritual knife. Depending on the group’s doctrine, death may be slow and tortuous or a quick slitting of the throat. A common forensic indicator of ritual sacrifice is for blood to be drained from the victim. Other indicators are mutilation, carving symbols into flesh, cannibalism, sexual abuse, and dismemberment. The purpose of sacrifice is to increase personal power and/or fulfill the requirements of the belief system. True believers are the most dangerous perpetrators of any kind of religious violence because of the degree of their commitment to their beliefs, their disregard for civil authority, and their nontraditional worldview that permits them to murder without remorse.
The Forensics of Sacrifice: A Symbolic Analysis of Ritualistic Crime
Dawn Perlmutter
Institute for the Research of Organized & Ritual Violence, LLC
Curious if the upcoming expert witnesses are going to testify as to the existence of ritual elements and the expertise or lack of by the killers
