Have you found anything? All I found was blood draining being used in embalming by morticians. I also found that grinding up the organs and brain, then putting them back into the body is sometimes done too. Sounds gruesome but is normal. Made me wonder if he had ever been a mortician.
That would be a twist!
Some random thoughts:
At what point did they decide to leave wilber? Were they aware that abducting a tinder date would leave a wide open trail to their doorstep?
They had to be, unless they were strung out on drugs and over eager to make a big score. They seem tech savvy and street smart enough to realize it was high risk, although they also allowed a digital trail to lead law enforcement right to their seedy hotel in Branson. Professionals would, I imagine, have taken a "throw away victim" such as a sex worker or runaway who would not have immediately been missed. Even snatching someone off the street would be lower risk than what they did.
Anyways, we know they premeditated the murder, were they planning to get paid and head for Mexico? If so, did they get paid? If so where is the film and / or body parts? Where is the money? Who was the buyer?
They didnt really head for Mexico though. They hopped around Iowa Kansas and Missouri before getting caught in Branson. Did the deal go wrong and they were trying to get paid before leaving for Mexico? If so, again, who is in possession of the theoretical film and missing human organs?
And where were the other alleged female accomplices during this time?
Lots of questions.
As far as blood ritual, the black dahlia and the cleveland torso murders came to mind as well as the german shepherds of untermeyer park. I also had a thought of hannibal lecter.
There is another subject called blood libel. For centuries, christendom at various times and places has accused Jews of committing ritual murder of Christians which involved draining the blood. This ritual is (or was long ago) probably practiced by darker pagan sects, and there is reality to the existence and practice of such a ritual.
In famous cases throughout the centuries, blood libel murders have occurred, and local gentiles have used it as a means to persecute Jewish communities. In reality, the accused Jews have probably been innocent, but the murders happened nonetheless.
Blood ritual accusations are still today a large part of neo nazi doctrine. In fact michael ryan in rulo subscribed to that doctrine. Keep in mind, probability suggests most blood ritual murders in the past were committed by the accusers themselves rather than the accused.
Blood libel - Wikipedia
The rural underworld is vast and sometimes very dark. There has always been a rural underworld, but by the time of the methamphetamine epidemic of the 90s, rural crime had come a long way from the days of bootlegging and stock rustling.
The meth culture is a 24 hour culture. In any rural area, 24 hours a day, people are travelling the back roads and hanging out in apartments, trailers, and farms where they buy and sell drugs, manufacture drugs, and trade everything from tractors and farm chemicals, firearms, electronics, sports collectibles, tools, cars parts, and even antiques. Most of these items are stolen.
These people intersect with all areas of the underworld. Neo nazis and white supremacy groups have a notable network in rural America. Many rural youth introduced to drugs find their way to prison at one point or another and many are invariably drawn to white supremacist groups. Some of them bring it back to their communities upon release.
Sex trafficking is not far removed from the drug community either. Favorite gathering spots for rural methheads are truck stops and adult stores. I think a big appeal of adult stores is that some of them offer drug paraphernalia 24 hours a day. Enough has been said elsewhere about what goes on at some truck stops.
I remember in the mid 90s I found myself drunk late at night with a group of people in an adult store in Kansas city. I remember seeing all the drug and drug dealing paraphernalia, but I saw something else that night. Outside some of the *advertiser censored* booths stood scary looking middle eastern men. They looked at you intently, never moving from the booths they appeared to be guarding. The place was pretty big, and had a trashy area upstairs where strung out drunken men were watching a methed out stripper covered in scabs dance naked. I shudder to think the place probably has a basement.
The place is still there, although I have no idea what goes on there these days. It is off of 480 and independence avenue, I believe. Anyways, years later, it dawned on me that there were Male or female prostitutes in those booths, and they were most certainly trafficking victims in one way or another.
Child *advertiser censored* is another web which strings out across rural America- and everywhere else. When you see a headline stating "10,000 images of child *advertiser censored* found on hard drive...." it means that 10 000 images of sexual assault or worse on a child was committed and filmed or photographed. Take that times the countless other times these images are found and add in all the ones that arent found worldwide and the numbers are heartbreaking and mind numbing. Who is committing these crimes? Who are the children? Who do the children grow up to be? Certainly AT has come into contact with the type of person who would deal in images of sexual violence at some point.
The 90s meth epidemic took various rural crime subcultures and brought them together and expanded them exponentially. In the 90s, rural kids deep in the bible belt began smoking pot and popping hallucinogens. This, because of the illegality of such things, brought them into contact with drug dealers which in turn exposed them to heavier things.
On occasion, those dealing in drugs could be as little as one degree separated from big money drug cartels, weapons traffickers, thieves, junkies, burglars, white supremacists, urban street gangs, human traffickers, child pornographers, and even antique dealers!
Throw in the occult, snuff films, brainwashed sex slaves, and organ trafficking, and you have a lurid underworld which occasionally spawns the manson family or the rulo cult, whose leader michael ryan was set upon his path at a meeting with james wickstrom, a man intricately connected with religious leaders, politicians, and the white supremacy network. Most notably his connection with white supremacist record labels which are connected to the nationwide prison networks. Wickstrom first met Ryan in hiawatha, KS, a place AT and BB frequent all these years later.
In this post 9 11 world the devastation of the meth epidemic has left a permanent scar on rural America. Now prescription pills and opioids have joined and greatly expanded the problem. There is also even more interest by higher level organized crime.
When AT and BB were first identified I pegged them right away as creatures from deep in the underbelly of the drug community. I am fully convinced they found a real or false opportunity to profit from a murder, and acted sloppily and in haste. I believe AT has in some way been involved in child abuse at some point, I believe he is familiar with the buying and selling of black market *advertiser censored*, and I believe he is familiar with human trafficking and has learned the pimp method of brainwashing and controlling young women.
Meth heads will often talk for hours and even days. Often the conversation is not the brightest, and they often, in a state of euphoria make intricate plans and act upon them in haste. Although they supposedly began looking for a victim months before, AT and BB may have either been out of their right minds on drugs or the window was closing on the deal causing them to kidnap SL in sloppy fashion. Or they really needed that celestial alignment.
Sorry for the long post. Hope I could shed a little light on the world these people live in.
If there was a prospective buyer, that party needs to be brought to justice as well. Might open up a much bigger rabbit hole though.