Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - Blood Magic Killer

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

Adolfo Constanzo may be known as the leader of The Narco Satanists cult, but equally deserving of the title was his right-hand woman, Sara Aldrete. Following Adolfo’s recruitment, Sara accompanied him everywhere – from ritual magic to murder. Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast and Tiktok @serialkillerspodcast! Have a story to share? Email us at [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the nature of this episode, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder, assault, torture, rape, body mutilation, human sacrifice, and suicide. Consider this when deciding how and when you'll listen. To get help on mental health and suicide, visit Spotify.com slash resources. If you're a fan of this show, this name might be familiar to you. Adolfo Constanzo. At the height of his influence, Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo conducted human sacrifices, ripping the hearts out of his victims while they were still beating.

His followers, the narco-satainists, believed his magical rituals protected them from both the police and rival drug dealers. In the late 80s, he amassed incredible wealth and power on the U.S.-Mexico border. But the truth, the one he would never admit, is that nearly all of his authority came to him courtesy of a woman. Not that Sarah Aldrede ever realized just how important she truly was. In her mind, her story was just about a college student who fell for a boy and let herself be seduced by the usual things. Good looks, full wallets, and ritual blood magics. I'm Vanessa Richardson, and this is Serial Killers, a Spotify podcast. You can find us here every Monday.

Today, we're taking a look at Sarah Aldrede, known to her followers as La Madrina. We'll see how Sarah was targeted by a charming cult leader with deadly ambition. Then watch as the group spills blood and sacrifices humans, and then see how it all comes crashing down. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Bonnie and Clyde, the lonely hearts killers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

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Embrace a floral and fruity scent inspired by Rio's nude beach with cheeky bikini or caps for sun-kissed bliss with limonada gelada, where zesty Brazilian lemonade accord meets coconut milk and golden brown sugar. Don't miss Sol de Janeiro's limited edition perfume mist collection only at Sephora. When criminals like Sarah Aldrette are caught, our first instinct is to delve into their past, to understand why they did what they did. And to be fair, that's kind of the idea behind this show. But sometimes we just don't have enough information to pinpoint a definitive moment where, it all went wrong. That's more or less the case with Sarah Aldrede. So here's what you need to know. Sarah was born and lived in the Mexican town of Matamoros, but she spent a lot of

of time in Brownsville, Texas. The two towns are less than three miles apart, so despite the fact that they're in different countries, they're basically neighbors. All that separated the two halves of Sarah's life was the Rio Grande, as well as the differences in language, culture, prosperity, and industry that define most border towns. With that in mind, we're going to meet Sarah in 1987, when she was a 22-year-old sophomore at Texas Southmost College in Brownsville. Sarah stood out for all the right reasons. She was six-foot-one, athletic and gorgeous. She held down two part-time jobs, one as an assistant secretary in the athletics department, and because this was the 80s, she also worked as an aerobics instructor.

Sarah was outgoing, ambitious, and very self-assured. According to Edward Humes in his book Buried Secrets, Sarah was certain that whatever her future held, it was going to be big, and it was definitely going to be outside of her hometown. In other words, Sarah was primed for success. She even landed on a Who's Who Directory Southmost College published that year. It seems that the rest of the world was catching up to what Sarah had known her whole life. She was going places. All of the attention Sarah got from her peers, her children.

teachers, it might have served as a form of confirmation bias. But before we continue with the psychology for this story, I want to remind you that I'm not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but we've done a lot of research for this episode. Now, if Sarah was indeed someone who felt destined for greatness, then hearing praise from a variety of people might have felt like evidence that she was great. Confirmation bias can distort someone's worldview so that they only internalize information that confirms existing beliefs. Of course, she didn't just get attention for her excellent grades and school spirit. Like I said, Sarah was gorgeous.

She was used to turning heads. So what comes next? Probably wasn't much of a surprise to her. And here's where you're going to want to pay attention, because Sarah's life was about to change forever. On the afternoon of July 30, 1987, she was driving through Matamoros when a girl leaning Mercedes cut in front of her, hit the brakes, and stopped dead. Then the guy refused to move his car.

She was stuck. This might have been more annoying had the man who blocked her path not been quite so handsome. He was tall and slim with dark shoulder-length hair, and he was dressed head-to-toe in white designer clothes. It was the 80s, after all, trust me, it would have looked hot. The man was 24-year-old Adolfo. of Elpho of Jesus Constanzo, and he told Sarah that he'd felt compelled to stop when he saw her.

She was beautiful, he said. He wanted to know her. Intrigued by this mysterious, forceful man, and probably flattered by the attention, she climbed into his car to chat for a while. Constanzo told Sarah that he was a successful lawyer from Florida and that he was in Matamoros on business for clients, Colombian clients.

Sarah almost certainly understood. what that code meant. Her new friend was involved in the drug trade. If that frightened her, she didn't show it, but if she'd known the full truth about him then, she might have been at least a little anxious. But Sarah had no idea who she was dealing with. So blissfully unaware that she was being lied to, Sarah bought Constanceo's stories of fabulous family wealth bolstered by fabulously wealthy clients. Any idiot could see that he was peacocking. doing his very best to impress her. Sarah could see it, but she still bought in.

The guy had a strangely hypnotic air about him. His eyes, his voice, the way he told a story, it was intoxicating. After that, she saw Constanzo nearly every day for two weeks. Early on, he insisted that they would become a couple, though Sarah pulled him up on that point. She had a boyfriend, she explained, so she couldn't date him. But still, there was something missing. mysterious about him, something Sarah probably longed to puzzle out.

Especially when he offered to read her cards, a kind of fortune-telling. She might have been skeptical at first, but Constanceau knew an awful lot about her life. He told her things about her family, her past, things he couldn't have known except by magic. It was mystifying, and added to the hypnotic attraction Constanceau held over her. Naturally curious and fairly ambitious, Sarah asked, what his secret was. How could he possibly know all these things? Eventually, he told her. He was a Santero, a high priest of Santeria. Santeria is an Afro-Caribbean faith that involves worshiping Christian saints as embodiments of African gods, each deity controlling different

aspects of life. Constanzo explained that he made animal sacrifices to appease certain gods. In exchange, he received gifts, prosperity, protect. The possibilities were many and varied. Back home in Mexico City, people came to him for information about their future. Spells of protection, ritual cleansings, and spiritual guidance. That's where his money came from. The thing was, though, Constanzo wasn't telling Sarah the whole truth, because while he did practice Santeria for some clients,

he was also a Padrino, a priest of Palo Maume, which is kind of Santerio. which is kind of Santeria's darker sister. In contrast to Santero, who seek good fortune for themselves and their loved ones, Palero extremists focused their energy on bringing pain to their enemies and winning power for themselves. Power, he told her, she could have for herself. Over the next few months, Constanso groomed Sarah to join him. She'd long since broken up with her boyfriend and started sleeping with the handsome Padino,

Now he started teaching her about his religion in earnest. They set up an altar in her apartment where she started making regular blood sacrifices. She asked for good grades in school, which she got. Constanceo foresaw an unexpected windfall, which turned up in the form of a scholarship. It felt like the greatness she'd always dreamed of was coming to Sarah at last, all because of Adolfo Constanzo. So when he predicted that an ex-lover would seek her out, she believed him. He didn't offer many specifics, just that a man she once dated would come to her with problems

he couldn't solve. When that happened, Constanzo told Sarah she should bring this man to him. He could help. And wouldn't you know it, the prediction came true that November. Sarah was on campus when her ex, Elio Hernandez, approached. her, seemingly distraught. His family were in the drug business and had always done well, but a twist of fate had left Elio in charge of everything, and suddenly they were floundering. He just didn't know what to do. But Sarah did. She felt a tingle run through her body,

as she realized Constanzo had been right. He was always right. Smiling, she told Elio that she knew someone who could help him. This man had great power, she said. He could cast spells of protection and good fortune. He would make everything good again. Superstitious and gullible, Elio believed her. Sarah put him in touch with Constanceo, who promised he could protect the Hernandez family and help their business flourish by using magic.

But before that happened, Sarah needed to ascend to her rightful place by his side. In early 1988, Constanceo told her that she was ready to join his. religion. Everyone knew him as El Padino, the godfather, and she would be La Madrina, godmother. He told her she'd come so far as his student and was ready to step into her own power. So that march, he brought her to one of his condos in Mexico City a few hours away from Matamoros. It was a mark of how fully under his power Sarah was, because Constanzo's home was like one giant red flag. Oh, it looked gorgeous, all leather couches and polished chrome, but it stank. Constanzo's religion called for regular blood sacrifices, so there were a lot of dead chickens,

and probably a few other animals, too. But the smell of death wasn't the only disconcerting part of the affair. Before her initiation ceremony, Constanceo explained to Sarah that she must renounce her Catholic faith. It was all lies, he told her. There was no afterlife waiting for her. There was only the here and the now, and the power magic could bring them. She had to accept that to join his circle. To be a part of something bigger, she had to let her soul die. There wasn't much to think about, though. Sarah had fallen for Constanceo and his words long ago. So she agreed to the terms. and the final preparations began.

The room was smoke-filled, the initiation fueled by alcohol. Blindfolded, Sarah didn't know much about what was happening to her. Without her sight, her other senses were heightened, making everything feel closer, more terrifying, more thrilling. She could hear Constanceo channeling the spirits of the dead, hear the way his voice changed, as if he were possessed by some other world. her soul wasn't the only thing to die that night a chicken and a goat were both

sacrificed as she felt their blood spray across her face and drip down her body she was sure it was happening something was entering her it was powerful and dark but it felt right to complete the ceremony Constanceo carved symbols into Sarah's back with a knife marking her as one of his Blood that dripped from her cuts flowed into a cauldron on the floor. Constanzo's Nganga. The vessel was full of rotting animal flesh and blood, feeding the spirit that supposedly lent El Padino his power.

When it was done, he removed her blindfold, allowing her to see the small group of people forming a circle around her in the darkened room. Constanzo's faithful followers. He explained, they were her family next, They were her family now. Constanso was their godfather and Sarah was La Madrina. But Constanceo wasn't one to share power. Not really.

She didn't know it, but Sarah was only a pawn to him. And the game was only just getting started. In a moment, Constanso's cult takes shape and the bloodshed on the border begins. Snoring, gasping during sleep, feeling fatigued. Ask your doctor about Zepbound, terseptite. The first and only FDA-approved prescription medicine for moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and adults with obesity. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, OSA, and obesity to improve their OSA. Zepbound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection.

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Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Now back to the story. The day after 23-year-old Sarah Aldrede became La Madrina, another initiation took place at Adolfo Constanzo's Mexico City apartment.

After months of waiting, Elio Hernandez was greedy for a taste of the power El Padino wielded. Sarah had promised him that Constanzo would help restore the Hernandez drug business to its former glory using his magic. But it would cost him. Constanzo wanted 50% of any money they brought in. Elio agreed without hesitation. The other part of the deal was that Sarah called the shots once they got back to Matamoros. She was the spiritual proxy for the godfather, who spent most of his time in Mexico City.

Elio was the head of his family, but after his initiation, he answered directly to La Madrina. And sure, this gave Sarah a lot of power, in theory, but it was still Constanceo pulling the strings. He was the one who wielded the true magic, so while she stepped into her new role, he got to work quickly. Bernandez had experienced a bout of terrible luck recently, but as soon as Constanzo came on board, things began turning around.

Suddenly, deals went off without a hitch. Local police stopped bothering them, and the money flowed like never before. It was truly like magic. They were protected by El Padino, blessed by his gods. Their first deal after Constanzo took charge brought in $200,000 in profit. Half went to El Padino, of course, and he gave Sarah $5,000 as a thank you for bringing the family to him. With that much cash in play, members of the Hernandez clan didn't hesitate when Elio brought them into the fold.

Everyone was eager to pledge allegiance to their new leader. That meant more rituals, more animal sacrifices, more followers. One by one, their group grew larger, and all of them answered to La Madrina. New converts attended classes in Sarah's apartment, where she had a blood-stained altar set up for their requisite sacrifices. They listened as Sarah and Constanzo taught them the intricacies of their religion and the power of their new gods. But here's the thing that no one knew at the time. There was no magical protection from the gods. Not really. Constanzo's real power was that he had contacts in the Matamoros police, corrupt officers who believed his lies and followed his orders. Through them, he had strangled

the Hernandez business months earlier to make Elio desperate. Now that he had the family where he wanted them, Constanzo simply pulled the strings to remove the obstacles he'd set up, made sure confiscated drugs fell into the right hands and kept cops away from the family's deals. It looked like magic to his impressed followers, but really, it was just good old-fashioned corruption. In fact, none of it had happened by chance. Constanceo had planned it all from the very beginning.

His contacts had told him everything about the Hernandez family, about their new young patriarch Elio and about Elio's beautiful ex-girlfriend, Sarah Aldrede. The greedy mystic had sought her out, seduced her with his magic, feeding her information his police moles gave to him. She was nothing more than bait on a hook for Elio Hernandez, but her ambition and ego had made her more useful than even Constanzo had predicted. Now, here she was La Madrina, a figure. your head queen beside an all-powerful king. Together, the pair of them entranced their devoted followers with the blood ceremonies performed at Sarah's living room altar. However, her apartment wasn't the best place for a true temple to Constanzo's Paloméombe gods,

so in the summer of 1988 they set up shop in a crumbling shed at Rancho Santa Elena, de Hernandez's property. There they were going to establish a new Nganga, another cauldron full of blood and flesh and magic. And here's where this story really takes a turn, because an Nganga requires several specific ingredients, including human flesh and bones. Some Palero take these things from fresh graves, but Constanzo believed that the most powerful magic came from human sacrifice. kill a human, then place their blood, brain, or heart into the cauldron, and their spirit would be bound to your will. Constanzo had several in Gangas in Mexico City,

but now it was time to set up a new one in Matamoros, one that would be more powerful than any other, fueled by an endless stream of sacrifices. But before we get to that, I want to pull over a second and let you know that it's never been clear just how involved Sarah was in this part of the story. According to Edward Humes, she likely wasn't present for most of the cult's human sacrifices. Some, though, she definitely shared responsibility for. I'll let you know when we get to those parts.

The first people Constanzo killed in Matamoros weren't sacrificed to his enganga, but he did kill them in front of his followers to show them he meant business. The two men died by gunshots to the head, which, let me tell you, was an unusually brief murder for Adolfo Constanzo. His following victims were different. Their deaths were designed to feed the new magic cauldron sitting in the shed at Rancho Santa Elena. However, because we're focusing on Sarah's story here, I don't want to spend too much time going over each horrific crime. Suffice it to say that Constanzo's victims died in painful, bloody, terrifying, horrific ways. His so-called religious ceremonies were torture porn films come to life,

but worse. He told his followers, they must die screaming, or they won't serve the Nganga. And so they did. But if any of Constanzo's followers were uneasy about his methods, they held their tongues because he clearly got results. They had none of this family were bringing in vast amounts of money just months after El Padino took over, and no one was complaining about their new wealth. Certainly not Sarah Aldrede, who seemed to quite enjoy her role as La Madrina. People noticed a change in the 24-year-old as she drifted deeper into Constanzo's world. It was mostly little things, the red-beated necklace she wore everywhere, her passionate comments defending magic. But some changes were more noticeable. For one, she was

obsessed with Constanzo. He'd briefly put up a pretense of being interested in her, but he was Kinsey Five gay and had stopped taking her to bed once he'd secured his power over the Hernandez clan. Still, Friends said she wrote him love letters begging him to sleep with her, even after she found out he had two live-in boyfriends.

It seems odd that a beautiful young woman would waste so much time and emotional energy into chasing a man who she knows is unavailable, right? But there are a lot of possible explanations for what was going on here. Perhaps it was the sunk cost fallacy. She'd already invested so much time and effort into her love for Constanceau that retreating without a prize was unthinkable. It's also possible that Sarah idolized Constanceo so much that she wanted to prove herself worthy of his love. He'd made her his queen, and naively she believed that meant he loved her.

Then again, it might have been that Sarah was experiencing not love, but limerence, a controlling state some mistake for infatuation. Limerance can sometimes include delusions about having an intense romance with someone, even if it doesn't exist. Of course, her obsession with Constanso wasn't all that people paid attention to, because the biggest visible change in Sarah's life was her finances. After she became La Madrina, she always seemed to carry an impressive wad of cash around with her, and she wasn't shy about throwing it around. She'd splash out on food

for her colleagues, bringing spontaneous breakfasts and lunches into the office, waving off anyone's offer to pay her back. Given that she worked two minimum wage jobs, her flashy wealth just didn't make sense. But it seems that anyone who noticed the changes in Sarah's life kept their mouth shut. No one suspected that anything untoward was going on, but the truth was that the 24-year-old was in deep, and she took her position seriously. After all, Constanceau warned that his gods were not merciful to the unfaithful, and neither was he.

As Madrina, she had to take the same approach. That's probably why, around the start of November 1988, she went to him with news. One of his men had broken one of the rules, See, sometime that year, Constanceo had switched the Ednandez family from dealing in marijuana to cocaine, and 35-year-old Jorge Gomez had sampled some of the product. That was strictly forbidden. Not so much because it ate into profits, though that didn't help,

but because Constanceo said it made the body impure. The spirits would know, he warned, and they would kill you. But in this case, it wasn't the spirit. spirits who discovered what Jorge did, it was Sarah, and she went right to Constanceo. Whether she knew what would happen is up for debate, but it doesn't change what came next. Constanzo summoned his Matamoros followers to Rancho Santa Elena, where his new enganga was. He explained that he would perform a ritual to target their enemies, then made a show of the usual animal sacrifices and blood magics. When it was done, he pretended the ritual,

had revealed something to him. There was a traitor in their midst. Someone who had broken the rules had stolen from them, used their drugs. As the crew looked around curiously, Constanso pounced on Jorge, breaking his jaw with a machete.

Then El Padino ordered his men to attack. As a mob, they moved forward to beat and stab their friend. When they were done, Constanceo delivered the killing blow with a hammer, pointed to Jorge's bloody body and warned the group that this was what would happen if they disobeyed him. It doesn't seem that Sarah was present for this horrific murder, but she as good as delivered Jorge de Constanceo, eager to fulfill her duty as surrogate leader.

Though according to Edward Hume's account of this period, she was far from Constanzo's equal. She might be queen, but she was safe. still his subject. That much became apparent when Elio Hernandez came to Constanceo with a problem. Sarah was refusing to sleep with him. He'd been putting the moves on her for months, and she just kept turning him down. But when Elio told Constanzo about his frustration, El Padino didn't bat an eye. He simply turned to Sarah and told her that if Elio wanted to sleep with her, she should do it. privately, Sarah begged Constanceo to change his mind, but he was firm. They'd have more control over Elio if she bedded the creep,

so, though she hated it, Sarah did as she was told. It was gross, but a shrewd move on Constanso's part. He reminded both parties just who was in charge, rewarded Elio's loyalty, and tested Sarah's willingness to follow orders. Though to be fair, Constanceo didn't have many issues. with obedience. By January of 1989, he'd killed another two cult members to feed the Nga, ensuring his followers would think twice before disobeying him. He was vengeful, merciless, and it also seems he just liked killing people by that stage. Of course, not all his sacrifices

were from within his inner circle. He also targeted rival drug traffickers, which killed two birds with one bloody stone. It satisfied the spirits of the Enganga and eliminated the competition. For example, on March 13, 1989, he sent his men into Matamoros for a fresh victim. There was a small-time dealer peddling baggies of cocaine in the crowded bars, and Constanzo demanded his head. They dragged the man back to the ranch, and after beating and stabbing him, they thrust him into the small shack with Constanzo.

Ordinarily, that's when El Padino completed the so-called ritual. He'd extract screams from his victim, then deal the killing blow. But that night was different. The man wouldn't scream, which meant the sacrifice was ruined. Or at least Constanzo's enjoyment of it was. After killing the man in frustration, he emerged from the shack and demanded they bring him a replacement. He needed someone who would scream. And that chilling order was the one that brought everything crashing down.

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On March 13, 1989, Adolfo Constanzo's bloodthirsty followers were on the prowl for their next sacrifice, and they had plenty of people to choose from. Being so close to the U.S.-Mexico border, Matamoros enjoys a massive influx of college students every spring break. 21-year-old Mark Kilroy was one of those thousands, and for some reason, Constanzo's men selected him as their target. According to Edward Humes, Constanzo demanded an American, because he thought he'd be more likely to scream. It's also been suggested that 24-year-old Sarah Aldrede hand-picked Mark at a crowded bar. Either way, their men snatched Mark off the street

and spirited him away to Rancho Santa Elena, about 16. miles away. Constanceo brutally tortured and killed him there the next day, delighted to have properly fed the Enganga. But despite his twisted satisfaction, there was a problem. Before Mark, Constanzo's victims were largely considered missing persons cases, and while relatives begged for help, there was little local police had the resources or inclination to do about it. Mark's family were in Texas, though, and when he didn't come home, they raised the alarm. And although U.S. police have no authority in Mexico, the Brownsville PD put together a task force to investigate. But the search didn't stop with the authorities.

Mark's parents offered a $5,000 reward for information, and local businesses contributed to make it 15. People handed out flyers on both sides of the border and neighbors gathered together to pray. When I say everyone was involved, I mean everyone, because even Sarah pitched in to hang posters up around Brownsville, so either she genuinely didn't know anything about Mark's death, or she had one hell of a poker face. And that face, it still caught the eye of a man or two. When she first met Constanzo, she'd been dating a fellow student, Gilberto Sosa. The pair had broken up, but now he'd started circling closer again, and some of the Hernandez crew noticed.

Constanzo wasn't amused by Gilberto's return and ordered Sarah not to see him. It was frustrating to her. Why should Constanceo care if she had a boyfriend? He'd ordered her to sleep with Elio, so why was this any different? Constanceo himself had two boyfriends, so why couldn't she have just one?

Unfortunately, her protests as good as sealed Gilberto's fate. On El Padino's orders, Sarah called her ex on March 28th and invited him over for a drink. But he didn't even make it to her front door. Constanzo's men ambushed the 20-something, then brought him to the ranch. Later that night, after Gilberto was dead, Constanceo and Elio showed up at Sarah's apartment. They'd brought burgers, a post-sacrifice snack. It was like they didn't have a care in the world. But things started to change just a couple of days later when one gullible follower tipped the first domino.

You see, Constanceo had done such a good job selling himself and his powers that everyone under his sway seemed to believe every word that dripped out of his mouth. Whether he believed his own nonsense or not isn't the point. What's important is that he told his men that magic was protecting them from the police. The cops couldn't see them, he said. Bullets, they'd bounce right off their skin. And young Serafine Hernandez believed it all. Which is strange because he was a law enforcement major at Texas Southmost College in Brownsville.

You'd think he'd have at least some sense. Alas, no. There are any number of reasons that might explain why Constanso's followers so willingly believed his blatant lies. But in this case, I'd suggest that group think played a factor. At its most basic level, this is when the ability to realistically appraise alternative courses of action is diminished by a desire to be united with a group. You know how parents sometimes ask if you'd jump off a bridge because everyone else did it? Well, at least some

of Constanzo's followers would have gladly taken the plunge, probably because he'd sold them on his protection charms. That's why Seraphine blew right past a police checkpoint on April 1st. Now, there are several subcategories of groupthink, and it seems like the one at play here was illusion of invulnerability. Seraphene made a reckless decision and ignored obvious dangers, but no matter what was going on in his head at the time, his choice to skip the checkpoint had consequences. Big ones. One of the cops tailed Seraphine back to Rancho Santa Elena.

After a poke around the property, the local cops started surveillance. the Hernandez clan. That's when the wheels started coming off the whole thing. The authorities overheard phone conversations about drug deals and repeated mentions of someone called El Padino. In their minds, it seemed like they might have found a lucrative drug operation to break up. A little over a week later, they moved in and started making arrests. Seraphine was first and Elio was picked up soon after. Seraphine was questioned for hours, and eventually he shocked the local cops

by confessing that they'd kidnapped, tortured, and killed the missing college student Mark Kilroy. But he boasted they wouldn't be able to keep him forever. He was protected by El Padino's magic. Another symptom of the illusion of invulnerability, being overly optimistic. Not everyone was quite so sure of themselves, though. As words spread through the gang, everyone agreed to go into hiding.

On April 10th, Sarah grabbed her passport and flew to Mexico City to meet her beloved Constanzo. However, without El Padino or La Madrina around to keep them in line, the Hernandez clan had much looser lips. By the next day, gullible Serafine had told the police everything about the cult, the drugs, the money, the sacrifices. He still rambled about Constanzo's power, too, but it didn't do him any good. He led the cops to the shack in the corner of Rancho Santa Elena and pointed out where the bodies were. They made him dig them up, starting with Mark Kilroy. There were 12 more lying in shallow graves close by. With the blood splattered shack nearby and the growing pile of decomposing bodies, the stench was unbearable.

Not that the smell would have been much better in Constanzo's Mexico City condo. That's where Sarah sat with El Padino, his two boyfriends, Martin and Omar, and his favorite thug, who everyone called El Dubi. Together, the group tried to figure out what had gone wrong. How had they been caught? Constanceau was livid. He told his followers that if any of them left the condo without permission, he'd kill them himself.

And after everything they'd seen him do, no one could have doubted him. Most of all, they were desperate for news of Matamoros, of how much the police knew, how much Seraphene and Elio had revealed. It was tense, is what I'm getting at. And as they watched the evening news, it only got worse. Images of the ranch, the makeshift temple, the rotting cauldron, and the freshly dug graves flashed across the screen, as a reporter went on about satanic rituals and mass murder.

Constanceo was named as the leader of the group, and Sarah felt the breath leave her body as she was named as his witch and second in command. It looked bad, there was no getting around it, but Constanceo promised his remaining faithful that they would get out of this. He insisted that his magic was still powerful that they could channel it to make their escape to Central America.

But they couldn't leave right away. And as they dragged on, the days got more claustrophobic in that apartment. Eventually, they started moving around, swapping the condo for dingy hotel rooms and the homes of Constanzo's local devotees. According to Edward Hume's account of the time, Sarah seemed despondent. She repeatedly asked to go home, refused meals, and otherwise stayed quiet. Gone was the vibrant young woman who'd taught aerobics and dreamt

of a great life. Now, confronted with the reality of her situation, she felt utterly hopeless. By the 16th, six days after she left Matamodos, Sarah was in pretty bad shape. She had trouble standing and couldn't keep food down. Constanzo asked a doctor to come see her, one who knew and feared his power. They prescribed some tranquilizers, which calmed the 24-year-old. She didn't hear her godfather asked the doctor to find them a plastic surgeon. They needed to transform themselves completely before they left Mexico forever. But leaving was easier said than done. By then, it seemed like everyone was on the lookout for Los Narcosatansicos, as one newscaster

dubbed them. And although Constanzo was the leader, Sarah was the one who got most of the attention. It was apparently her unassuming nature that frightened people the most. She was a monster hiding in plain sight, they all thought. Rumors spiraled out of control until parents on both sides of the border feared Sarah would kidnap and kill their children. People reported seeing La Madrina everywhere, but the tips were always dead ends. Sarah Aldrede was still well hidden. That didn't mean she was safe, though.

Eventually, Constanzo got it into his head that one of his followers must have betrayed him. That was how things had first unspooled in Matamoros, he was sure of it. And it seems he suspected Sarah. He never let her out of his sight and no longer trusted her. He knew that even if she hadn't betrayed him yet, she would if he let her go. It broke her, knowing that he would see her dead before letting her leave. And when he insisted they all make a suicide pact, it must have felt like the end of the world. In all the time she'd known him, it probably never occurred to Sarah that Constanceo would

turn on her, that she would die like all the rest. With that thought threatening to smother her, she adopted a new approach. She sat down to write Constanceo a love letter, like the ones she used to send him, and she claimed she was pregnant, saying that it explained her unusual mood lately. swayed by her about face, Constanceo allowed Sarah outside by herself to run an errand. And though she wanted the nightmare over, she was too terrified to turn herself in. She knew what Constanzo was capable of, and that he wouldn't hesitate to go after her family. So instead, she called a neighbor in Matamoros to ask how her parents were.

She promised that she'd come home soon and explained that she'd been taken hostage. She was a prisoner. There's no way we can truly know what was going on in Sarah's mind just then. Perhaps she did feel like a prisoner. Or maybe she just sensed that the magic had failed and that she needed to save herself in any way she could. Maybe she wanted to lay the groundwork for a legal defense should she ever need one.

After the phone call, she returned to the latest apartment they'd rented and waited for the end game. That day came. on May 6th. Police were in the area to look for a missing teen, but when Constanzo saw them parked on the street below their apartment, he just lost the plot. He opened the window, aimed a submachine gun, and started shooting. The firefight went on for a few minutes, but they were surrounded outmanned and outgunned. Eventually, Constanzo realized it was over. He announced it was time to make good on their suicide pact,

and ordered Duby to shoot him and Martin, Omar, and Sarah next, then turned the gun on himself. Sarah encouraged it, screaming at Duby to get it over with. She knew that once Constanzo was gone, she'd be free. They all would. In the deafening silence after Duby pulled the trigger, Sarah seized the chance she'd been waiting for. She ran from the apartment and rushed towards the police, eager to thank them for rescuing her.

Then she started weaving her tail. Back at the station, detectives fed her burgers and soda, eager to comfort the young woman who'd been through a nightmare. But even after everything, Sarah still felt like the girl who'd impressed teachers and turned heads her whole life. And she wanted everyone to know just how important she was. So little by little, the story of being taken hostage, of being an unwilling participant, fell apart. She knew too much, boasted about what she'd seen, described Constanceo's murders in detail. And through it all, she touted how much Constanceo had loved her, how he had trusted her above all others. She was important, she insisted, shooting herself squarely in the foot.

Then again, even if she had managed to stick to her story, the facade would never have lasted long. There were too many other people involved, and with Constanceo gone, everyone talked. In almost no time at all, Sarah Aldrede was revealed as a chief player in the Matamodos bloodshed. Later at their trials, they all claimed their confessions were extracted by brutal police officers. No one bought that, or if they did, few cared. someone had to answer for Constanzo's mess. In all, Sarah was charged with 15 murders, as well as various other offenses that paled in comparison.

However, her lawyers argued that Sarah was Constanceau's biggest victim. He'd planned everything from the start, had sought her out and bewitched her. And yes, that's basically true. But Sarah was a grown woman when she met Constanceo, older than some of the people he tortured and kissed. She reveled in the wealth and power he gave her, knowing it was tainted by blood. So claiming that she was victimized more than anyone, that feels like a stretch, if you ask me. The courts agreed.

Sarah was sentenced to 50 years behind bars, and even then she refused to take responsibility for what she did. She protested her innocence to anyone who would listen. Eleven years later, she even wrote a book, detailing just a just. just how not guilty she was. Like her fellow cultists, she claimed that the cops tortured her. And I'm inclined to believe that, because there's a long, shady history of questionable interrogation techniques among Mexico's law enforcement. Still, rustling up sympathy for Sarah Aldrede feels like a waste of time and energy, like

trying to predict what the future will bring. Even when you read all the signs, you can still get it so wrong. Sarah thought she'd be big news one day, was sure she'd go places, and she was big news for a moment. But now she's going nowhere, which is the kind of irony you can't help but admire. Thanks for listening to Serial Killers, a Spotify podcast. We're here with a new episode every Monday. For more information on Sarah Aldrede, amongst the many sources we used, We found Buried Secrets by Edward Humes, extremely helpful to our research.

Stay safe out there. Serial Killers is a Spotify podcast. This episode was written by Joel Callan, edited by Abigail Cannon, fact-checked by Haley Milliken, researched by Mickey Taylor, and sound designed by Michael Motion, with production assistance by Aaron Larson. I'm your host, Vanessa Richardson. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat.

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