RedHanded - Episode 269 - Devil’s Dorp

Episode Date: October 13, 2022

This is the story of a godly rivalry that spun out of control – taking in vampires, werewolves and the murders of eleven people. And behind it all, a 48th-generational satanic witch with 1,000 multiple personalities and a score to settle. Krugersdorp, a town northwest of Johannesburg, has always had high levels of violent crime. But when South Africa’s own satanic panic kicked into full force in the early 90s, its citizens had an altogether more unholy threat on their hands... Sources: redhandedpodcast.com See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Get ready for Las Vegas-style action at BetMGM, the king of online casinos. Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous for when you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat and Roulette. With our ever-growing library of digital slot games, a large selection of online table games and signature BetMGM service, there's no better way to bring the excitement and ambiance of Las Vegas home to you than with BetMGM Casino. Download the BetMGM Casino app today.

BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact ConnexOntario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor. Free of charge.

BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hannah. I'm Sruti.

And willkommen, bienvenue, and whatever welcome is in Afrikaans, which is probably welkommen-ish. Welcome to Red Handed. It is welkom. Welkom. Welkom. I have quite a few Afrikaans friends, and Afrikaans started as kitchen Dutch. Oh. Which was like, so servants would have their own kitchen language, which was a variation on Dutch. And that's where Afrikaans comes from.

Wow. There you go. Put your hand in warm water is exactly the same sentence in Afrikaans. Put your hand in warm water is the same. Oh. There you go. Afrikaans facts. Lekker.

Okay. Buy your tour tickets. We're not coming to South Africa, but you can come to London. There are planes. Yes, there are. And there are tickets. So go get your tickets. Get them from redhandedpodcast.com. planes. Yes, there are. And there are tickets. So go get your tickets. Get them from redhandedpodcast.com. Don't get them anywhere else. And we'll see you on the road for

what is going to be, I think, our best show ever. It's got all the makings. It really has. So this week, we are taking you to the site that boasts the largest concentration of ancestral human remains known to mankind. Isn't that cool? That is cool. Inside the network of limestone caves were discovered one of the earliest primates. And it was the most extensive discovery of a single extinct hominid species ever found. So not Neanderthals, not something else like a very close relation to us. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the Cradle of Humankind.

It and the surrounding area have provided more than a third of the early hominid fossil discoveries that we know about. And it is in my spiritual home, South Africa. But we're not telling you about some Indiana Jones-type

archaeological escapades, nor are we interpreting cave paintings to stalk a killer. Actually, this whole opening has been an enormous red herring because I thought it was interesting. Sorry. So we're going to leave behind the wonders of the cave system and take a quick hop about half an hour down the road

to the city of Krugerstorp. If you are South African, or if you have access to the streaming service Showmax, you can probably guess the story we're going to tell you today. Krugersdorp is a city to the northwest of Johannesburg, with a pretty high violent crime rate. The devil himself was about to make an appearance. On the 10th of May 2016, Krugersdorp police found a car abandoned outside a primary school.

Inside the boot of the car were black bin bags, and inside those black bin bags was a dead man. This man's name was Anthony Schofield. He was a 57-year-old financial advisor. He had an appointment that day with a client at 6pm, after which he was never seen alive again. Not only had his life been taken, 16,600 rand, which is about 800 pounds, had also been withdrawn from his bank account via NATM on the day that he died. Just 16 days later, an eerily similar fate befell 29-year-old Kevin McAlpine.

He too was a financial advisor, and Kevin attended an appointment at 6pm and then disappeared. Kevin McAlpine was found in the boot of his own car. He had been strangled and wrapped up in black bin bags, just like Anthony Schofield. 13,000 Rand was withdrawn from his account. His body was identified by his wife, who was seven months pregnant. Four days after Kevin's body was found, estate agent Hanley Litgen went to go and meet a client and vanished. Hanley's son drove around trying to find her and eventually spotted her car outside of Kruger's Dorp Hospital. He knew what had happened to Kevin McAlpine and to Anthony

Schofield. Sir Hanley's son was relieved to see that his mother's car didn't look as if it was being weighed down by a body in the boot. But he still had no idea where she was. So police had a look at the CCTV from the hospital and the surrounding area. And there they spotted Hanley getting out of her car at about 6pm and being approached by a woman wearing black. Hanley and the mystery black-clad woman walked off together out of view of the CCTV cameras towards a block of flats, just down the road from the hospital. Hanley's body was found the next day on a dirt road running through a field. With this third homicide, the press and the police knew that Kruger's Dorp had a serial killer on their hands. Because you need three, that's the rules.

Local and national newspapers ran the headline, The Appointment Murders. serial killer on their hands. Because you need three, that's the rules. Local and national newspapers ran the headline The Appointment Murders. Which, murder by appointment isn't that hard. And it's not that far away from that, but they get absolutely no points.

Maybe it was a translation error. I don't think it is. I don't think I can even give them that. I think it's the same in Afrikaans. The people of Kruger's Dorp were so terrified that they avoided financial advisors and business appointments altogether. But they needn't despair totally. CCTV had more to give.

Because you know what else has CCTV other than hospitals? ATMs. The withdrawals made from Anthony Schofield and Kevin McAlpine's accounts on the days that they died were recorded on camera. It was quickly discovered that two siblings had made the withdrawals. When this brother and sister duo were taken in by police, they said that they had been given the debit cards by Nigerians and told to withdraw the cash. For what it's worth, everyone in this story is white, apart from these imaginary Nigerians. This family team were Marcel and Larousse Stein,

and they both swore that they had absolutely nothing to do with the so-called appointment murders. They said that it must have been the Nigerians that killed the two men, stole their debit cards and extracted their PIN numbers. Marcel had just finished high school with good grades and Leroux was a couple of years older. He was 20 and picked up odd jobs where he could. Leroux eventually took entire responsibility for all three of the murders.

But the police were suspicious. Leroux was a scrawny little guy. And there was just no way that he could have manhandled the dead bodies of Anthony Schofield and Kevin McAlpine into the boots of their cars all on his own. Anthony Schofield and particularly Kevin McAlpine are not small people. Yeah. And LaRue is definitely an extremely small person. So it was obvious that something wasn't adding up. LaRue had to be protecting someone.

Someone that he loved so much or was so afraid of that he was willing to give up his freedom for them. Also, LaRoux was so normal, it seemed impossible for him to be connected to dangerous people. But he absolutely was. In fact, his whole family were. The suspicion that Leroux was covering for someone else was confirmed when authorities decided to track down LaRue and Marcel's mum.

Her name is Marinda Stein. Marinda was a primary school teacher, a devout Christian, and an all-round well-loved pillar of the community. And she looks like the most normal woman in the world. She looks like anyone's mum. Kruger's Dort Police contacted the school where Marinda worked and asked if they could

have a look at her classroom. They were hoping to find a laptop or something that might give them a clue as to what her children might be up to. But they found a whole lot more than a clue. Initially, the headteacher of Marinda's school was indignant with the team. He told them that Marinda was the best teacher that they'd ever had, and there was no way she could be involved in anything nefarious. And it certainly did look that way from the looks of Marinda's classroom. It was colourful, tidy, and covered in Bible quotes.

The police found no laptops, and they were just about to leave. When Captain Ben Busson, who fancies himself a bit of a South African Chuck Norris, decided to go back into the classroom on his own. I love Captain. Yes, I did Google him to look at a picture of him. Did you see his little like lapel? I don't know what the word is when you put metal bits on the corner of your collar, like a cowboy. Yeah, I don't know what that's called. He has those. Shirt jewellery. Exactly. He's got the shirt of your collar. Oh. Like a cowboy. Yeah, I don't know what that's called. He has those.

Shirt jewellery. Exactly. He's got the shirt, but jazzle. Aww. And he is a lone rager. He's like, I work alone. I'm known on the force for working alone. I see.

And he does, because like I said, he goes into the classroom to have one last look because he knows that something's up. And this time, something odd did catch Captain Ben's eye. There were two freestanding stoves in Marinda's classroom. And this was strange, thought Captain Chuck Norris, because no one taught home economics anymore. Why has she got these stoves? So he had a look inside and found that the ovens were filled

with hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Strap in, lads. That is not even remotely the most batshit crazy thing that happened in this case. No, we're about to get a lot weirder, but this is a good starting point. So after this discovery, Marinda started to look a lot less like Teacher of the Year and a lot more, like she had something to do with both of her children being arrested. Once the cooker ammunition was revealed to the headmaster he was suddenly a lot more cooperative with Captain Chuck Norris and his mates and he had even more interesting information for the police. For some reason Marinda had recently changed her will and

had left it in the school building. Maybe she needed someone to witness it or something. But for whatever reason, it's at school and she's just left it there. And the headmaster knew about that because his wife is the admin lady. So he digs up this will and Marinda's new final will and testament excluded her children, Marcel and Larue, entirely. Marinda Stein was leaving everything she had to a woman called Cecilia Stein. And the sharp-eared among you will know that Stein is Marinda's surname also, but it's very common in South Africa and they are absolutely no relation to each other. Cecilia is no blood relation at all of Marinda or even of her children.

Cecilia Stein was connected to Marinda and her offspring in a much more sinister way. But to unravel just how sinister, we have to go all the way back to 2006 and a woman called Ria Grunewald. Ria was and probably still is an incredibly devout Christian. So dedicated was she to the word of the Lord that she started her own ministry called Overcomers Through Christ. Again, triada. She learned everything she knew from a dear friend, a man of the cloth, Reverend Reginald Bendixon.

Overcomers Through Christ was the start of Ria spreading her own preaching wings and going it alone. And one of the central tenets of Overcomers Through Christ was waging war against Satanism. Ria herself underwent training in how to spot the signs of satanic ritual abuse and how to support survivors of SRA. And she trained as a trauma counsellor.

Hold on just a minute. You might be thinking that 2006 is a little bit late for South Africa to be going through its own satanic panic, but mon ami or whatever that is in Afrikaans, you are wrong. And I was talking to my favourite South African about this last night, and this is really fucking interesting. The satanic panic that swept the US in the 80s and 90s was one thing, but what else was happening in South Africa in the 80s and 90s? Apartheid. It's the fall of apartheid.

So if you're born after 1990, you're called the freedom generation. Because the apartheid was being dismantled. So believe it or not, apartheid had a part to play in the specific flavour of the South African satanic panic and why it clung on for a little bit longer than the ones everywhere else. One of the key things to understand is that Nelson Mandela's party, the ANC, African National Congress, who did win power and end apartheid in 1990,

are a democratic socialist party. Members still refer to each other as Comrade in Parliament in South Africa. And for many, socialism means exactly the same thing as communism, which it isn't, but never mind, maybe we'll do a shorthand on it another day. And communism means atheism. So one of the many arguments of the apartheid government, apart from all of the racism, obviously, was that the dissolution of apartheid would lead to the downfall of traditional Christian values and leave the door for Satan wide open. I was talking to Gita about this last night and she was like, oh, yeah, like godlessness was a real fear. It was a whole part of like the apartheid government clinging on. So for some, apartheid's war against communism was a war against the devil himself.

That's very handy. Two birds, one stone. Yeah. So this was taken so seriously that in the early 90s, an official occult-related crime unit was formed. That was literally what it was called. Yeah, I can believe it. But the one person who wasn't being tricked into what this was or wasn't was Dr. Kobus Yonka, who was the head of the official occult-related crime unit. He's a special guy. I also love the idea that this could be the next phenome.

Official cult-related crime unit. It's like CSI, but it's O-C-R-C-U. Not as catchy. O-C-R-C-U. Not as catchy. O-C-R-C-U. So yes, Dr. Kobus Yonker was the head of this and the star of Ocrus. And there's actually a Vice documentary about him that you can go and check out

and it is called God's Detective. He's just, he's just a really special guy, you know? And Dr. Kobus Yonker claims that after the fall of apartheid, there were between two and 16 satanic murders per year in South Africa. Now, it's worth mentioning that he collected so-called occult-related items long before he was ever invited to lead the anti-Satanism unit. I mean, you do want to find somebody who's already into it. Sure. He's very much a self-made expert. Sure, sure, sure, sure. As everyone is in the satanic panic because it didn't happen.

Precisely. So, Yonker reports that satanic ritual abuse instances popped up everywhere. Everything from pentagrams to degloved cats and, of course, murdered humans. Is a degloved cat a skinned cat? Yeah. So degloving is the medical term for when your skin comes off. Yeah, got it. And it wasn't just policing

that was scared enough to take very real action. Normal working people were affected too. A phenomenon of spiritual house cleansing swept South Africa. Devout Christians all over the land would burn anything in their houses that could be perceived as a cult. Everything from fairy stories to Spider-Man was perceived by the hardline as an abomination in the eyes of the Lord. So they were burned, so as not to invite the devil in.

Was everyone who went to white people church in South Africa doing this sort of stuff, the burning of Harry Potter, etc? No, of course they weren't. But some real people with real lives, real jobs and real children absolutely, totally believed it. Apparently, and this is in the documentary, which is called Devil's Dorp. Please go and watch it. It's very well done. They say apparently Kruger's Dorp is particularly susceptible to demon activity because the city has five entrances from which a pentagram could be drawn. But, as a journalist in the documentary series says, if you go looking for Lucifer, you will find him. I mean, seriously, the best they could come up with

is that the city has five entrances. Yeah, what does that, entrances to what? Exactly. There's got to be more than five roads, that's mental. There's just five ways to get out of the city. Bang! What's got five? Pentagrams! Fuck, pent means five, that's it's just five ways to get out of the city bang what's got five pentagrams fucking pent means five that's it print it fucking hell for god's sake honestly there is never a truer sentence been uttered in any of the satanic panic episodes that we have ever covered

than if you go looking for lucifer you will find him and that is just the weakest that's the weakest it's pretty weak it It is extremely weak. And Ria Grunewald certainly did find Lucifer when she came across Cecilia Stein. Cecilia claimed to be more than a survivor of satanic ritual abuse. Cecilia said that she was a 42nd generational satanic witch. Sure. Sure. Yeah. Sure. I mean, so am I, but I don't make a big deal about it. Fucking hell.

Well, maybe if you were a bride of Satan like Cecilia was, you would. Can we start selling merch that says 42nd generational satanic witch on it? I really, really want to do that. Okay, if you guys want that, please let me know because I am so desperate to do that and I'll wear it everywhere. Cecilia would love that I'm sure. So her story what's her remember Rhea Grunewald is doing counselling for people who are survivors of satanic ritual abuse or say they are and Cecilia is one of them and she's actually the king of the survivors because she is a bride of Satan who had

managed to break free of the satanic church, so obviously needed a lot more help than everybody else. And Rhea Grunewald took it upon herself to make sure that Cecilia stayed out of Lucifer's clutches and under the grace of God. From the day they met, Rhea stayed close to Cecilia at all times. Soon Cecilia and Rhea, and others, who we will get into in a moment, would collect in Cecilia's home for rituals that they called High Nights. These High Nights were dates in the satanic calendar where Cecilia was the most vulnerable to all her old satanic witchmates

trying to claw her back into hell. Overcomers through Christ would gather around as Cecilia convulsed on the floor, screaming and blood flowing from her mouth. Based on what Cecilia had told her about her time as a satanic witch, a 42nd generational satanic witch, Rhea developed a training course for those who wanted to arm themselves against the devil,

called Know Your Enemy. There's footage of these high knights. I don't have a particularly high tolerance for bullshit anyway, but it really is quite something. They're, like, injecting her with morphine, she's, like, convulsing, Ria's, like, laying of hands, speaking in tongues, the whole thing. I mean, you know what, go hard or go home.

And it's just in someone's flat, like, it's not even in go home and it's just in someone's flat like it's not even in a church it's just in someone's living room i love it you could at least like have gone outside gone like into the woods very little ceremony just like you're phoning it in at that point they really do phone it just like oh do you want to just come to mine it's like i don't really want to go outside today i don't have that much energy for an exorcism. Yeah, like an alfresco exorcism. I might look. Just come to mine. That'll be fine. You're shit weird, Cecilia.

She honestly, she really, really is. And she also insisted that she was under constant attack from Satan. And as a result, she needed to be close to the Kruger's Dorp hospital at all times. In fact, her apartment block was just over the road. Cecilia had a long list of physical conditions. She told the members of Overcomers Through Christ that she had two different blood types on account of her multiple personalities. Oh, excellent. She's got it all. She has got it all. And I don't want to sound like I'm scoffing at that because obviously we've read a lot about DID and there's that German lady who's blind and her alters can see.

This is the thing, but I feel like stuff like that is, it's psychosomatic, right? It's like psychological that maybe her blindness is due to some sort of psychosomatic reason. It literally can't be a physical change that happens. Otherwise, we're in the world of like fucking sci-fi. Two different blood types? No, you don't, Cecilia.

Yeah, I mean, nothing Cecilia says is true. No. That's a good starting point. So what she would say is that the hospital would check which one of her alters was fronting before administering her with a blood transfusion to make sure they were doing the right blood type

for whatever was going on. Whether Cecilia actually had DID or not is not an argument for today, but I have absolutely no problem in saying that I don't believe anything she says. Including the following statement. Cecilia claimed to have over a thousand different alters, one of which was a three-year-old girl called Anya. Anya would often make appearances on high nights where she would vomit, throw tantrums and take part in intricate satanic rituals.

The overcomers through Christ believed that little Anya was an innocent and that she represented all the good left within Cecilia. Guys, this is just fucking getting like some Silent Hill shit. It truly is. This is the plotline of Silent Hill, but in a fucking suburban flat. Yes. God. So basically, the group believed that Anya must be protected at all costs. Otherwise, Cecilia, and presumably the 998 other altars,

would be reclaimed by the Devil's Coven from whence they came. During the high nights, Cecilia was injected with heavy-duty painkillers, and on one occasion, she died. Rhea administered CPR in the name of everyone's favourite carpenter, and 23 minutes later, Cecilia came back to life with a sharp intake of breath. Okay, is there some relevance to the Jesus Christ story of 23? No. Okay. I just thought it was very specific. If it was 33, then maybe because he was 33 when

he died. If it was 12, maybe. But no, 23. Maybe it was just, that's how long she could hold her breath for. Because again, I don't think she died i don't i don't even think she's holding her breath it's just how long she could be bothered to play dead for so i'm bored to be honest if she could hold her breath for 23 minutes she would be dead so these rituals dramatic as they were attracted many of kruger's daubs most devout among their their number were married couple Michaela and Zach Valentine and Marinda Stein, who quickly brought her children along to the Know Your Enemy course and to the High Knights. Because, you know, there's nothing like a nice little family outing to a fucking 42nd generational witch's coven. That's the thing to understand about Leroux and Marcel is that they've known Cecilia to be this 42nd generational

satanic witch since they're like six years old. And it's about to get worse. Michaela Valentine is the person I feel the most sorry for. Like Marinda, Michaela was an especially pious Christian. She often preached herself to youth groups. And according to her mum, Michaela was easygoing and after a period of teenage drug rebellion, Jesus had saved her life. Michaela married a guy called Zach Valentine. Everyone in her family loved

him and together they lived a happy Christian life until October the 4th 2012 when Michaela was found dead by her husband Zach in their marital bed. Michaela had been stabbed 63 times. There was blood all over the ceiling and Bible verses were written on the wall. The Occult Crime Unit were sure that the murder of Michaela had to be the work of someone possessed by a demon. Their argument is that it's such a frenzied stabbing and it's so violent that it must be satanic. Sure. The classic.

Absolutely. In fact, Michaela was the fourth homicide in Kruger's Dorp in 2012 that was deemed to be satanic in nature. And there's no point trying to hide the fact that they were all connected to Cecilia Stein. Yeah, tried to bury the lead. It's not worth it. No, no, no, no.

Cecilia was not a happy 42nd-generational satanic witch in 2012. Far from it. She was losing her grip on her one-time saviour, Ria Grunewald. Ria was back in with her mentor, Reverend Reginald Ben Dixon. Rev Reg. Rev Reg. Love it. That's like a new comedy spin-off show on the BBC. Rev Reg and he solves mildly scary crimes.

He solves why Mrs Brown's voice is popular. Oh don't. Yuck. And so yeah, Ria's back in with reveredge and the overcomers through christ were focusing their attentions less on knowing the devil and more on the exact opposite ria constructed a new course called know your savior and spend a lot less time thinking about cecilia and her 1000 personalities i think what's happened here is Rhea's realised that you can sell through fear, but actually people kind of want a nice story sometimes. And she's like, maybe I sell through love instead.

I don't think Rhea is a bad person. I think she really believed in what she was doing. I think she was just incredibly naive. I agree. So Cecilia tried everything to keep Rhea close. Even tried some of her nonsense about Rhea now being her biological mother. I mean, this woman really has no grasp on how anything works. No, she truly doesn't.

It's such a weird thing. Like, they say it in the documentary and, like, I'm not even going to pretend that I can fully follow the logic because it doesn't exist. But she's basically like, oh, I've signed over the rights of my biological mother to you Rhea so like you are responsible for me and Anya crucially um because Anya is the thing that's worth saving right sure and I'm amazed Rhea lasted this long to be honest yeah because yeah not only is she saying that um to Rhea that you are now my biological mother Cecilia also tells her that it's Rhea's responsibility to keep her safe or that she would die. High stakes.

Yeah. But Rhea, by this point, had seen the light and was not having any of Cecilia's bollocks anymore. So the furious Cecilia started her own group called Electus Perdeus, which means, what do you think? Electus Per Deus. Well, Per Deus must mean per day, every day, maybe. No.

I'm not helping you. God, I don't know. Fuck, I'm confused. Electus, no, I don't know, pass. Means chosen by God. Ah, God. I thought Deus meant God. And Electus, yeah, voted for, yeah, voted for my God. Get it.

Cool. Latin. Latin in the morning is my new radio show. So Electus and Podius were kind of the rival gang to overcome us through crisis, like the Pink Ladies and the T-Birds, the Sharks and the Jets. He was hip hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune and the Jets. He was hip-hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune, and the music industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sean Diddy Cone. Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about. Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party, so.

Yeah, that's what's up. But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down. Today I'm announcing the unsealing of a three-count indictment, charging Sean Combs with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution. I was f***ed up. I hit rock bottom. But I made no excuses. I'm disgusted. I'm so sorry. Until you're wearing an orange jumpsuit, it's not real. Now it's real.

From his meteoric rise to his shocking fall from grace, from law and crime, this is the rise and fall of Diddy. Listen to the rise and fall of Diddy exclusively with Wondery Plus. Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wondery Show American Scandal. We bring to light some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent space exploration with the launch of its first reusable vehicle, the Space Shuttle. And in 1985, they announced they're sending teacher Krista McAuliffe into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other astronauts. But less than two minutes after liftoff, the Challenger explodes. And in the

tragedy's aftermath, investigators uncover a series of preventable failures by NASA and its contractors that led to the disaster. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery+. You can join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial today. And Cecilia took Marinda, LaRue, Marcel, and the Valentines with her from Overcomers Through Christ over to Electus Padeus. And the group got matching tattoos.

They took pictures together in white face paint and wore vampire fangs, which is not the most common look for a Bible study group. No, but you've got to jazz it up. That's what she's doing. Again, none of it makes sense, but these photographs in the documentary, they're so into it. They're so into it.

And I'm like, what do you think is happening? Are you... I don't know. I don't know what's happening. If you're against the vampires and the werewolves, why are you dressing like them? If you can't beat them, join them. I mean, I guess.

Is that what Electus Podius means? Yeah. So along with dressing up, I guess. Is that what Electus Podius means? Yeah! So along with dressing up, Electus Podius also paid tithes to their illustrious leader Cecilia Stein and it's not sort of a 25% 30% situation

quite often these tithes were absolutely everything her followers had which when you consider Miranda Stein, who is a primary school teacher with two children, is mental. This is when you see leaders like this go too far. Just take 10%, just take 20%, maybe take 25% if you're like, you know, hard times, but take 100%. You're going to cull down your numbers because that's unsustainable. That's a bad business model. It's a terrible business model.

And also Cecilia isn't even like, oh, these tithings are keeping me in vampire teeth and face paint. She says that these funds from her followers, of which there are four, remember, went straight to an orphanage that she ran. I believe she said it was in Texas. So nobody could check.

Sure. And this orphanage that Cecilia ran was populated exclusively by children who were survivors of satanic ritual abuse. Some of the children had even been sent to the Texan orphanage by their witch mothers to save them from being sacrificed to the devil. Okay. Basically, Overcome Us Through Christ's Know Your Enemy series, I guess, is all based on Cecilia being like, this is how the Church of Satan works. I've seen it with my own eyes.

And one of the things she says is that if you are a witch, all of your children have to be sacrificed to Satan. And she, out of the goodness of her blackened heart, is saving these children. But then she's taking them away from... Oh, she's... Wait. Whose side is she on?

I'm so confused. She's currently on the side of God. Okay, gotcha. Sorry, just to clarify. So as you probably can guess with all of these stories that she's having to come up with and all the face paint she has to apply, Cecilia never had time for a job. She didn't need to. She was getting all this money. And obviously,

the orphanage in Texas didn't exist. She kept all that tasty, tasty money for herself. But eventually, the money for the imaginary orphanage wasn't keeping Cecilia happy anymore. Now Ria had abandoned her, Cecilia needed revenge. And she didn't hang about. Ria's life began to fall apart. A church she was associated with burned down and petrol bombs exploded in the car park of another. It's big shit. Yeah. This is not playtime. No, it's not like she wrote a nasty thing about her on the internet. Petrol bombs. Petrol bombs. Fucking hell. But buildings and cars were just the beginning. Cecilia knew to really hurt Ria,

she would have to start going after people. The closer to Ria, the better. Cecilia's first target to get to Ria was Natasha Berger. Natasha was a mentee of Ria, a regular at Overcomers Through Christ, but she never fully migrated to Electus Podius. She was too blessed on the meat for they shall inherit the earth for all of the vampire teeth and stuff. So Natasha had to go.

But Cecilia, like all puppet masters, had absolutely no interest in taking Natasha out herself. It was far too much like hard work. So she put her cronies up to it instead. And like we see in many cult and coercive control situations, Cecilia had her closest servants entirely under her thumb. And that kind of dedication doesn't happen overnight. Cecilia had been working on Marinda, her children, and the Valentines for years.

So, when Cecilia told Electus Pudeus that a prayer that Natasha had written killed 170 children at the imaginary Texan orphanage, it was easy to convince the members of Electus Pudeus that Natasha Berger had to die. Cecilia's battle cry was, if you really are a Christian, prove it and kill for God. Natasha lived next to a kind old church-going lady called Joy Boonslager. Electus knew that the pair had a trusting relationship,

so they targeted little old Joy first. It's kind of like you know whenever we talk about what's it called? QAnon? Yes. It's like whenever we talk

about QAnon it's like if I really believed that the world was being run by paedophiles I would be furious. Yeah.

And I think that you know for better or worse much much much worse I do think that the members of Electus Podius really did believe what they were doing. Zach, I'm not sure of, but the rest of them, I do believe. The Valentines knocked on the old lady's door

and told her that they were friends of Natasha's with a birthday surprise for her. A nice joy invited them in. Once they were inside Joy's house, Zach told the little old lady that he needed her to write a note to Natasha, telling her that she needed help. Once the note had been written, Zach Valentine overpowered Joy and he took her to the bedroom,

where he slit her throat. Then Michaela and Zach Valentine waited for Natasha Berger to make her way over to help her neighbour. And when she did, Zach stabbed the 33-year-old to death. As Natasha died, she clutched the note from her elderly neighbour, and it was still in her hand when her body was discovered. Joy had candles in her house,

and Natasha had all of the Know Your Enemy course materials in her house. And that was enough for the double homicide to be recorded as a satanic incident. If you look for him, you'll find him. Oh, yes. So that meant that Zach Valentine had won favour with Cecilia for killing Joy and Natasha. So it was Marinda Stein's turn to prove herself a true Christian soldier. And soon, she would have her chance.

In August 2012, Ria received a text that read, Hey Ria, have you said goodbye to Reg? I hope you have. Marinda took her 14-year-old daughter Marcel with her and stabbed Reginald Ben Dixon to death in front of his house and left him lying face down on his lawn. On the day of Rev Reg's funeral, Ria found a parcel on her doorstep. Inside was a lump of flesh and a message that read, Sorry, this is all the doggies left you. Here is a piece of your precious Reggie. It was just like pork or something from the shop.

Ria immediately knew that this had to be the work of Cecilia. The note wasn't in her handwriting, but it matched her turn of phrase exactly. And this is when it all got too much for Michaela Valentine. She rang her mum and said, Mummy, people have been murdered. Do you know a good lawyer? Fucking hell, Michaela. Fuck off.

Fuck right off. This is when it got too much for you. Yeah. You fucking murdered a little old woman and watched a 33-year-old Natasha Berger get stabbed to death in front of you. Yeah. So Michaela's mum, when she received this call, said,

if you've done nothing wrong, then we don't need one. Michaela's mum... Fucking cheapskate. Yeah, yeah. She's like, how bad is it, though? She's a very sweet lady, but again, incredibly naive. Yeah, because of course we know that Michaela had done quite a lot wrong. And we also know that she was next on the list.

Michaela was stabbed to death in her own bed by Marinda Stein. Marcel was also there. She's 14. Yep. And so was her husband, Zach. Before the stabbing began, Marinda attacked Michaela with a hammer as she slept. Obviously being bashed in the head with a hammer woke Michaela up

and she instantly recognised Marinda. There's a bit in the documentary of Marinda, spoilers, she confesses the whole thing, of her talking about it. And she's saying it like it's the most natural thing in the world. It's like, oh, well, I didn't really want to wake her up, but she woke up because I was hitting her on the head with a hammer and she's saying it like it's the most natural thing in the world so oh well like I didn't really want to wake her up but you know she woke up because I was hitting her on the head with a hammer and she recognized me I could see it in her eyes that she knew who I was yeah I mean it's just like deep deep cult programming not that I'm letting her off for her behavior because like

fucking no fuck Marinda I have a lot more time for Michaela but I think because she she tries to get out the rest of them don't even make an attempt. No. And what's really shocking, I mean, above and beyond the fact that Marinda has attacked Michaela with a hammer and then stabbed her. In front of her 14-year-old daughter. In front of her 14-year-old daughter. Is that when Michaela woke up when she was hit in the head with a hammer, she instantly began to pray. But, of course, this didn't save her.

Michaela's murder was to stop her from leaving the group and spilling the satanic beans. Kind of a side quest for the Electus Padeus. Yeah, it's... Cecilia's main aim is to ruin Rhea Grunewald's life. Michaela isn't connected to that in any way. It's kind of collateral damage. But Cecilia was still not finished with Rhea.

Now she went after her son, Joshua. But that plan fell through, and the satanic murders case of 2012 went cold. Electris Padillas went quiet until 2015, when Cecilia decided that she wanted some more money. Married couple Peter, 51, and Joan, 47, Peter and Joan Mayer, were found dead by their daughter-in-law in their house that had just been put on the market. They had an appointment with Marinda Stein the same day they died, and Marinda is clearly visible on CCTV entering the Mayer household.

But somehow, nothing happened. Then, in December of the same year, Zach's car was found burnt out on the side of the road, with him burnt to a crisp inside, behind the steering wheel. Zach's sister identified the body. Three months before the accident, a life insurance policy was taken out by Zach to the tune of 3.5 million rand.

And who was the beneficiary? It was, of course, none other than 42nd generational satanic witch Cecilia Stein. There had also been a cash deposit to activate the policy just a week before Zach's death. It looked as if Cecilia had finally got sick of Zach too. Life insurance agencies generally don't like it when people die very quickly after their policies are taken out. So an internal investigation led the company straight to Cecilia. There's footage of the interview that the insurance agent has with Cecilia

and she sits on the back of the sofa that the insurance agent has with Cecilia, and she sits on the back of the sofa. So like her feet are where her butt should be. And she sat on like, and she's trying to make herself look as big as possible. And she talks quite a lot about how ill she is, how she needs oxygen canisters, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and how she is the 36th Cecilia in her family. She's very interested in generational numbers, is our Cecilia. And she made the agent incredibly suspicious because, and this is a good rule for life, my friends, anyone who makes themselves appear weak should be treated as extremely dangerous.

The insurance agent knew full well that Zach's wife Michaela had been brutally murdered a few years earlier and that the case was still unsolved. When Cecilia was asked why Zach had not left his life insurance payout to his wife, Cecilia just said that his wife was dead. She didn't make any mention of the fact that she was brutally stabbed to death and that they'd never caught the perpetrator, which is odd. And it doesn't stop there. Cecilia, no surprises, is a really fucking weird lady. And she also explained in great detail to the

insurance agent that Zach's car was so burnt that the brake discs had melted and that Zach's arms and legs were burnt off. She thought he'd probably passed out at the wheel and ran off the road. Which was odd, considering there were no skid marks at the scene, and the car's licence plates were untouched by fire, almost as if someone wanted the car to be identified. Cecilia also didn't seem particularly sad about the passing of her dear friend. In fact, Cecilia said that every Christmas and birthday from now on would be ruined because Zach had the audacity to die in December. Of course she's a Sagittarius.

The insurance company were not convinced that Cecilia hadn't killed Zach herself to claim the money, so they didn't pay out. Which meant that Cecilia was right back up to her old tricks to claim the money so they didn't pay out. Which meant that Cecilia was right back up to her old tricks to get some money. Presumably to feed those invisible orphans. She did this the only way she knew how. She sent Marinda to rob and kill a man

on the 27th of January 2016. His name was Glenn McGregor and he was found dead in his bath fully clothed at the age of 57. 27th January 2016. His name was Glenn McGregor, and he was found dead in his bath, fully clothed at the age of 57. Marinda had shot him twice in the back of the head. Before she did that, though, Marinda transferred money from Glenn's online banking into her own account,

using the reference, Excellent Fuck. Meanwhile, Zach Valentine's actual family, as opposed to his cult one, were growing increasingly concerned. Zach's mother contacted the police about her son's death and they told her that his body had been identified by his sister. Which for Zach's mum was quite a major problem

because Zach didn't have a sister. He had never had a sister. Which for Zach's mum was quite a major problem because Zach didn't have a sister. He had never had a sister. So who identified him? And how do you even identify a body that so badly burned the arms and legs have come off? Well, the truth is that Marinda had identified the body. And if you're thinking that Cecilia knocked Zach off, you are being logical. But you would be wrong. The insurance company ran blood type testing on the body found in the burnt out car. And guess what? It wasn't Zach Valentine.

I truly thought that Cecilia would have just knocked him off. Yeah, me too. You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment,

hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness,

and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made, a seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart.

But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. When TV producer Roy Radin was found dead in a canyon near L.A. in 1983, there were many questions surrounding his death. The last person seen with him was Lainey Jacobs, a seductive cocaine dealer who desperately wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite. Together, they were trying to break into the movie industry. But things took a dark turn when a million dollars worth of cocaine

and cash went missing. From Wondery comes a new season of the hit show Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of The Cotton Club Murder early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. So who was it? And where was Zach Valentine? Well, let's take things one step at a time. The poor bastard in the car was 44-year-old Jared Mitchum Jackson. He was a recovering drug addict and was living on the streets.

Marinda and Cecilia befriended him and his girlfriend as they were selling snacks on the side of the road. His very pregnant girlfriend, by the way. And then one day, LaRue Stein and Zach Valentine took poor Jared away from his pregnant, equally homeless girlfriend and they went driving in Zach's car. Once they got Jared in the car, LaRue drugged him and strangled him to death. Then the Electus Pudeus duo left Jared's body in

Zach's car on the side of the road and set the whole thing ablaze. Two days later, LaRue rang the life insurance company and attempted to cash out the policy on Zach's life. So where was Zach Valentine? He realised that he needed to disappear after he was made a suspect in the murders of the mayors. Police had asked him to come in to do a polygraph, which are obviously bullshit, but Zach didn't know that, and he decided to vanish instead. Amazingly, he managed it for months.

He lived on the streets under the name Michael de Villiers. However, his enormous back tattoo, which he made no attempt to hide, gave him away and eventually he was arrested. I really don't know how he thought he was going to get away with that, presumably because he thinks he's chosen by God. And also, he had got away with murdering 11 people, so... That'll do it. Including his own wife. Yeah. But this getting away with it wouldn't last long.

Let's cast our collective hive minds all the way back to the beginning-ish of this episode, where LaRue and his sister Marcel are being held in police custody and questioned. You might remember that LaRue took total responsibility for the appointment murders of Anthony Schofield and Kevin McAlpine and Hanley Lattgen and told Captain Chuck Norris that he had acted alone.

But you'll also remember that no one believed him. But still LaRue stuck to his guns. Until he was told about the will that his mother, Marinda, had written. The one that Marinda had left at the primary school, in which she taught, and the one in which she stipulated that she was cutting her children out completely. Once LaRue was told this, it was only a couple of hours before he rolled on his whole story. He now said that he had been protecting his mother and Cecilia Stein, who he had known as a witch since he was just a little boy.

The changes his mum Marinda made to her last will and testament showed Leroux that his mum and his witch leader had no interest in protecting him or his sister Marcel. Once he was shown the will and recognised his mother's handwriting, he started to cry and said, fuck her, now they're going down. He told Captain Chuck Norris all he knew. And all he knew was the story that you just heard. And the captain had even more helpful information

to build a case against Cecilia Stein and the rest of Electus Padeus. A man known only as Mr X, who now lives under witness protection, was sent in to Cecilia's inner circle, wearing a wire. Mr X claims to have taped Cecilia and Zach admitting to absolutely everything.

And when he checked the tape, everything was in order. So he handed the tape over to the Krugstorp Police Department. But when they got hold of it, the police said it was completely unintelligible. Just white noise. This is a very odd turn in the story mr x obviously we don't know who he is he's in witness protection i don't know why he's in witness protection nobody else is anyway he says that he's sent by a high-up police person into cecilia's house and then he does the whole thing he gets her her to confess to everything. It's all on tape.

He checks the tape. It's all there. And then he hands it back to this high-up police person, and then it gets scrambled. Maybe Cecilia had friends in higher places. Cult leaders generally do. Her house was searched as well and inside they found 500 knives

and also young children. Cecilia's children. And she also had a husband who was a police officer. Well, there you go. That's the answer. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

In the documentary, they're like, oh no, he was far too junior to have anything to do with it. He definitely didn't know. And I'm like, bull fucking shit, South Africa. I'm sorry. I'm not buying it at all. The police are in on this whole thing.

Yeah. So the case against Cecilia was well and truly sealed when Leroux agreed to testify against her and against his own mother, Marinda. But Marcel refused the same deal. LaRue told the court everything he knew, including that he believed Cecilia to be a witch, a vampire and a werewolf all at the same time. And Ria Grunewald left Kruger's Dorp overnight. Marinda told the police that she was responsible for everything, that she'd been doing the Lord's work, but more importantly, that Cecilia had had absolutely nothing to do with it. Marinda claimed that Cecilia had once dabbled in Satanism, but now she walked solely in the light of the Lord. Which, annoyingly, was a pretty good defence,

because there was absolutely nothing but the word of Leroux-Stein to implicate Cecilia in any of the murders. Because she was never there. It was always Marinda, her children, and when he wasn't faking his own death, Zach Valentine. Proving that they were all just doing it because Cecilia told them to was incredibly difficult, particularly because Marinda was throwing her own son under the bus at every chance she got. She said stuff like the Rue had always been a jealous child and he was only saying these things because he was envious of his sister Marcel and because he had

been arrested he wanted to take everyone else down with him. She says it so many times she's like well he's just like that. You can't believe a word he says he's always been like this. Marinda told a stunned courtroom but she was confessing to all of the murders. One because she had done them and two because God wanted her to. According to Marinda the murders. One, because she had done them, and two, because God wanted her to. According to Marinda, the killing of Rev Ben Dixon was entirely her idea, and that Natasha Berger's murder

had all been Zach's master plan. Marinda claimed that she had always wanted to kill, and when her victims died, she felt a sense of release. And this is what she said. She said, quote, It felt like something of release. And this is what she said. She said, quote, So she fully takes responsibility. Similarly to the way that LaRue did initially,

she says, it was all me. I take it all. But at no stage in the investigation did Marinda Stein cooperate with the police. And neither did her daughter, Marcel. This all happened on the stand, at trial. Miranda and her two children were tried together, and Cecilia Stein eventually gave a statement.

Naturally, she said she had absolutely nothing to do with any of the 11 murders, nor was she a vampire or a werewolf. She was, though, a 42nd generational satanic witch, but had broken free from Satan's shackles some time ago. Cecilia also told the court that she had been medically diagnosed with DID due to childhood trauma. She does not disclose what that trauma is. And when Cecilia was asked by the prosecution why Marinda and the others had constantly sent her money, she just juvenilely replied, you would have to ask her that. What am I supposed to do?

Say stop. I am under no illusion that Cecilia is a very unwell woman. I don't think she's a 42nd generation satanic witch. No. I don't think she has DID either. No. So Cecilia would have a trial all of her own later on. But now let's concentrate on the Stein family. No one could have predicted what happened when Marcel took the stand. Up until that exact moment

she'd never cooperated. She'd stuck by her mother's side, agreeing that all the things LaRue said that implicated Cecilia as a ringleader were totally false. Then, Marcel changed her tune. At 20 years old, and at the last possible minute, Marcel backed her brother's every word. She told the court that she obeyed Cecilia's murderous orders because she believed that if she ever doubted her, that it was the same as doubting God.

She finally decided to speak the truth and do the right thing so that Cecilia couldn't do the same to anyone else ever again. And this is so difficult to watch. So they're all sat there, like one, two, three, mum, brother, sister. And after Marcel, nobody knows she's going to do this everyone thinks that she's going to sit in in the dock like her mum and back up everything marinda says and literally at the last possible moment she changes her mind and then she has to go back and sit next to her mum after dobbing her in, essentially.

And Marcel was actually moved to another jail for the rest of the trial because everyone was scared that Marinda would kill her. Marinda was sentenced to 11 life terms to be served concurrently and they chucked in an extra 115 years on top of that. Leroux was given 25 years and Marcel was sent away for seven life terms, which may seem harsh considering she did roll in the end, but she also had years to make the right choice and she didn't. So I don't have enormous amounts of sympathy for her.

She didn't have a plea deal. She could have done. She chose not to. So now the state had those steins. They were after the other one. But because there was absolutely no evidence whatsoever linking Cecilia to any of the 11 murders, because she hadn't been there for any of them. But prepare for some stellar lawyering. This is so cool.

Because the prosecution found a loophole. The charge of racketeering in South Africa has a very vague legal definition and therefore is quite easy to prove. When Cecilia's trial came around in 2019, the state proved that Electus Bodeus was a criminal enterprise that Cecilia was the godfather of.

That she was giving instructions and making money off all of them. And so, Cecilia was sent down for 13 life sentences and 155 years. That only leaves Zach Valentine, who would have a trial all of his very own in 2019. This is so recent! And he was found guilty and given eight life sentences on top of 93 years. The case of Electus Padias was the first time in South African history that the charge of racketeering was used to put the ringleader of a murderous sect behind bars.

I was talking to Geats about this yesterday. What's interesting about this case is, firstly, it's batshit crazy. And secondly, unlike a lot of satanic panic cases, it's not, like, misdirected. Like, they did think that. They thought they were doing sane stuff. Yeah, yeah. It wasn't just, like, some kid wearing a long black trench coat being misunderstood.

Yeah. Satanism is not illegal in South Africa. It never has been. And it was never on trial in this case either. So there you have it. Hail Satan. Be nice to each other. Don't hang around 42nd generational satanic witches. Don't do it. And if someone tells you they're running an orphanage in Texas for babies that were nearly sacrificed to Satan they're probably lying don't give them your paycheck be sceptical

exactly so that's it guys also don't kill someone for 800 quid no don't do that either don't do any of the things that were in today's episode and just you know

be cool just be cool I want a t-shirt saying that and if you are cool then you will head on over immediately if you haven't already done so, to redhandedpodcast.com and get your tour tickets to come see us on the road.

So go check that out. And if you would like extra content from us, then you can head on over to patreon.com slash redhanded, where you can get access to Under the Duvet every single week, as well as monthly full-length bonus episodes from Red Handed. So go do that, and we'll see you next week. Hooray. Bye. I'm Jake Warren, and in our first season of Finding,

I set out on a very personal quest to find the woman who saved my mum's life. You can listen to Finding Natasha right now exclusively on Wondery Plus. In season two, I found myself caught up in a new journey to help someone I've never even met. But a couple of years ago, I came across a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part, Three years ago today that I attempted to jump off this bridge, but this wasn't my time to go. A gentleman named Andy saved my life. I still haven't found him. This is a story that I came across purely by chance, but it instantly moved me and it's

taken me to a place where I've had to consider some deeper issues around mental health. This is season two of Finding, and this time, if all goes to plan, we'll be finding Andy. You can listen to Finding Andy and Finding Natasha exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America. But when a social media-fueled fight over Harvard and its new president broke out last fall, that was no protection. Claudian Gay is now gone. We've exposed the DEI regime, and there's much more to come. This is The Harvard Plan,

a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's On the Media. To listen, subscribe to On the Media wherever you get your podcasts.