Unsolved Mysteries Revolving Around Satanism and Satanic Rituals

Thousands of crimes go unsolved every year, but the murders and disappearances that have an air of the occult about them are the most unsettling. As you’ll come to find, all it takes for local crime to become a satanic murder spree are the whispers of a few neighbors, and suddenly an entire town can be turned on its head.

The satanic crimes described here don’t maintain a straight narrative; instead, they tend to twist and curve until the only thing you’re certain about is that no one will ever have all of the answers they need to definitively close any of these cases. In some instances there were arrests, but they were done with a shrug rather than a celebratory drink. Even the stories of satanic ritual that have a somewhat clear antagonist only lead to more questions with unclear answers.

One of the through-lines in these unsolved satanic mysteries is that there are people with answers about each of the crimes that have failed to come clean about their involvement in the incident. In some instances, entire towns seem to be at fault, while other stories only have a few people who know the full story of the mystery, and they’re keeping their mouths shut. Quite often, the truth behind stories of ritualistic satanic murder is like a handful of sand; the more you try to grasp it, the less you can carry. Keep reading to try and wrap your head around some of the most disturbing unsolved occult mysteries. 

The Axeman of New Orleans takes everything that's great about The Big Easy and rolls it into one creepy ball. From 1918 to 1919, a series of axe murders occurred across New Orleans, and even though the murderer contacted local authorities, no arrests were ever made. In the Axeman's letter to the police, he states that he's a demon from Hell and that if there's one thing he loves more than killing people with an axe - it's jazz. 

Esteemed Mortal:

They have never caught me and they never will. They have never seen me, for I am invisible, even as the ether that surrounds your earth. I am not a human being, but a spirit and a demon from the hottest hell... I am very fond of jazz music, and I swear by all the devils in the nether regions that every person shall be spared in whose home a jazz band is in full swing at the time I have just mentioned. If everyone has a jazz band going, well, then, so much the better for you people. One thing is certain and that is that some of your people who do not jazz it on Tuesday night (if there be any) will get the axe.

Spring break is supposed to be the greatest week ever in the life of a coed, but for Mark Kilroy, spring break 1989 was the last week he would spend alive. He disappeared while checking out Matamoros with some of his buddies, and his body wouldn't be found until about a month later, when Mexican Federales were investigating Serafin Hernandez Garcia, the nephew of a drug lord. While searching Garcia's ranch the Federales discovered a shed that held multiple cauldrons, candles, and a collection of other black magic related items. It was only after the Federales had called in a curandero (a Native healer) to cleanse the site that they were able to determine that Kilroy had been on the wrong end of a ritual sacrifice. 

After Federales discovered his body, which had had its heart removed, they began excavating the mutilated bodies of 14 other people who had been sacrificed by the cartel. After the bodies were discovered, the cartel's leader, Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, had his personal priest kill him with a machine gun, and the Federales burned the ranch where Kilroy's body was discovered to the ground. It's a bizarre story that provides few answers despite being a somewhat open and shut case. 

In March 2016, an Australian woman was charged with the murder of her 16-month-old daughter 15 years after she went missing. Police have yet to find a body, and because of the mother's belief in the occult, some people believe that she used her daughter in a satanic ritual sacrifice. 

The disappearance and subsequent death of the Jamison Family is one of the strangest tales of modern America. In October 2009, Bobby and Sherilynn Jamison went missing along with their six-year-old daughter Madyson. After the family's truck was discovered, it would take another four years before their bodies were found, face down in the dirt, three miles away from where their vehicle had been.

The family's pastor believes that the Jamisons were in the middle of an intense bout of "spiritual warfare" at the time of their disappearance, and went on to say that Bobby had asked him for "special bullets" and a "satanic bible" to help expel the ghosts of deceased family members from his home. 

While there's the "family ghost" theory, there's also the possibility that the Jamisons were murdered by a coven of witches for killing their cats. This is based on two key pieces of evidence. The first is an alleged "witch's bible" that was found in the Jamison's home during the investigation, and the more circumstantial of the already incredibly circumstantial evidence is some graffiti that was found inside a moving container the family was using for house-side storage that read "3 cats killed to date buy [sic] people in this area … Witches don’t like there [sic] black cat killed.” If we're being honest, no one likes their cats being killed. 

In 1981, the headless body of Leroy Clark Jr. was found with a chicken wing and two kernels of corn jammed into his bloody neck stump. He was wrapped in a sleeping bag in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Due to the ritualistic nature of the murder, the case was turned over to Inspector Sandi Gallant, who had recently worked on a series of local investigations related to the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana. With little to go on, she tracked down an expert in santeria who told the detective that the murderer would return the severed head to the park 42 days after the murder to complete the ritual. When she told her superiors what she learned she was "laughed at by [her] homicide investigators, and [her] chief of detectives," but on the 42nd day, Leroy Clark Jr.'s head showed up in Golden Gate Park. 

The quiet desolation of Texas provides a backdrop to some of the strangest murders and unsolved mysteries that have taken place in recent history. And the story of the death of a brother and sister in Childress, TX, is one of the most chilling tales to come out of the state.

The first sibling to die, Tate Rowland, was 17 years old when he was found hanging from a tree in 1988, and although it was ruled a suicide, there were people in the town who believed that he had been murdered as part of a satanic ritual. Three years later, Rowland's 27-year-old sister, Terrie Trosper, was found dead, face down on her mattress. It was believed that she'd learned too much about the cult who had claimed the life of her brother and was dealt with accordingly. 

Because this story takes place in the middle of the late '80s/early '90s satanic panic, the entire community folded in on itself. People were dropping dime on their neighbors for being members of a satanic cult, an expert on satanic cults came to town in order to help the Sheriff deal with his devil worshipper problem, and some citizens were subpoenaed to tell the grand jury what they knew about the cult and the murders. By 1992, the town had cast blame on anyone that they could think of, leaving almost no room for a true suspect. 

Jeanette DePalma's death is one of the spookiest unsolved mysteries to come out of the spookiest state in the union, New Jersey. In 1972, DePalma's body was discovered by a dog who brought her severed arm back to town. Locals believe that the spot where DePalma's body was found (atop a cliff known as "the Devil's Teeth") was the site of multiple satanic rituals and that the police have somehow covered up the more cult-like aspects of the girl's death. 

On July 4th, 1988, young couple Sally McNelly and Shane Stewart went missing from San Angelo, TX, leaving only Shane's car as evidence that something had happened. Four months later their skeletons were found near a lake in central Texas' Hill Country, 17 miles from where they were last scene. Prior to their disappearance, Sally told some of her friends that she was involved with a group who was into ritualistic sex, and that she and Shane were trying to leave the cult and that she was afraid someone was trying to kill them. As of 2016 the murders remain unsolved, and no word of a satanic cult has been uttered in central Texas. 

In 1974, the body of Arliss Perry was found draped across the altar of the Memorial Church on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, CA. The woman had been raped, beaten, and stabbed with an ice pick behind her left ear. Her murderers had shoved a votive candle into her vagina and placed a second candle in her hands, which they draped across her chest. Perry's murder has gone unsolved, and many people (including the priest that discovered her body) believe that her rape and murder was a part of a satanic ritual. 

Elisa Lam's body was found in the water tower of the now-renovated Cecil Hotel in 2012, and other than some truly strange video evidence, no one has any idea about what may have happened to her. Although one theory suggests that her death was caused when her body was inhabited by a spirit that also took over the body of Richard Ramirez, who also spent some time at the Cecil Hotel.