Death Metal Bandmates Who Murdered Friend, 15, in 'Satanic Ritual' Requiring 'Sacrificial Virgin' Released From Prison By Chris Spargo 14

Two of the three men involved in a 1995 murder that helped fuel the nationwide “satanic panic” have been granted parole.

Royce Casey and Jacob Delashmutt, both 47, were both released from California prisons within weeks of one another after serving 28 years for the murder of 15-year-old Elyse Pahler.

Those two men, along with their accomplice Joseph Fiorella, killed Pahler after becoming fixated on the notion of “sacrificing a virgin to the devil” in what they themselves described as a “satanic ritual,” according to a habeas corpus petition filed by Casey and obtained by PEOPLE.

The three men, who had formed a death metal band, believed that murdering Pahler would make them better musicians, according to Casey.

The three teenagers discussed killing Pahler for months, but Casey said in the affidavit that the group carried out the murder on a whim.

Casey said in the petition that he and another friend were at a convenience store on June 22, 1995 when he happened to encounter Delashmutt and Fiorella, who informed him of their plan to kill Pahler that evening.

Casey, who was 17 at the time, decided to part ways with his friend and joined Delashmutt, then 16, and Fiorella, then 15, as they walked to meet Pahler, who Casey said had snuck out believing the group was going to party.

Once Pahler joined the group, the four headed to a secluded eucalyptus grove where after a few minutes Delashmutt said he had to urinate, took off his belt and started to strangle Pahler, Casey recounted in the affidavit.

Casey said that he then pinned Pahler’s hands on the ground behind her back as Fiorella pulled out a “large, fixed-bladed hunting knife” and stabbed the defenseless girl “four, five, or six times” in the neck and “one or two times in the side of the neck.”

Fiorella then handed the knife to Delashmutt, who “stabbed her in the back and neck area four or five additional times,” before passing the weapon on to Casey, who said he stabbed her “four times in total.”

Pahler then began moaning, Casey said in the affidavit, and he “reacted by stomping her on the back of the neck.”

There were reports that the three men sexually assaulted the victim, but Casey denied that in the affidavit.

He said that the three instead dragged Pahler to a remote area and placed her fully clothed in a facedown position before covering her body with leaves and trying to sneak home.

The three were eventually picked up by Delashmutt’s father, who had been looking for his son, said Casey,

Then, nothing happened.

Police identified Pahler as a missing person and began a nationwide search, assuming she had run away from home, according to Casey.

The three killers might have gotten away with their crime if not for Casey, who eight months after the murder confessed to a clergyman and then led police to Pahler’s mummified body.

All three men were charged with the murder and kidnapping of Pahler, whose body had been buried in a shallow grave approximately 1,000 feet from her home, according to the San Luis Obispo District Attorney’s Office.

In early 1997, the prosecutor in the case made national headlines as he shared some of the statements made by the three defendants, including that the three killed a classmate to appease the devil so that he would grant them the ability to be better musicians.

Casey later recounted their motive during his first parole hearing, saying: “Afterward we talked about if we would be rewarded by the devil for doing this. We still looked at ourselves like this was our band. That was why we did it.”

Fiorella took a deal just a few weeks after the preliminary hearing, and was ultimately sentenced to 26 years to life.

Casey opted to enter a no contest plea shortly thereafter and Delashmutt quickly followed suit, with both men receiving sentences of 25 years to life.

Both Casey and Delashmutt were granted parole in 2023, but in both instances the decision was reversed by Governor Gavin Newsom.

Casey’s parole was granted with the blessing of Pahler’s father thanks in large part to his decision to share a detailed recounting of his crime in 2021, which he included as part of his affidavit.

The conditions of his parole prohibit him from having any contact with the Pahler family, or returning to San Luis Obispo County.

The Pahler family did not feel the same about Delashmutt’s release, whom they view as the ringleader of the operation.

As for the third member of the group, Fiorella will be up for parole in June.

The details of the crime, and the motive of the killers, would go on to inspire Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody and her 2009 cult classic Jennifer’s Body.