WEBVTT - Episode 3: Eyes of a Killer 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:08.000 School of Humans. This show follows the investigation of serial 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:13.080 murders and contains material that may be disturbing. Listener discretion advised. 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:28.920 Michaela Valentine, heart pounding, waits in the car for her 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.320 husband Zach. She stares at her reflection in the mirror. 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:40.760 In her blond wig and heavy makeup, she barely recognizes herself. Inside, 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.279 Zach carries out two fatal attacks on Natasha Berger and 0:00:44.320 --> 0:00:48.080 her neighbor Joy Burnside. The plan was for Michaela to 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:50.680 help him, but she couldn't bring herself to go through 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:54.680 with it. When the executions are complete, Zach flees from 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:58.080 the townhouse and runs toward the waiting car. He jumps 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:03.720 in next to his wife, his hands, his face, his 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:09.960 clothes all covered in blood. Zach and Michaela speed away 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:17.240 from the scene, bolting across the darkened city. Zach calls 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:21.880 to check in with Mirinda. The job is done, he 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:25.640 tells her. Marinda hears Michaela crying in the background, and 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:27.959 orders them to get rid of the murder weapons and 0:01:28.080 --> 0:01:31.720 report back immediately to the flat where Cecilia is waiting. 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:36.160 When they arrive, Zach explains to Cecilia what happened and 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:40.000 how Michaela couldn't bring herself to kill joy Cecilia was 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.280 not pleased. LaRue and Marcel are ordered to scrub the 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:52.480 car clean of blood. Ria Grunivald rushes to Natasha's place 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:58.600 as soon as she hears the tragic news. She has 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:01.520 to see for herself if things had actually gone this far. 0:02:04.200 --> 0:02:07.000 Rhea watches the slack jawed as the bodies of Natasha 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:09.840 and Joy are carried out, both covered in white sheets 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.560 in the dark of night. No one recognizes Rihea, but 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:18.520 the following day a witness comes forward. I heard screams 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:21.480 coming from Joy's home, she said. When I looked outside, 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:23.480 I saw a blond woman running from the house to 0:02:23.520 --> 0:02:27.000 her car. That woman was Mikaela in a blonde wig. 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:31.200 But strangely, the witness tells the police with some certainty 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:34.200 that who she saw fleeing the murder scene was Rhea. 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:39.080 As if things weren't bad enough, Rhea's life was about 0:02:39.080 --> 0:02:41.960 to take yet another turn for the worse. She was 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:46.720 about to become the primary suspect from School of Humans 0:02:46.760 --> 0:02:51.400 and iHeart Podcasts. This is Queen Havoc and her murder cult. 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:58.560 I'm your host, Kurt Kupchek episode three, Eyes of a Killer. 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:08.160 In untangling the web of this case, we discover a 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:11.840 long list of bad actors, but we also encounter people 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:16.280 like Rhea, vilified for their good intentions. Among these well 0:03:16.320 --> 0:03:20.200 intentioned individuals is the man we've been calling Luke. His 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:24.160 involvement with Cecilia Stein would come at a steep cost. 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:28.120 Luke is something of a vigilante. He met Cecilia and 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:31.480 Electus Perdaz in twenty twelve as the murders were picking 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:34.520 up steam. His friend Aria introduced him to the Know 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:36.680 Your Enemy pamphlet, which piqued his interest. 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:41.480 The book's name was now your Enemy. So I convinced 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.280 a lot of people, how do you PreTect yourself if 0:03:44.280 --> 0:03:47.080 you don't know are your enemy operates? Makes actually aren't 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:51.840 the same scenes? So I started reading this boon. I 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:53.120 didn't agree with anything. 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:57.160 He shared his skepticism with Aria, so. 0:03:57.200 --> 0:04:00.360 I told him, I've got all this questions. She told 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:02.640 me she'll take me to the person who read this book. 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:06.680 And that's when I met cecil Lasting for the first 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:11.360 time and Zach Valentine and Makai La. 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:17.919 Luke challenged Cecilia's ideas in person and strangely enough, she 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:20.920 seemed to enjoy it, bantering back and forth with him 0:04:21.160 --> 0:04:26.800 but not providing any real answers. Luke remained unconvinced that 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:29.000 she was as cunning as she said she was, but 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:32.599 was intrigued by the group's reverence for her. But then, 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:35.840 only a couple of weeks after he came into Cecilia's orbit, 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:37.800 people started dying. 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:40.919 This One friend found me about a week later and 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.479 she told me and Natasha Burger and friend's been murdered. 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.440 In his gut, he knew they were to blame. 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.440 I couldn't believe it. Something that don't make sense. 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:53.839 And so he decided to act, going. 0:04:53.640 --> 0:04:56.800 To my knees and I prayed and I told her 0:04:56.880 --> 0:05:00.440 Lord he can use me. I will go into Cruge 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:03.440 if you can just partect me and I'll open up 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:04.600 this whole hole. And it's next. 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:12.200 Luke planned to conduct his own investigation. He would infiltrate 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:16.200 electus perdeis, posing as a devotee. He could get close 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:20.040 to them and confirm his suspicions. Then, once he had 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.800 hard evidence, he would go to the police. Luke tread 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:26.560 lightly at first, so that no one would suspect anything. 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:30.520 He needed to earn Secilia's trust, the rest would follow. 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:34.960 Not aware of the malicious inner workings of EPD, Luke 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:37.279 began to spend time with some of the members socially, 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:42.000 Zach Valentine in particular, and up close. He took note 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:43.680 of how Cecilia played them all. 0:05:44.400 --> 0:05:48.560 Anybody was extremely scaped of Cecilia, and that's how she 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:52.280 got everybody to listen to her and follow the instructions. 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:56.040 She used fear and of course scripture. The story of 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:59.920 King David, who was told by God to destroy the Philistines, 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:02.200 worked especially well on Mirinda. 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:07.040 I remember she manipulated Miranda out of David. David killed 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:09.000 all the people, and the women, and the children and 0:06:09.000 --> 0:06:11.680 the dogs. Everything must be killed, and that's how she 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:14.640 manipulated Miranda to participa the killings. 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:23.719 Cecilia reinterpreted biblical teachings to her likings so that members 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:27.520 believed that what they were doing was God's will, just 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.320 like so many Zelots throughout history who murdered in the 0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:34.159 name of God. Cecilia would speak on behalf of the Almighty, 0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:38.000 and who were they to argue against such divine authority? 0:06:39.080 --> 0:06:42.800 That made Michaela's unwillingness to kill joy burnside, an affront 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:48.680 to Cecilia and an act of existential defiance. Zach tried 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:52.279 to reassure Cecilia that Michaela was loyal and that she 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:56.320 could still be trusted, but Cecilia was unsparing. She berated 0:06:56.360 --> 0:06:59.000 Michaela for not following through on the kill assigned to her, 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:02.520 and decided all of them Zach, Mirinda, Marcel, LaRue and 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:06.400 Michaela should all be better prepared for next time. In fact, 0:07:06.839 --> 0:07:11.600 they should practice. Luke wasn't yet deep enough into the 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:15.720 fold to be included in this macabre exercise. The core members, however, 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:18.720 arrived at Cecilia's flat one evening to find her in 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:22.400 the bedroom. Laid out under stackxa newspaper, was a boar's 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:25.760 head from the local butcher. She handed knives to each 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:28.320 of her followers and instructed them to have at it, 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.480 a depraved rehearsal for killing a human. She watched for 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:36.760 a while and then left the room, returning a few 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:42.480 minutes later with an axe. While their blades were plunged 0:07:42.520 --> 0:07:45.640 deeper and deeper into the boar's head, Cecilia fed her 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:48.600 followers stories of the conniving ways of Rhea and her 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:54.600 mentor Pastor Reginald Ben Dixon. He was the aggressor, she 0:07:54.720 --> 0:07:59.360 told them. He turned Rhea against them all he let 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:03.440 OTC to heard praying incorrectly, thereby forcing them to dispose 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:08.040 of Natasha. And he, according to Cecilia, had plagiarized her 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:16.120 Know Your Enemy pamphlet and repurposed it for an OTC course. Finally, 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:21.320 Cecilia's devotees, breathless and bloody, surrounded the mangled pig's head, 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:24.960 ready for their next kill. This time it would be 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:28.600 Mirinda's turn to prove her loyalty. And this time we'll 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:29.720 hear about the murder. 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:33.920 In her own words, no one ever screamed when I 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:36.000 killed him. They were dated in seconds. 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:48.200 Merenda Stein, guided by her undying loyalty to Cecilia, was 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:52.480 outraged at Pastor Reginald Ben Dixon's inequities. He had stolen 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:57.959 both Cecilia's intellectual property and Rhea's admiration. In her book 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:02.280 The Kruger's Dwarf Cult Killings, journalist Jana Marx details the 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:06.960 scene where Cecilia called an emergency meeting and informed them, quote, 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:10.280 we have to take him out. This is war. We 0:09:10.360 --> 0:09:13.000 are living in the end times and redg has turned 0:09:13.000 --> 0:09:25.400 against God. What you're hearing now is a maximum security 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:30.400 correctional facility south of Johannesburg. It's popularly known as Sun City, 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:34.160 after a famous holiday resort in South Africa's Northwest province. 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:39.120 The inmates ironically chose this name, implying that any time 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:42.800 spent there was the furthest thing from a holiday. It's 0:09:42.840 --> 0:09:45.359 a kin to calling Riker's Island Disney. 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:47.280 World with you. 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:53.160 When I entered the prison, I was fristed from head 0:09:53.160 --> 0:10:00.880 to toe. I boarded a rickety old bus that took 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:13.199 us to the women's prison. Next, we slowed to a 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:15.720 stop in front of a high razor wire fence that 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:19.600 surrounded a large brick building. The sun was out, there 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:26.199 was a bite in the wind. I followed a stream 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.000 of visitors off the bus and through layers of fence. 0:10:31.000 --> 0:10:33.920 We were all frissed again and again. Each time I 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:47.080 became more nervous. After what felt like an eternity, the 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:53.640 guards checked me in his curs who would check excitement 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:56.679 and fear course through me. I was about to come 0:10:56.760 --> 0:10:59.360 face to face with the greatest evil I had ever known, 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:19.200 Marinda Stein herself. Like with the first murder, the group 0:11:19.280 --> 0:11:23.600 heavily scouted at the location. Pastor Reginald ben Dixon lives 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.000 on a one way street. His house has a long driveway, 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:32.600 a security gate, and a surrounding cinder block wall. Mikayla 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:35.480 rents a car, LaRue replaces the license plate with a 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:39.480 stolen one, and Zach, Merinda, and Marcel pile in and 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:44.360 had to rege his house. On the drive, fourteen year 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:47.680 old Marcel becomes suddenly nauseous. She asked them to pull over. 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:51.520 The murder squad decides that Marcel is too sick and 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:56.120 they all returned to Kruger's sturt. This was not a 0:11:56.120 --> 0:12:00.680 good look for Marcel or Mikaela, for that matter. When 0:12:00.679 --> 0:12:03.320 Marcel got sick, it was Michaela who tended to her. 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:07.040 Over the past few years, Marcella and Michaela had bonded 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:11.280 while Marinda focused squarely on her duty to Cecilia. Michayla 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:15.240 became Marcel's sole ally and confidant. Marcel looked up to her. 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:24.640 Both were relieved that their deadly assignment was aboarded. That night, Thursday, 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:28.600 August ninth, twenty twelve, Reginald ben Dixon receives a call 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:32.040 from Zach Valentine. Zach uses a fake name and says 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.920 he's seeking a spiritual counselor. He flatters him and says 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:39.760 Reg comes highly recommended. The two men make an appointment 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:42.360 to meet the following Monday at a local coffee shop. 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.480 Reg jots it down in his date book. On the 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:49.760 day of the appointment, the thirteenth of August twenty twelve, Zach, Marian, 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:53.120 and Marcel make their way to Ben Dixon's home. They 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:55.640 call and ask for a rain check, assuming he would 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:57.960 be at home for a while, before making other plans. 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:01.880 The scouting mission conclude that Ben Dixon's wife would be 0:13:01.920 --> 0:13:06.720 away until later that evening. About that same time, Ria 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:09.280 Grunivald gets a text on her phone from a number 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:12.280 she doesn't recognize. Have you said your goodbyes to Reg? 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:16.680 I hope you did. Ria immediately forwards the message to 0:13:16.720 --> 0:13:19.679 the police officer she's been in contact with, the same 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.160 cop who was a no show at the coffee shop 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:27.920 sting operation. Not Surprisingly, he doesn't respond. Ria tries calling, 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.480 and yet again the police aren't there for her when 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:39.079 she needs them the most. Meanwhile, the novice assassins were 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.400 nearing Regg's house. MICHAELA. Was ordered to stay home for 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:45.840 this mission. She'd stay by Cecilia's side while the others 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:49.360 followed orders. Cecilia no longer trusted Mikayla to get the 0:13:49.400 --> 0:13:53.040 job done. Marcel, on the other hand, was not given 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:56.160 an option. Marinda made sure her daughter was there to 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.800 learn by example. Cecilia ordered Marcel to bring a video 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:03.760 came to record the killing. She wanted evidence of their devotion, 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:16.520 and she wanted to see reg Bend Dixon die. Interviewing 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:20.200 Mirinda for this podcast meant giving her a platform. The 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.280 ethics of that concerned us quite a bit, But after 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:26.040 months of pouring over the facts of this case, we 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:29.600 were missing a critical piece. What on earth motivated these 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:34.320 seemingly normal people to become killers? I believe that talking 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:38.040 to her might provide more insight into Cecilia's mindset and 0:14:38.080 --> 0:14:41.440 the group dynamics she cultivated. I wanted to figure out 0:14:41.520 --> 0:14:44.440 why Mirinda and the rest of EPD did what they 0:14:44.440 --> 0:14:47.480 did and how they justified it in their own minds. 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:52.280 In the visiting area, there were about ten other inmates 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.520 facing their loved ones in an echoy and sterile room 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:58.600 with a folding table that held handmade crafts for sale, 0:14:59.280 --> 0:15:02.760 crocheted holders, and beat a jewelry, all made by inmates. 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:07.040 I walked past the tables and then heard a voice saying, Curt, 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:14.560 how are you there. She was the face I had 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:18.600 seen peering back at me, frozen in mugshots and courtroom photographs. 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:22.800 She smiled at me and thanked me for coming. We 0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:25.520 sat down on a long, wooden picnic bench in the 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:28.360 center of the room. I was now a foot away 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:32.600 face to face with Merinda Steyn. She was as nervous 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:37.600 as I was, and told me so. Honestly, I felt disarmed, 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:42.840 mostly by her politeness, her seemingly normal demeanor, but that 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:47.000 light soon dimmed, clouded by who I knew her to be, 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:51.280 and that storm only grew as she started telling me 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:56.320 what happened with Ben Dixon. Now, as you can tell, 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:59.560 the audio quality of this interview was pretty rough, so 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:02.160 that an actor to read some of what Marinda shared 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:05.560 with us so that you can clearly understand her chilling words. 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:09.960 I knew the interaction would be tense and a bit awkward, 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:14.120 but what I really didn't expect was how casually Mirinda 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.320 would talk about the act of taking someone's life, and 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:21.160 so brutally she was proud of what she'd done. 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:22.320 I had a bad child. 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:24.880 I had a bad child, did and he looked exactly 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:28.440 like my father Sam. He was such a trusting idiot. 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:40.520 The kill team disguised themselves in police uniforms, their weapons 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:45.880 of choice knives and an axe. Marinda described calling Redge 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:49.360 from the front security gate using a burner phone. She 0:16:49.480 --> 0:16:52.280 claimed they were detectives from the South African Police Service 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:54.520 who needed to speak with him about the recent murders 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:59.400 and a possible connection to his friend Ria Grunewald. Ben Dixon, 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:03.680 of course, wanted to help with the investigation, so he 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:04.600 let the killers in. 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:08.320 He was sort of a bit suspicious, and he was 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:12.639 sort of a bit suspicious, and then he started talking 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:14.639 to us, and he opened the gate for us, and 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:17.200 we're walking out like a long driveway. 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:20.000 Marinda came up with a ploy to come their way, 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:21.320 and why. 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:22.119 Don't we go into speaking? 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:24.320 Then I said to them, well why don't we go 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:26.919 and speak inside the house, you know, because now the 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:29.679 walls are high, but the neighbors would see. 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:33.000 As the pastor and EPD walked up the front yard 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.600 toward Ben Dixon's home, Marinda and Zach locked eyes. 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:39.720 So we went just around the bean, and we went 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:42.760 just around the bend, and he walked in front of us. 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:46.359 And then Zack didn't even wait for me. He just 0:17:46.400 --> 0:17:49.560 started eating him over the head and he fell there 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.679 in front of us. So we were never even in 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:53.240 his house. 0:17:54.480 --> 0:17:57.320 Zach got impatient and hit Bendixon over the head with 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:00.399 the back of the axe. They didn't even make it 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:05.280 into his home. Then Marinda joined in, stabbing him with 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:10.600 her fishing knife. Marcel fourteen years old, watches and muted 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:16.399 horror as this gruesome reality unfolds before her. Sitting there 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:20.720 in her prison jumpsuit. Marinda twisted this into some distorted 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:23.800 form of grace. Well, person, I. 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:25.200 Believe in killing a person quickly. 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:28.240 I believe in killing a person quickly. No one ever 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:32.879 screamed when I killed them. They were dead within seconds. 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:38.040 Here's Christelle Boisen recalling Mirinda's court room testimony. 0:18:38.160 --> 0:18:42.000 She was explaining that between her and Zuk, while they 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.560 were busy with Rex Benedict and stabbing him and slashing him, 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:50.280 they actually got so excited that Zuck accidentally hit her 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:53.000 with the ex and she was telling him, hey, just 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:56.240 you know, stay clear. She was explaining this in. 0:18:56.240 --> 0:19:02.480 Court Even when it was obvious that reg was dead, 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.960 Marinda continued to stab him. Her depravity was not only 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:09.879 proof of her loyalty to God and to Secilia, but 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:11.320 the result of some research. 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:15.960 She says, she one time remember watching a documentary or something, 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:17.920 and they say that if you want to know if 0:19:17.920 --> 0:19:20.320 someone is dead, you must look at this space on 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:23.840 the throat, and if the space stops throbbing, then you 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:27.600 know that the heart stopped pumping. And she was stabbing 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:31.520 rex Bena Dixon and waiting for this not to throb anymore, 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:33.119 and then she would know that he's dead. 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:41.560 With their work done, they leave Regg's lifeless body on 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:44.640 the grass in the front yard, locking the security gate 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:48.880 on their way out. When they pull up at Casana Flats, 0:19:49.119 --> 0:19:52.880 Mikaela is outside sitting in her car. Zach, still hyped 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:56.000 on adrenaline from his second murder, boast to his wife 0:19:56.000 --> 0:20:00.760 about what they'd done. Marenda and Marcel follow behind, corroborating 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:04.600 Zack's account of their kill like a hunting party celebrating 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:09.520 their conquest. Mikayla, numb with shock and careful not to 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:13.399 show any indication of fear or disapproval, forced a crooked 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:19.240 smile inside, though she trembled terrified at what her husband 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:32.080 had become a monster of his own making. At this point, 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:34.879 I think it'll be helpful to sort out all the 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:38.120 police and detectives involved in the investigation of these murders. 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:41.320 It can get confusing since the police treated the first 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:45.200 couple of crimes as unrelated the car and church bombings, 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:48.679 Reggi's murder and the killing of Natasha and Joy, so 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:52.080 what became known as the Kruger's Dorf killings were investigated 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:55.600 in stages. It's hard to pinpoint the exact chain of 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:59.600 events and police involvement at each stage. Many statements from 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:01.680 the cops make it sound as if they were there 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:05.080 the whole time, even if they were not. Everyone we 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:07.639 spoke to seems to have an opinion about how it 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:12.679 all went down. So here we go. From what we 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:16.560 can gather. Captain Venvick was aware of the cases surrounding 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:19.040 the car and church bombings, and may have even been 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:22.040 briefed on them, But when we spoke to him, Benvick 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:25.080 told us that he wasn't officially assigned as a lead 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:29.880 investigator until after Pastor Reginald ben Dixon turned up dead. 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:32.920 So it happened Onion of August that I was called 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:37.600 to ic a person was deceased, and that is actually 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:38.960 I became involved in this guys. 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:45.520 Then there's his associate, Colonel Henny Diager, a career cop 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:49.760 with a brooding, tony soprano type presence. Colonel Diyager had 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:53.920 been part of the investigation team since the car bombing incidents, assisting. 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:58.639 We think it's not totally clear when exactly Diyager became 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:02.359 part of this investigation, but he's a major player and 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:04.679 would soon become a pebble in the shoe of the 0:22:04.720 --> 0:22:09.720 detectives seeking truth and justice. Many of the facts surrounding 0:22:09.760 --> 0:22:13.000 both the Yager and Vinvick's involvement in the Cecilia Stein 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:23.359 case remain opaque. Then there's Detective Susette Knotse, graceful and bold, 0:22:24.440 --> 0:22:27.879 she is called in a bit later, followed by the 0:22:27.920 --> 0:22:32.240 brazen Detective Ben Boisen and a team of seasoned investigators. 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:36.560 Both Detective Susette Knotse and Ben Boysen each had to 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:40.159 re examine a string of suspicious events and reconsider the 0:22:40.200 --> 0:22:45.119 evidence from every angle, essentially rebuild the case and track 0:22:45.400 --> 0:22:49.200 where and how it all began. The other two law 0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:54.040 enforcement officials are Colonel Kobas Yonker, Suzette's mentor, who started 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:58.359 the Occult Related Crimes unit, and Colonel Christelle Boisen, a 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:01.320 well respected officer in the South South African Police Service. 0:23:02.160 --> 0:23:06.359 She remains the acting Operational overhead Commander for the West 0:23:06.440 --> 0:23:10.119 Rand District. She's also married to Ben and they often 0:23:10.119 --> 0:23:19.560 help each other out with cases. So here we are 0:23:20.040 --> 0:23:25.040 August thirteenth, twenty twelve. Pastor Reginald ben Dixon's body lies 0:23:25.080 --> 0:23:30.040 on the grass. It's a horrifying scene. Detective Sussette Canotze 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:31.640 recalls the crime scene photos. 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:34.359 He was hacked from behind. When he turned around, he 0:23:34.480 --> 0:23:35.639 was hacked from the front. 0:23:36.280 --> 0:23:38.439 The pastor had axe wounds to the back of his 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:41.480 head and had been stabbed more than ten times on 0:23:41.560 --> 0:23:45.560 his chest and Torso here's Captain Johann Benvick. 0:23:46.240 --> 0:23:49.080 On the scene. It was one of the most gruesome 0:23:49.480 --> 0:23:52.760 motives which I've seen in the even thirty four years 0:23:52.800 --> 0:23:54.040 in this Athrican Police Service. 0:23:56.080 --> 0:23:59.560 Standing there in Ben Dixon's front yard, Captain van Vick 0:23:59.640 --> 0:24:02.520 suppose met Colonel Di Yager for the first time. 0:24:02.880 --> 0:24:05.320 There was another policeman that arrived on the scene of 0:24:05.440 --> 0:24:08.439 Colonel Dia. He said that he was from the occult 0:24:08.520 --> 0:24:11.240 unit of the reservice. I've never met him before. He 0:24:11.320 --> 0:24:14.200 then informed me that the murder had some sort of 0:24:14.240 --> 0:24:15.440 occult connection. 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:20.480 Here is where the window of truth begins to blur. 0:24:20.560 --> 0:24:24.040 Though according to Yana Marx, who was present at all 0:24:24.040 --> 0:24:27.720 of the court proceedings, both the Yager and Van Vick 0:24:28.160 --> 0:24:32.479 had been at least adjacent to the carbomb investigations. Colonel 0:24:32.520 --> 0:24:35.680 di Yager may have even been assisting on them, so 0:24:35.680 --> 0:24:39.920 it's very likely they would have met before. The other 0:24:40.000 --> 0:24:42.560 strange thing is that Colonel di Yager was brought on 0:24:42.720 --> 0:24:46.199 as a consultant to assess the potential for ritual murder 0:24:46.320 --> 0:24:49.840 in the case of Natasha Berger and Joy Burnside, even 0:24:49.880 --> 0:24:54.040 though their murders were technically outside of his jurisdiction. He 0:24:54.160 --> 0:24:58.600 was reportedly an expert on the occult. The Yager has 0:24:58.680 --> 0:25:02.520 bravado a man's any room he finds himself in any 0:25:02.600 --> 0:25:05.800 crime scene too. His arrival on the scene of Ben 0:25:05.840 --> 0:25:08.080 Dixon's murder was kind of like what we've seen in 0:25:08.160 --> 0:25:11.840 movies when the FBI shows up and takes over, but 0:25:11.960 --> 0:25:14.840 in South Africa, the case remains in the hands of 0:25:14.840 --> 0:25:19.760 the lead investigating officer, which is now then Vick. The 0:25:19.840 --> 0:25:23.439 Yager was confident that Ben Dixon's murder was a ritualistic slaying, 0:25:23.840 --> 0:25:27.359 the work of a Satanic cult, and likely related to 0:25:27.400 --> 0:25:31.600 the previous killing of Joy and Natasha detectives, who said 0:25:31.640 --> 0:25:35.160 Canotse and Ben Boyson, on the other hand, both believe 0:25:35.520 --> 0:25:39.600 that an under resourced police department coupled with the nationwide 0:25:39.640 --> 0:25:43.720 fear of the occult often resulted in a rush to judgment, 0:25:44.840 --> 0:25:48.480 and that dynamic resulted in poor police work, especially when 0:25:48.520 --> 0:25:51.320 a crime aligned so neatly with the biases born of 0:25:51.359 --> 0:25:52.399 their imagined fears. 0:25:54.880 --> 0:25:59.080 The two invesiguiding officers working on the chist concentrated more 0:25:59.160 --> 0:26:03.480 on the Syitanism side, and they totally lost focus on 0:26:03.920 --> 0:26:08.880 the actual murders that needs to be investigated, which actually, yes, 0:26:09.200 --> 0:26:13.240 it was part of the story, but that wasn't why 0:26:13.280 --> 0:26:14.760 the murders took place. 0:26:15.320 --> 0:26:17.679 The yager argued that there should have been more blood 0:26:17.720 --> 0:26:20.760 on the scene, given the brutality of Ben Dixon's wounds. 0:26:22.040 --> 0:26:24.880 He was saying, no, there was a lot of blood, 0:26:25.359 --> 0:26:29.439 and the blood just went Missy, where's all the blood? 0:26:32.440 --> 0:26:35.760 The Yager told his team that whoever committed this murder 0:26:36.000 --> 0:26:39.560 must have consumed the blood, a clear mark of ceremony. 0:26:39.920 --> 0:26:41.880 So then he said, no, no, no, no, somebody must 0:26:41.880 --> 0:26:42.520 have drank it. 0:26:43.040 --> 0:26:46.159 The police worked earnestly with the yager's theory that this 0:26:46.359 --> 0:26:50.439 was the grizzly act of satan worshiping blood drinkers. However, 0:26:50.560 --> 0:26:53.480 Detective Susette thought it was obvious where the blood had gone. 0:26:53.720 --> 0:26:57.639 Now that person is laying on the grass. So it 0:26:57.720 --> 0:27:00.199 went into the grass and sorted by the gross us 0:27:01.080 --> 0:27:03.480 that is where it went. Nobody drank it. 0:27:04.320 --> 0:27:07.440 In other words, all the satanism stuff was nothing more 0:27:07.480 --> 0:27:08.720 than a powerful distraction. 0:27:09.359 --> 0:27:11.120