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Police Say A Ritual Preceded Cemetery Murder
WHO-TV ^ | 9/7/2006 | Kerry Kavanaugh

Posted on 09/16/2006 6:51:46 PM PDT by MockTurtle

WHO-TV September 7th, 2006--A report released by the Polk County Medical Examiner says that 18-year-old Matthew Stegman died from multiple stab wounds. He also suffered blunt force trauma to the head, arms, and chest. Now police say his murder may be tied to some sort of devil worship. Des Moines Police Sergeant Todd Dykstra said, "What investigators believe or know is that some type of ritual was performed prior to the homicide." That ritual was possibly performed by the five people police arrested and charged with first degree murder. All five were arrested at the same Des Moines apartment building earlier this week. Police wouldn't disclose if it waswhat they found or what suspects told them that lead them to believe this homicide could be tied to satanic worship. They also would not elaborate on the details of the ritual. Police did say the five people in custody planned to lure Stegman to the cemetery. Friends of Matt Stegman said they knew the five alleged killers and they said they even heard some of them talk about devil worship in the past. But they said Stegman, however, was not involved in any of that.

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Iowa
KEYWORDS: 1devilrulesthemall; crime; murder; religion; samedifference; satanismnotwicca; wicca; xfile
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To: yldstrk
Last year my son had a bus driver who claimed she was a wiccan. We reported it to the bus company.

LOL! What did you report to the bus company? That the driver was a wiccan? Did you expect the bus company to fire her? Burn her at the stake?

We have practicing wiccans in the military. They worship mother earth, gaia, and whatnot. Pretty much harmless folks.

BTW, This article was not about wiccans.

21 posted on 09/16/2006 7:10:53 PM PDT by Drew68
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To: yldstrk

You reported a bus driver for being Wiccan? Sad. We have freedom of religion here, and Wiccans are NOT the problem.


22 posted on 09/16/2006 7:11:46 PM PDT by KJC1
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To: Drew68
Here's the article with the Wiccan connection. Des Moines Register Article
23 posted on 09/16/2006 7:15:56 PM PDT by MockTurtle
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To: knightofchaos
I've known "good" wiccans too. I've had wiccan family members, work mates, and friends.

But I can also take you to an Indian reservation where half a dozen to a dozen torturous deaths are committed per year in a population of about 10,000 by pentagram followers. Where the only way out is by the hand of the participants...ie convert to chrisitan and they kill you...and feel fortunate if they only beat you to death.

To be fair these do not call themselves wiccan....but they do wrangle to pentagram....and they ARE NOT following their traditional native faith.
24 posted on 09/16/2006 7:17:18 PM PDT by armourup
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To: MockTurtle
For those who think the Wiccan religion is harmless, peaceful, fun...

If we're going to blame Wiccans for this crime...should we not also blame Christians for Dennis Rader and Jim Jones?
.
25 posted on 09/16/2006 7:18:33 PM PDT by mugs99 (Don't take life too seriously, you won't get out alive.)
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To: over3Owithabrain

As do Muslims, and (occasionally) as do Christians (the Klan, the guy who was shooting abortion doctors etc). I know it doesn't neatly fit into the same scene here, but people will do things in the name of God that are completely contrary to the teachings.


Now, I think Wiccans, witches etc is primarily a foolish and very misguided attempt for some to put a religion in their hearts, but thru some events in their life, or out of anger or rebellion or a desire to become more "supernatural", people embrace it as their guide, their ruler.

That's the path they've chosen. I wonder how many finally end up returning to Churches?


26 posted on 09/16/2006 7:19:42 PM PDT by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: knightofchaos
"I am not saying wiccan is harmless or that I completely trust it, but people of all types commit murder.

There..fixed that.

27 posted on 09/16/2006 7:24:45 PM PDT by Earthdweller (All reality is based on faith in something.)
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To: MockTurtle

[Des Moines Police] have arrested and charged the following people with first-degree murder: Sheri Fisher, 21, Andrew Johnson, 22, Robert Johnston, 27, Robert Myers II, 24, and Terry Williams, 22.

18-year-old Matthew Stegman’s body was found lying face-down in the Woodland Cemetery. Police said he had been beaten and stabbed to death.




Matthew Stegman, listed himself on MySpace.com as being 20 years old.

http://www.myspace.com/mattjstegman


Stegman’s nickname on his page was “drunkin italian” [sic]. Matt’s general interests were “playing guitar and running(,) watching movies and just being around people(,) writing music and poetry.”

Matt also posted tidbits about his favorite types of movies (horror and comedy) and his favorite types of books included horror, mystery and law.




Police said Stegman and all the suspects lived together at 1519 Grand Ave., and knew each other prior to the incident.

“We do not have a clear motive at this time, but we believe there had been an internal conflict within this group which led to the incident,” Dykstra said…


http://tinyurl.com/kwxwj


28 posted on 09/16/2006 7:28:36 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: MockTurtle

The allegations surfaced on a radio call-in show and were supported by a woman who says she is a friend of the five people accused in Matthew Stegman's death.

Jeannetta Berry, 28, said one of the suspects had "talked about sacrificing someone," although the others planned only to frighten Stegman, who was found early Sunday in Woodland Cemetery.

"But it ended up with him being dead," Berry said Tuesday. "At least one of them believe in the satanic thing. One of them stayed behind and killed him."

She would not identify who she thinks killed Stegman, who police initially said had been beaten to death in the cemetery. Investigators later hinted that Stegman, 18, suffered other injuries, but they would not be specific.




Howard Crow Eagle, who works for Iowa Homeless Youth Centers, said Stegman had been living in a car until it was towed away about four months ago with his belongings inside. He eventually landed a job at a downtown restaurant and was able to rent an apartment, which he shared with the suspects.

"He was a very nice kid," Crow Eagle said. "He was trying to take charge of his life. But he became involved in a group with a lot of dysfunctional behavior."

Crow Eagle said a rumored relationship between Stegman and a 13-year-old girl might have sparked the group to assault him. He said Myers, one of the suspects, had moved to Des Moines recently and dated the girl's mother.

"They talked about beating him up on Saturday," Crow Eagle said.

"It was a time bomb. The combination of personalities was not a good mix."


29 posted on 09/16/2006 7:31:16 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: mugs99
Jim Jones was NOT Christian....his theology was NEW AGE presented with Christian jargon.

But admittedly there have been many murderous deaths at the hand of those professing Christianity....and many of those murderees were other christians.
30 posted on 09/16/2006 7:32:29 PM PDT by armourup
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To: MockTurtle

At least two of the accused - Sheri Fisher, 22, and Terry "Trenchcoat" Williams, 22 - have pages on myspace.com that mention Satan, the Wiccan religion and anti-Christian themes.

Reported friends of the group have described talk of sacrificing Stegman as part of a "Lucifarious" ritual. But others connected with the accused killers, part of a loose community of homeless young people in Des Moines, say Stegman was targeted only due to an incorrect belief that he had an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl.


31 posted on 09/16/2006 7:33:03 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: All

One of the local radio stations had one of the people involved on live, then at least half of the people from the building where these people live called up the show......

Including the 13 year old, her mom, girlfriends of the ALLEGED killers that go by the names of THE TRENCH, WOLF, and so on....

Lets just say that I now believe Jerry Springers guests wern't coached or acting.. 3 of the people even admitted that they knew he was going to get beaten in advance, but they figured it wouldn't be that severe...as one had said he had seen them beat others before ..the statement was made what really upset them was the rumor was about a person OUTSIDE THE GROUP..

One of the choice moments was when the radio personality asked the mom if her 13 year old daughter wanted to talk on the radio and she used the name of her daughter , porsche on the live radio, too funny. Then the host says was it true the rumor was that he wanted to rape you? the girl says no, the rumor was he wanted to bondage rape me, the radio guy didn't catch it so she had to repeat it.. She then said it wasn't true, they liked each other as brother and sister.. He also liked kids, one woman in the building said when her kids were hungry he brought them food.. Also it was repeatedly mentioned how sad it was that the 18 year old boy killed was trying to get back his own 2 kids...

It was a doozy....


32 posted on 09/16/2006 7:33:42 PM PDT by uncle fenders
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To: uncle fenders

How was he going to get back his own two kids when he was living in a car before he started living with the Wiccans?
Maybe he could have started with a job first.


33 posted on 09/16/2006 7:36:55 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: uncle fenders

Stegman, one of six children born to Ankeny parents who have not responded to requests for an interview, appears to have spent at least 16 of the past 24 months living in a Johnston facility run by Youth Homes of Mid-America.

Bob MacKenzie, development director for Youth Homes, refused to discuss Stegman due to confidentiality concerns. MacKenzie said teens generally are referred to his agency through chronic behavioral or other problems and that 84 percent of the clients have mental health issues.

"These are kids that have severe problems, but they're not dangerous," MacKenzie said.


34 posted on 09/16/2006 7:42:40 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: MockTurtle

I'd like to encourage them to start killing more of themselves. Then we could be rid of this sophomoric Halloween masquerade for good.


35 posted on 09/16/2006 7:46:38 PM PDT by IronJack (ALL)
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To: MockTurtle

The central ethical tenet of Wicca is 'harm none.'

These folks were Satanists, not Wiccans. In their actions they deviated from anything resembling Wiccan faith and practice.


36 posted on 09/16/2006 7:58:28 PM PDT by PresbyRev
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To: MockTurtle

bump


37 posted on 09/16/2006 7:58:36 PM PDT by thiscouldbemoreconfusing
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To: MockTurtle
I think whoever wrote that article has gotten a lot of things totally wrong.

If you've read up on Wicca, they definitely are NOT into such rather extreme practices as human sacrifice. Makes you wonder did this murder was done by somebody reading on some of the extreme forms of Santería....

38 posted on 09/16/2006 8:01:36 PM PDT by RayChuang88
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To: kcvl

I reported a couple of the pictures of Stegman's "friends" to myspace.com as "inappropriate content".


39 posted on 09/16/2006 8:03:41 PM PDT by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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To: kcvl

Suggest you HTML-source those pages before they disappear and give the info to the local cops for followup.


40 posted on 09/16/2006 8:04:49 PM PDT by NotJustAnotherPrettyFace
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