The gruesome slayings in May 2016 of financial advisors Anthony Scholefield and Kevin McAlpine and real estate agent Hanlé Lategan in the South African mining town of Krugersdorp had the entire country shocked and terrified.
The crimes were dubbed the ‘Appointment Murders’ as all three had been strangled to death while attending work appointments.
Police soon had two suspects in custody, brother and sister Le Roux and Marcel Steyn, after ATM cameras filmed them using the victims’ credit cards.
The siblings’ arrests would lead the cops down a bizarre rabbit hole involving a further eight unsolved murders dating back four years, Satanic witches, a Christian cult and its Charles Manson-like leader Cecilia Steyn.
The jaw-dropping four-part documentary Devilsdorp explains how the manipulative Steyn initially convinced a small group of devout Christians in Krugersdorp that she was a former high-ranking witch.
She mesmerised them with her salacious stories of the ritual abuse she’d seen and endured, and the danger she faced because she’d fled the Satanic Church.
‘Devilsdorp’. Source: Distributor
The group increasingly fell under her charismatic spell and eventually became an organisation called Electus Per Deus (Latin for ‘Chosen by God’) led by Steyn.
Between 2012 and 2016, she directed her followers to slaughter 11 people, telling them they were performing God’s work. But Steyn’s real motives were revenge and financial gain.
The cult’s formation, the crimes and the eventual arrests and trials of the cult members are covered in the English-and-Afrikaans-language series.
It’s narrated by journalist Jana Marx – author of The Krugersdorp Cult Killings: Inside Cecilia Steyn’s Reign Of Terror – who says if someone met Steyn in the street, and didn’t know anything about her, they’d like her a lot.
“She’s a very nice, inviting person,” Marx explains in one . “What made her a magnet for people is they could confide in her, and she related to people. That’s how she drew people in and she knew which buttons to push to keep [them] in her grip.”
The series also explains how spiritual factors in parts of South Africa helped Steyn convince six intelligent people to commit horrific deeds.
Krugersdorp is home to many fundamentalist Christians who believe that Satan is an ever-present threat to their community, particularly their children. They’re constantly on the lookout for signs of occult influence, and certain aspects of popular culture – including Harry Potter, Spider-Man and even Santa Claus – are condemned. It’s in this environment that Steyn flourished.
Once Electus Per Deus was up and running, the self-proclaimed ex-witch initiated her reign of terror by orchestrating several bloody slayings in 2012. With their occult overtones, they were swiftly dubbed by the police and media as the ‘Satanic Murders’.
One of the victims was young woman Mikeila Valentine, who was stabbed 63 times in her bed.
‘Devilsdorp’. Source: Distributor
“That realisation that it’s your child lying there… that’s the little baby you brought into this life. It’s the little girl you saw grow up,” sobs her mother Ilse van Dijk in the first episode. “That was so wrong to me… that someone could decide my child wasn’t good enough to live.”
However, there’s a cruel twist involving Mikeila that’s revealed later in the documentary.
More murders occurred over the next four years, but the police were unable to find any suspects. Electus Per Deus’ activities in Krugersdorp culminated in May 2016 with the ‘Appointment Murders’. But their killing spree was about to come to a rapid end.
Viewers will shake their heads in disbelief as they watch interviews with friends and family of both the killers and their victims, and see footage of church meetings, court proceedings and even exorcisms.
They’ll also be intrigued by the larger-than-life characters including disconcertingly bubbly journalist Marizka Coetzer – who fell in love with one of the cult members – and flashy investigating officer Captain Ben Booysen, who reckons Chuck Norris should play him if they ever make a film about the case.
And towering above them all is Cecilia Steyn, a malevolent narcissist who wreaked havoc on everyone caught within her web of lies and twisted Christianity.
There’s a similar narrative in another documentary, The Real True Detective, also screening .
The short English-language special examines in unflinching detail the 2005 case in small-town Ponchatoula, Louisiana where several members of the Hosanna Church – led by its pastor Louis Lamonica Jr – were convicted of Satanic child sexual abuse.
Their crimes were supposedly the inspiration for the first season of the hit TV series True Detective starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey.
Captain Stuart Murphy shows host Gianna Toboni through the evidence stored on the case in ‘The Real True Detective’. Source: SBS
Don Wall – the no-nonsense lead prosecutor on the case – prefers to look past the sensationalist Satanic trappings and cut to the heart of the matter.
“This was just a situation where the men were pedophiles and they all happened to be in the same place together,” he tells . “Do I think it’s incredibly weird? Yeah. Do I think it’s unbelievable? No.”
His comments echo those of Jana Marx when it comes to the Krugersdorp killings.
If it does, the perpetrators will almost certainly claim that the devil made them do it.
Devilsdorp screens on SBS VICELAND 10.35pm Mondays from 4 April. and are both streaming at SBS On Demand. Begin with episode 1 of Devilsdorp.
Stream The Real True Detective.
