Rotten Mango - #194: She Wanted To Make A Human SKIN SUIT - The Female Ed Gein & The Welkom Graveyard Murder

Episode Date: August 31, 2022

Detective Nel was having a rough time falling asleep. She had a debilitating migraine and was throwing up all night long. Sure, her job as a detective wasn’t easy, but she almost always slept like a baby. The next day she went into work and was rushed to the cell of a young, doe-eyed girl that she personally arrested last night. It was a shocking case. The girl skinned someone’s entire face off. She wanted to be the next Ed Gein it seemed. In the cell, she saw the same girl covered head to toe in blood, deep gashes in her legs, smiling up at her. There was writing on the walls - in blood. “Along came a little girl” it read. And next to her? A voodoo doll with a piece of hair tied tightly around the neck. It was Detective Neil’s hair. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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in all states or situations, prices vary based on how you buy. Bataming Bataboo Welcome to this week's main episode of Rotten Mango. I'm your host Stephanie Sue. Now, Detective Nell wasn't sleeping that well at night. Her head was pounding, she felt like it was about to explode, just thumping away. Her temples were killing her. She hadn't had this debilitating of a migraine in over a year. She got up, took some meds, tried to fall back asleep, but soon she found herself

hunched over her bed, throwing up, just gagging the whole night. Can you like maybe it has something to do with her work? Maybe she came across a very particularly gruesome case. I mean the police officer job wasn't easy, it was rough. Today she had just handcuffed a young woman named Shane. She was a killer. There was just something about Shane that really got to detective now. It just felt like she had this dark aura around her? Like she was evil. I mean, it sounds crazy or detective. You can't go off auras.

You have to go off evidence. But it's just something about Shanei. After a restless night, Detective Nell gets straight to work. She puts on her uniform, heads to the jail, and she goes to Shanei's cell. This is the first stop that she makes, and she finds Shane sitting in her small bed content with herself. She looks happy, she's smiling, and she's covered in blood. She had torn apart a solid mug with her bare hands, cut her legs open with it, and blood

whizzed splattered all over the bed, all over the floors, and right above Shenei's bed on the wall were the words written in blood. A long came a little girl. It was really scary, it was disturbing. Detective Nell was shocked, but she tried not to show it. She thought that she had thrown up everything that she had in her system last night, but that nauseous feeling it was coming back again. Shenei glanced at Detective Nell, smirked,

and then Gland stood something on the ground next to her. Nell got close. And she saw as a piece of white bread. That's weird. She got even closer. The piece of white bread had a piece of hair tied around a corner almost to make it look like a head and a shapeless body, a round head like a voodoo doll.

In that piece of hair, it matched Detective Nell's own short-course hair. Last night, the migraine, it's like Shanae could read her mind. She looked up at her covered in blood and said, had a good night sleep, Tanny? How did she know her first name? What the hell was going on? Detective Nell felt so unsettled by this. I mean, she had never had a case like this. None of the officers did.

There was something about Shane. They remembered the distinct chill that they felt when they first entered Shane's apartment. They said it felt like they were being physically pushed out of the room and they had to walk against this weird force. Another detective said it felt like he was being smothered inside of her apartment. And Shane's presence didn't help. She watched them search her apartment. She wasn't nervous or sad or concerned. She was just looking, studying. They walked around looking at all the dark drawings scribbled onto these large pieces of paper that were

hung up on the walls, the dark poems on the kitchen fridge. It read, angels with needles poke through their eyes and let the ugly light of the world in, and we are no longer blind. She naced-smirked. She probably thought that they would never understand her poems. Besides, if they're scared of that, they're going to be terrified of what she's going to do. She ever so casually walked over and opened the door of the small freezer.

The officers watched her carefully. She went to cook or something, I mean it's strange. This is not the appropriate time to be cooking up some dumplings. The freezer was filled with frozen veggies, minced meat, shine reached inside, removed a flattened white plastic grocery bag. It's in between a bag of frozen sweet corn and some frozen peas. She placed it on the kitchen counter and removed it. The officers are puzzled.

I mean, is she about to make a pizza right now? Doesn't that look like a folded pizza dough? Is that frozen pizza dough? It wasn't. The officers looked closely and it was a face. It was the skin of someone's face that had been cut off. There were holes for the eyes. The nose was still perfectly intact.

The cheeks had a light stubble. cut off. There were holes for the eyes, the nose was still perfectly intact, the cheeks had a light stubble, the mouth was sewn shut, and a cut ran from the right corner of the mouth, and another from the left. The cuts had been stitched close. What? She and I literally looked at them as if to say, oh, is this what you're looking for? And she just said, that's his face. Then she removed a few plastic medicine bottles from the fridge and said, and these are his ears. Oh, and these are his eyes. The eyes were in saltwater.

They disintegrated to the point of looking like some sort of jelly. In another canister, she had kept his ears and they were cut off with such surgical precision and they were preserved. Preserved for what? I don't know, the officers were almost too scared to ask. The officers felt like they were dealing with another edgene or something. Only if edgene were a short petite girl with big doe eyes. I mean, she just looked so sweet. But like I said, there's just something about Shanei that terrified them. Something evil.

As always, full show notes are available at rotinminglepodcast.com but there is a crazy and deaf book on this case called Grave Murder, the story behind the brutal welcome killing. Now this was written by Janna Venderme and it is such a thoroughly researched, meticulously done book. I mean, I highly recommend it. This is one of the lesser known cases, which is crazy because I mean, I don't think I've researched someone this evil in a really long time. Just the pure evil that runs through these people's veins is out of this world.

So with that being said, if you walked into this child's bedroom, it looked pretty normal. You know, it had sketchbooks open with little doodles. There was markers laying around everywhere. Posters hung up on the walls, the corners of the posters were peeling off. There's plushies on the bed, you know, closed, sprawled out on the floor. It's like a game. You got to step in the four tiny spots of free ground space that wasn't cluttered with something to get to one side of the room from the entrance, without stepping on the clothes, the clutter. I mean, it's a wholesome place. Maybe if you're

standing in the doorway, it even reminds you of your own childhood bedroom. You're scanning the room and your eyes land on one corner. You squint a little because you're like, I mean, that can't be right. What is that what I think it is? All the child's dolls, her beloved dolls that she cared so much for, her best friends, her only friends. They were lined up in the corner, blindfolded, and tied up with shoelaces. You feel a chill go through your spine. It's just, you know, you don't believe in the supernatural, but maybe you do now. Maybe you've always believed in it. All you know, looking in this kid's bedroom is that something about this kid just seems off.

Something about this kid just seems off. Wishine always a bit strange. I don't know. I guess it's up for you to decide. Shine's parents were unlike a lot of parents we've talked about. They were done done done in love. They were in love, okay? I know it sounds a bit off putting considering Shine's childhood and her little tight up dolls, but we'll get there.

The van here to in parents had a marriage that was passionate, steaming, loving, respectful. The type where you would wanna go, ew, mom, dad, like get a room, please. But deep down you're kind of happy that your parents don't love each other. You're like, this is good. This is setting a good example for me. So the two parents, they go on to have two kids,

a son and a daughter. Now, I think after the second kid, they're like, yeah, these dirty diapers, and you know what? Fuck you too. They just start hating each other. After the second kid, they're over it. Tensions start building between Sherman and Jacques. They genuinely couldn't even stand each other. They're constantly arguing and listen.

I don't know if Jacques had some sort of reason for this or if it was completely unwarranted, but he kept accusing his wife. He's like, did you just look at that young man over there? Are you forking him? Are you sleeping with him? Why are you looking at him? It's just really toxic, super toxic.

I don't know if there was a reason, but he was just constantly accusing her of cheating. So Sharmaen decides, I'm gonna do what I gotta do for the kids. I'm gonna take my kids, pack my bags, and leave in the middle of the night. I don't need this kind of life. I mean, what will my kids think? Thinking that I'm constantly cheating on them? On him, on this family, I'm not doing that. No, I'm gonna work hard. I'm gonna support my kids, I'm gonna work on being a better person and a mother and I don't need a man, are you kidding? And I'm sure that nausea that I'm feeling is just nerves of excitement, you know? Yeah, that's what it is, but maybe I'll just be on a stick just to be sure. And there she was, staring at the two lines on the pregnancy test. She was pregnant for the third time.

She remains a realist, I'm just gonna put that out there. She knew two kids is hard, three kids impossible. This kid isn't even gonna fix her relationship with Jacques. Adding another crying baby with dirty diapers is not going to rekindle their romance. She's not that optimistic of a person. So she knew she had to stay with the kids in her loveless, horrible marriage and she was just out of choices. So she stayed with her husband. She had the baby that she never wanted and that baby

was named Shene. Allegedly at the hospital, and I don't know if this is true, but the nurse has asked Sharmane, hey, would you like to hold your baby? This is important, I don't even know this, but apparently skin toto-skin contact right after giving birth is like the most important thing ever. And in America, it's really messed up

because they charge you for it. What? They charge you for skin-to-skin contact. What do you mean? They charge the hospital charges you. Yeah, it's on the bill, like skin-to-skin contact or something, and you get to hold your baby for like 20 minutes and they charge you for it.

Like right after they're born. What? It's fascinating. That's what I heard. I don't know if you for it. Like right after they're born. What? It's fascinating. That's what I heard. I don't know if this is true. I haven't given birth yet. But apparently, Charmaine was like, I don't want that on my bill.

Well, actually, it probably wouldn't be on her bill. This is taking place in South Africa. But she's like, yeah, no, I'm not going to hold my freaking baby. I don't care about that baby. I don't want to be anywhere near that baby. That thing. So Jacques, the dad, was the one that fed Shanae, changed her diapers when they got home.

I mean, he did all the baby things. Meanwhile, Shanae main was really going through it. It wasn't even the fact that she's sitting there thinking, what is my life? I hate this child. She would sit there and tear up pictures of baby Shanae. Someone would give her a picture like, oh, look at this cute little polaroid I took of your baby.

And she would rip it apart. Okay. Yeah, it was a lot. So she cried herself to sleep. I mean, she was in no shape to take care of anyone that alone a vulnerable little child. Listen, I don't know if she had postpartum depression. It kind of sounds like it, but she was just so depressed

with her life. She hated her life. She hated this new baby that forced her to stay with her husband And she hated her mother freaking husband. She hated them all So when Shanae is an infant. I mean, thank God. She doesn't really feel the hatred. She's a little baby It wasn't until a few years down the line. She's a little toddler She can understand things and she hears her parents aggressively Passionately arguing, and her mom kind of screams something along the lines of, well I never wanted Shanei

anyway. So uh, yeah. She knew from an early stage that she was not wanted. Her mom made it very clear, not just from that fight, just the way that she treated her. And I don't know if it's that. I don't know if it's Shanei's personality or a mixture of both, but Shenei was a crazy introvert. She just wanted to be alone alone alone all the time.

She was quiet, kept herself. You go to any gathering. She's that kid, doesn't matter if it's a family event, a friend event. She's in the corner, just drawing on a notepad. You go over there and you try to talk to her, you're like, oh, what are you drawing? She's like, nothing. Okay, sorry. That was her favorite thing to do more than anything.

She loved drawing. Her drawings were sacred. She kept them hidden in a secret hiding spots. She felt like they were windows in her thoughts, in her mind. They needed to be protected. Imagine the feeling is like having a gaping hole in the side of your head,

and people can just look in through the window and see what you're thinking. That's how she felt with her drawings. She took it very seriously. But the one person... The one person that she always drew for or wanted to see her drawings or even complimented even a little...

Her mom. Her mom. She would gift her drawings, gift her stones from the garden flowers, anything a tiny little kid could dream of because well, she doesn't have a tiny little credit card yet. So she's like giving her random things from the garden and she's just trying to win her mom's love. And her mom is like, yeah, yeah, okay, go play in the yard. It just didn't work. So in Chinewa 6 years old, her parents finally get a divorce.

Chinewa in Scoops up the three kids, straps them into the tumultuous rollercoaster that is her love life. Listen, I don't even know if she even strap them in. She might as well have just left them alone at six logs to fend for themselves because she jumped from one abusive relationship to another bringing her kids along for the ride. The kids saw their own mom being abused, emotionally, sometimes physically. Sometimes that anger that these men felt would be directed towards the kids. One of Charmaine's boyfriends was a special forces major in the army, and he beat Shane so hard with a cane that she bled. He didn't even feel bad. He's like, what do you think of military houses like, huh?

He's like, okay. Charmaine didn't like that. She didn't like it one bit. So what does Charmaine do? She leaves by herself. She leaves the three kids with the man that just beat one of them so hard that she was bleeding. She left her own kids with a psychopathic child abuser. Eventually she came back to pick up her kids, but I mean, it's not a good look. It's not a good situation.

I think the kids really lost trust in her after that. Think about it. So from this string of abuse and the fact that Shinei siblings were older than her, they started school before she was a age. Shenei starts retreating more and more in her own shell. She's just left alone, the greater part of the day, completely alone. So it makes sense that she'd be a shy kid, right?

She just had this one friend named Azazal, and Azazal was everything Shenei wished she was. Shenei was quiet and timid, and Azazel was strong and outspoken. Shanei was just a kid, and Azazel was a goat demon and a friend of St.ons. Yeah, her best friend was a goat demon. Did I mention her best friend was imaginary? Okay, this is her imaginary best friend,

which I'm gonna be honest with you. Having an imaginary goat demon best friend isn't the most alarming thing in the world I mean it might warrant some childhood therapy I might get you checked out But when you consider the fact that Shane's maternal grandpa was a church minister Maybe she heard the name and passing while he was preaching and then just named her friend after that Right or maybe she just really liked the name maybe her friend wasn't even a goat demon or it was more like a goat

demand. Who's to judge? I don't know. Now, Shenei's grandpa, he was judging. He felt like that was quite literally his job to judge people. He's a minister. So he takes it very seriously. He's like, what a minute. What did you say here? Imagine how your friend's name is? A fucking goat demon. And instead of thinking, this eight-year-old sure does have a creative mind, doesn't she? He genuinely sat there and that's himself. No granddad of mine, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no church attendee in presence at the church in an hour because I will be performing an exorcism on my own eight-year-old grandchild. He gave a whole speech to the church about how possessed and satanic Shenei was. She was strange, she said. So there you have it. Line up all the strange people. Let's all go get exercised together. Now, we don't know

exactly for sure which Shanae felt during her exorcism in front of the whole church, but I mean it's pretty safe to assume that she felt embarrassed, vulnerable, uncomfortable, like a black sheep, yeah, traumatized, and just straight up betrayed by the person she lovingly called grandpa. She felt even more isolated and rejected than before. Maybe her mom was right to not have wanted her, maybe something is wrong with her. Sad affair, Shanei replaced his Azole with a new imaginary friend, someone a bit normal. His name was Norman.

Very normal. Even later in her 20s, Shanei would still confide in Norman, and use him for emotional support. Now, it wasn't just that Shanae was exercised of her demons and through in the corner to be forgotten. It seemed like Shanae's mom kind of liked a f*** around with her. Because one time, she'd tell Shanae just before turning off the light for bedtime. Kakeda Knight, sweetie.

Shanae's side note, did you know that at night, your dolls, they come alive and they play with each other? What, mom? Yeah, they come and they play and they hang out around your room and they run around. Shnee was terrified. Like, what are they doing in the dark? I mean, the idea of them hanging out and talking without her is unsettling. What if they're plotting something against her?

Shit, like it went bit. So she's sent there, hunched over, and this would be the scariest little movie clip if I saw this in a movie I would pee myself Imagine you're like looking at a kid and her back is turned to you squatting on the floor playing with her dolls And you're like hey sweetie, what are you doing? You walk over? She's feverishly tying up her dolls with shoelaces and blindfolding them and then she would lovingly place them in her little corner So yeah, the whole thing was unsettling for sure and from from then on, it seemed like Shenei had this pressure inside of her that was just waiting to burst out, like a tea kettle screeching on the stove. All the negative emotions that she felt all this pressure was building up and up and

she just, she needed to let the steam out, she needed to release it. But how? Her newest stepdad seemed to have a questionable answer. Okay, so get this. Shenei is barely a teenager at this point, and her stepdad is like, wait, you got negative pen of energy? Forget the playground.

That's for weenie babies, that's baby shit. When I come back from hunting, I'm gonna let you kill the animal. Like you can help me chop it up. Like a little baby butcher. It always dest-stresses me. Why can't I work for you 12 year old? Shanei loved it. She said she loved skinning the animals. She felt relief. It was the only

kind of relief that she felt when she was self-harming. So Shanei had started cutting herself with sharp objects. Again, she said it was the only release from the negative emotions that she felt at the time. That and skinning her of stepped-ads game, oh and skinning any small animal that she came across. That was her thing, which I think kinda makes Shanae a bit scarier than other serial killers out there. Other serial killers were out there killing animals, which is terrifying, despicable, but Shanae took it a step further.

She loved the act of skinning them. The act of killing never really did her for her. In fact, she would rather find a dead animal on the street to take home and skin. It could be anything, a rat, cat, squirrel, whatever. I don't know if it's the satisfaction of, and I don't want to make it too gruesome, but what I'm trying to imagine is the satisfaction of when you have a little orange, and you're able to peel it in one go. Okay. Because she was saying that it was very satisfying and I'm having a hard time even computing

that in my head. Now, the family had pet snakes at home. And if she ever found a dead rat, it was everybody's lucky day. She was skinned and throw it to the snakes. Stary alarming, right? And then things just start escalating a bit more. Shanei almost kills her stepmom. Just like that. So Shane at one point goes to stay with her biological dad, Jacques, and his new wife, Tanya. And I guess Shane felt like Tanya's a bit too

strict. I mean, why does she have all these rules? I mean, what's going on? That's fine. You can be upset and be a teenager, but who the hell picks up a knife and tries to stab their stepmom for setting some house rules? Thankfully, Tanya manages to escape unharmed, but for some god for sake and reason, she and Jacques just decided, I think we should keep the whole thing harsh. Don't tell any man, never mention again, don't even talk to Shane about it, I'm sure it's a stabbing phase, she just needed to get her dad of her sister. So Shane starts going back and forth from her moms and her dads,

and even Charmaine, who's not winning any parenting awards anytime soon, she felt like she needed to do something. She felt like she needed to intervene. So she takes Junae to a psychiatrist. They just look her up and down and say, you are negative emotions. You're self-harming. Okay, cool.

You're depressed, so I'm gonna get you on some antidepressants. Have a good day, bye. That was it. It did nothing to stop Janei's aggression, which was the biggest problem. So you can imagine in school, Shanei is not that popular. Kids her age don't even seem to like her. She hated them. She felt like she was too mature for them, too elevated. So she starts hanging out with the older kids. They introduce her to the world of sniffing paint. And by the time that she's 12, not even a teenager, start hanging out with the older kids. They introduce her to the world of sniffing paint. And by the time that she's 12, not even a teenager,

she starts experimenting with designer drugs like ecstasy. Okay, side note, I don't judge people who do drugs because everyone's got their own story, but when you start doing drugs at that age, and something like ecstasy, I mean, your brain is turning to mush. Like, there are things that are permanently happening in that brain of yours.

But she felt like I made the pain go away. For a little while I made her feel invincible. Confident? She felt like it worked better than her antidepressants. She felt like she was on top of the world until she was reaped. She was 12 at the time. 12. She had gone to a friend's house to sleep over and go to this big party and there was

going to be tons of drugs there so of course she's going to take part in it. I mean she didn't want to seem like loser. And then she was by someone that she considered herself a close friend too. She and I was a virgin at the time. She felt utterly violated and destroyed. It was a disgusting feeling that she would never forget. She felt like her body had been physically torn and her soul felt broken. That's how she describes it.

And she painted a picture to symbolize her emotions. It was her lying in bed with her pants unzipped, and at the bottom she wrote her best name and wrote, you took my innocence at 12. So it was a lot. And she definitely did not have the support system that she needed in order to heal. Her mom was like, hey, so I know you're going through it, but I'm going to move to New Zealand with my new husband. And I think you need to go stay with dad and his wife, okay?

Bye. Now, in hindsight, it is a better home environment for Shanei. Jacques always loved Shanei. He was the one that took care of her, unlike Shermay. Tanya, who had no kids of her own, I mean, she was really ready to take on Shanei like her own child. But unfortunately, the damage was kind of already done. You know, by the time that Shanei made it to her dad, she's 14, hoaked on ecstasy to

numb the pain. She developed a number of unhealthy coping mechanisms. All of them were destructive. It was just a lot to deal with. It was rough on Jacques and his new wife, and they just felt like Shanei needed space. So in other words, they never attempted to talk to Shanae about any of her problems. So yeah, things inevitably they go downhill. At 15, Shanae starts dating a predator who's 22 years old, named Orlando, which side note

he's a Satanist, he says, but I don't think he is. He's just like really into edgy shit. That was him. He just thought he was cool. He was encouraging Shanae to dye her hair black and wear dark colors exclusively and paint her nails black all the time. Which that part is fine. But then he introduced 15 year old Shanae to asset. And then we'd take her to the cemetery to do satanic rituals which most Satanists do not even take part in but Orlando and his friends wanted to be edgy. So whenever Shanae pointed out, hey, this is kind of dumb. This just feels like a real ritual. Orlando would make it his life mission to humiliate, degrade, and push Shanae down. He wanted her to have literally no self-esteem.

That was his pure golden life. And it worked. Shanae starts struggling more. She ends up dropping out of high school at 16 years old. And around the same time, miraculously, she breaks up with Orlando. And her life starts making a speedy comeback. Is out of the blue. She moves in with her sister, starts taking art classes, putting in extra hours over the

weekends. She got a job as a graphic designer, her superiors really loved her, they felt like she was talented and dedicated, she even started dating this new guy, named Warren Jurek, which was the total opposite of Orlando. Warren was nice and responsible and warm. Even his parents took Shanae into their house and welcomed her like their own daughter. They loved her. They felt like she was so respectable and so lovable and so cute.

She just had these big old eyes and she's very petite little girl, just like a helpless little puppy. Just wanted to pinch her cheeks. Sometimes, Shenei would stay with Warren for like two weeks, and his parents were completely fine with it. Warren even noticed Shenei scars on her arms. You would say what happened? Oh, I caught myself as a kid when others would hurt me.

Warren didn't press. Shenei seemed happy now, and he was happy. Maybe this was her healing. He felt like he was helping her heal and it was through dating Warren that Junae would meet two people that would change the course of her life. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway.

Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it. Download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier, or or paid subscription starting at 1299 per month. Why would you break into these apartments? For money, for drugs, whatever was in there. Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No, who's going to catch us? What a police. It was the height of the crack era, and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them. I would suit up in my uniform and we're going to want some drug dealers, and I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all.

Did you consider yourself a rat? 100%. I saved my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Odyssey originals documentary podcast series available now in the Odyssey app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your shows. I'm not a big guy, man, but I love being that dirty mother f***er. The first person being Roy. Roy was a good friend of Warren's, and he hated Shenei,

the minute that she was introduced to their friend group. Warren was a good guy. Roy knew that they were best buds, and Shenei? Shenei wasn't. He looked how he knew he just met her like two seconds ago. Roy said that he sensed a bad aura around Shane. He could see you, or us. Most people that knew Roy said it was a gift.

But he knew if you really had a gift like this, it's actually a curse. To be able to sense good and evil spirits around people, it's not fun. It's freaking exhausting. Roy could even hear the spirits' names and personalities. To Roy, it was almost like seeing another person around. A lingerer, a leech, and Roy instantly sensed a very bad aura around Shenei. I know some people are going to be skeptical believing in it, but Roy even knew Shenei's imaginary friend Norman. Without her ever mentioning it, ever, he said he could sense Norman

around Shenei at all times. Now, normally, Roy kept all this information to himself. You know, he felt like it was messed up to just confront someone about it, like, hey, hey you, I don't know how to explain it, and I don't know if you believe me, but trust me, you got a bad aura. Did you know that? Like, that's kind of messed up. You'd be so paranoid, you'd be so freaked out, right? I mean, what would you even say to that? So he usually never brought it up, but Warren is his best friend,

and he felt like he needed to say something and Norman just had really bad energy, so he pulls Shanae to the side and just quietly asks her. Hey, who's Norman? Shanae immediately knew what he was doing, and she freaked out and said, who the fuck gives you the right to try and read me? Roy was taking a nap at me, I was just asking a question.

What? He had never been met with so much anger and disgust by anyone in his life about something like this. And then Shenei just told him, I've got it under control, okay? And walked away. Thankfully, Roy didn't have to take any action because Shane and Warren broke up shortly after. Shane broke up with Warren out of the blue.

She said, it's not doing it for me anymore, it's not working for me, I gots to go. So do we know how he knows? No. So interesting, no? Yeah. It's so interesting. So she leaves and Warren is devastated. He has no idea why Shane left him out of the blue.

But Roy did. Shenei started dating one of Roy's other best friends and roommate, Martin Van Dermier. Now Roy had read Martins aura as well. Roy could literally see a spirit following his roommate around too, which like can you imagine how exhausting that is? He said that he saw a woman falling Mart Martin around and her name was Lilith. And just to make sure, Roy asked Martin about her. Hey, do you know a woman named Lilith? I think she follows you around. Martin was shocked. Yeah, I do. Do you make love to her?

I do. Do you make love to her? Martin was in awe. He said, how did you know? And unlike Shanae, Martin was an embarrassed. Honestly, he felt special. Roy just confirmed what he had always thought, which was Lilith was watching him. Lilith was following him around. Who was that? This is his aura. So, Martin felt like Lilith was protecting him. But Roy wasn't so sure.

There's a lot of connotations and stories featuring a woman named Lilith, and they go back to the old days. In some stories, Lilith was Adam's first wife, before Adam and Eve. There was Lilith and Adam, but they were constantly fighting. Why? Because Lilith considered herself an equal, and she refused to lay underneath Adam. So she fled the garden. This is in Jewish scripture. And then in Jewish lore Lilith was a demon of the night. She would manifest as a creepy owl. And then in Mesopotamian mythology, she was a female storm demon, which meant that she was a bear of disease and death. Technically, if she was a goddess, she was the goddess of SIDS,

and set an infant death syndrome. The story was that three angels found Lilith in a cave bearing children, and she refused to come back to the garden. So the angels, being angels, they were like, you don't wanna listen to us? Okay, we're gonna kill 100 of your children every day in revenge. So Lilitha said to rob children of life and is responsible for the deaths of stillborn infants and crib deaths, aka SIDS, to get her revenge.

So in most stories, most of these older stories, she's either likened to a witch or a seductress and on one hand she's a seductress who leads men astray while refusing to submit to any of them and on the other hand she's a child killing witch who strangles helpless babies. So either way, Roy was a little bit worried. He's like, I don't know which one it is, but Lil' Lil' Lil' is kind of a scary person. I mean, it's always the stories of a female spirit that refuses to submit to the wills of a man, and she seems to have murderous desires to cause trouble. And Roy felt like it was made more dangerous by the fact that Martin wanted to be loved. That was his old goal. Roy was worried for his friend.

He really liked Martin. Martin had always been there for them, so Roy had just, his engagement fell through with his fiance. And sometimes he would wake up in the middle of the night crying and Martin would rush into the room to calm him down. He was one of the good ones. Roy always poked fun at Martin for being stupidly clever. He would say, you know what, Martin? You would struggle to change a light bulb, but you could sit there and create a light bulb

from scratch. Which is crazy. Stupidly clever. So when Shanae and Martin started dating, Roy and Evident Blee felt very protective. I mean, wouldn't you, if you walked in on your roommate's last best friend cleaning his stab wounds? Yeah. Roy walked into the bathroom and he was shocked.

He saw Martin standing there with cuts all over his body's stab wounds. Somewhere these long penetrating cuts, the largest was a long deep scary cut on his chest and Rui is freaking out What the fuck Martine? What is going on? Martine explains, it's not that big of a deal Shanae is just really into knife play What? Yeah, she likes to stab me when we have sex Oh my god

Martine, that's not normal That's not okay, I think that she needs help or maybe both of you guys, that's not normal. That's not okay. I think that she needs help or maybe both of you guys, that's not normal. But Martine got very defensive and he says, I let her do it and who doesn't really hurt it doesn't hurt me. It's not like she's trying to kill me. I can send it to it. It's fine.

Mind your own business and knock next time. Roy was shocked, but we're all adults here. It was weird. You know, Martine was never like this. He had known Martin for the greater part of his life, they had been childhood friends, and he just was never like this. Martin was a very normal guy with a very normal childhood to back it up. I mean, the only bizarre thing that happened when he was young, that he could remember, was when he was six.

He had a vision. He considered it a vision. He considered a vision at the time. Later it was labeled a hallucination. You get it. So a big dragon-like feature just materialized in front of him. And it was holding Earth in its hand. Yeah, the whole planet. And the dragon creature told him in a booming voice, Martin, I give you the world. But one day, I will ask for it back. Be ready. Martin remembered this moment for the rest of his life. It didn't just feel like a strange memory he had at six. It felt symbolic, like it meant something and meant that he was

special. And throughout his childhood, he tried to relive this moment and conjure up another dragon and another figure in front of him But he could never recreate the excitement that he felt it was gone and no one would believe him because how do you explain that to someone when you're six Everyone thinks that you're just daydreaming But other than that his childhood was pretty normal his parents weren't rich But they did well for themselves Martine got along with his older brother There was a five-year-age gap, but they did really for themselves. Martine got along with his older brother. There was a five-year-age gap, but they did really well.

And remember how he said he had a normal childhood? Nevermind, scratch time to race that. Because the guy had a fascination with death. He found it interesting, fascinating. So he loved watching the different stages of decomposition. Which, yeah, you could either go both ways. You could end up a serial killer or you could end up, I don't know if you're in a home director. I'm not sure

He loved it every time he came across a dead animal He liked a study what point of the decom they were in and one time he came across this straight cat in his backyard And you just thought what if I just What if I just know and without hesitation he picked it up and broke its neck What if I just... No. And without hesitation, he picked it up and broke its neck. In that night, he peed the bed. Remember the dark triad rule?

The deadly combo at a young age is killing small animals, wetting the bed, and arson. Martin, like a lot of serial killers, had two of the three. He loved hurting small animals and he wet the bed. And then in his teenage years, Martin was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Side note, I do think that Martin's disease may be manifested as early as when he was six, so that dragon vision he had might have been a hallucination. So anyway, sometimes, Martin would sit in the school hallway. And once when he was alone, he noticed this dark moving mass, like a swarm of locusts.

You know, like a million bugs, but moving in this one shape, one form that was floating through the hallways, passing the lockers, and it's not like all on the ground. They're coming up, they're making a almost humanoid shape made out of locusts, and the mass made this strange whispering noise. He vellig is trying to communicate with him. He had no idea what he was trying to say, but he was trying to talk to him. And the fact that he saw it and he was the only one that saw it, that made him feel special. Vellig is chosen, you know? So this pushes him to explore the occult culture.

He loved reading about religion, the physiology of animals, and by the time he was in high school, he was having full blown hallucinations on a regular basis. Auditory, visual, everything. Now, he hallucinated when he was under pressure or stressed out. So it was a lot, and it was scary, and there was no controlling it. He started experiencing hallucinations in class, and he couldn't distinguish from which parts were reality and which weren't.

So he would just simply get up and walk out. And because of that, he was getting more and more isolated. He was afraid that people were going to judge him. His grades were starting to slip. And I said, a coping mechanism, he started self-harming. He started burning himself with cigarettes and blades. And when his parents found out, they flipped out, rushed him to the nearest hospital, and he was put on meds to help with his mood swings and to prevent these hallucinations. So you would imagine everyone's just going to be happy that he's getting help, right? Not really.

Mental health is so, so, so stigmatized and worse than an in South Africa, I'm sure it was even harder. Martin didn't want this to define him. He didn't want people at school to find out, but this part is so depressing. The receptionist at the doctor's office had a daughter, Martins, a two-winter Martins school, and the receptionist went home and was like, hey, I think I met a classmate of yours and he was just diagnosed with schizophrenia.

And that daughter went to school and told everybody that Martins was diagnosed with schizophrenia. So he only started getting more anxious, which would lead to more hallucinations than it was this vicious cycle. He felt like everyone was watching him waiting for him to be quote unquote crazy. He felt like this unwanted freak like he felt different and the meds didn't help, the meds made him feel like a zombie, he felt like he was asleep even when he was awake, he gained over a hundred pounds because of the

meds. And it's not like he'd even took away the hallucinations. Martin said there was a woman following him around. Her name was Lily. He also heard voices in his head. They would curse his family and God. They were unfamiliar voices. He couldn't even tell if they were male or female. The voices never talk to each other. They just talk to him, cursing God and him. There's a lot. Martin said he didn't know what was going on. Was this schizophrenia? Was it his mental illness? Or was it some sort of demonic manifestation? Was it his visions that were coming back from when he was six? He couldn't tell and honestly

he didn't mind it. In fact, Martin actually sought out his hallucinations because they made him feel special. So he drops out of school, starts working for his dad, and the years go by and he's struggling to balance his meds, and he became overweight to the point of medical concern, and he would always, what's interesting is, though, when he would draw pictures of his entire family, Martin would draw him as the smallest. It's almost as if he saw his role in the family as insignificant, like he was barely visible. He mattered the least. So the only time Martin felt like he really mattered was when he moved in with his friend Roy.

You know, they had no need to know there since they were young and Martins like let me help you out through your heartbreak. He felt useful. You know, he even started opening up to Roy about how he wanted to get off his meds. He hated it, but he was scared of having episodes in public. He said, you know, sometimes I'll be in a small group of people. Maybe like five or of people, maybe like five or six people, right? But instead of five or six people, I see 12 or 13 people. And I don't know which ones are real and which ones are fake. And I just get so scared

because what if I start talking to someone that isn't real? Everyone will think I'm crazy. I genuinely can't distinguish the difference. So Roy promised to be there for him. He said, Martina, if I'm ever around, just tell me. Tell me when it starts, and I'm gonna stick by you. I'm gonna let you know who's real and who's not. And because Martina stopped hanging out with his own friends, he started coming along to all of Roy's friends gatherings and boom, that's how he runs into bad aura, Shane. And the timing couldn't have been more horrendous

because Martina just quit his meds, called Turkey for schizophrenia, which not a good idea. He felt like he was doing better now, but the problem is, if you have a chronic ailment and you start taking meds for it, and the ailment goes away, you don't stop taking the meds because the ailment is gone, because that means the meds are doing its job. That's what it means. Quitting the medication in most cases, not all, but most cases of chronic disease are gonna resort to you reverting back to wherever you were

before you started taking the meds, if not worse. And it's not instant. So I mean, sometimes it can be, but most people slowly have symptoms that creep back in. But Martin was just so happy he stopped his meds. He stopped feeling like a zombie. He felt happiness again.

He was losing weight. I mean, he couldn't be happier. And he started dating this really pretty girl named Shanei, December of 2010. When they met, they were making out on Roy and Martine's couch for a Roy's 25th birthday. People were complaining because Shanei was on top of Martine's straddling him and they were literally eating each other's faces. Roy was stressed. He had his doubts, obviously, he hated Shanei, but he felt like he had to be somewhat understanding. If

Martine was already head over heels for her, what was he gonna do? It's only gonna push him further away from Roy if he tries to separate them. And eventually that's what happens. A violent argument breaks out between Roy and Shane. And Shane is screaming, like, stop telling me how to live my fucking life. Like, Martine is not your son, he's your friend, but you're not his dad. Stop telling us, blah, blah, blah. He had told her to stop doing drugs, okay?

Now, Shane runs out of the guy's apartment, and Martine really chose her. And Roy told him, listen, bud, we can still be friends in everything. I understand that she might be a future, and I want you to be happy. We have to do something for me, okay? Please move out as soon as possible.

And with that, Roy and Martine's friendship was non-existent practically. Martine did reach out to Roy at one point. It seemed like an emergency. He's like, Martine, what was wrong? Been diagnosed with cancer. What? What do you mean?

How? When? I went to our doctor, Dr. Oliver, and he diagnosed me. It's cancer with the brain. He said, I've got one or two years left to live. Roy was at a loss for words. I mean, he had known Martine his entire life. This was so depressing.

But also, something about it was very odd. Are you sure, Martine? Yeah, I'm sure. A little while later, Roy gets sick, goes to their doctor, and brought up about, gosh, still can't believe that Martine has cancer. The doctor is looking at him like, what are you saying? Where'd you get that info? As far as I know, Martine doesn't have cancer. Roy had no idea why Martine would lie about something like that.

But these days, Roy had no idea what Martin was up to. Like the fact that Martin was performing rituals at the Velcom's cemetery? It didn't even sound like him. It was shocking. The cemetery was apparently Shane and Martin's favorite place. They were both obsessed with darkness and evil and death and honestly just being edgy. I think they wanted to be unique. They didn't really care to join a cult or anything.

They just liked to call each other dark names. They did some bizarre stuff. Stuff that if I saw in a cemetery, I would poop myself. Shanae would sneak off into the cemetery, lay down on a grave, and just start riddling, like a little worm, in a trance. And she would open her eyes wide, and stare up into the sky, and occasionally giggle. It's very freaky. She said she was feeding off the creepy environment, she loved it. Anything different, weird, edgy, Shane was into it. Like Shane started calling Martin my dark prince.

That's how she saved his contact on her phone. I mean, it was a lot. I'm not going to lie to you. So the dark prince and Shane would go to the cemetery and perform rituals promising each other eternal love. The ritual went like this. Don't try this at home by the way. They would hide in the shadows of the cemetery. Exchange promised rings that were serpent rings, the snakes wrapped around their finger. Standing amongst the tombstones, they would put the rings on each other's fingers, profess their undying love for each other, and then they would cut a slit into Martins' hand

and soak the blood on their fingers and Martins' blood and do a little chant. So they come up with the ritual, and they were very serious about each other, and they're infinite love for each other. At this point, they had been together for, like, 27 days. Listen, what? What are you saying?

I don't want to judge, but I'm judging. Like, a month and you're doing a blood-richful sacrifice promise, Like 27 days? Listen, what? What are you saying? I don't want to judge, but I'm judging. Like a month and you're doing a blood ritual sacrifice promise, ritual professing undying love for each other, that's a lot in 27 days. That's a lot. They were over the moon. After the ritual, Shanae texted Martine.

I love you, my dark prince. You're a part of my soul now, my heart. And you are on my mind every second. We are as one, and nothing and no one will ever come between us. So a bunch of their text messages are in the book and I think it really shows the mindset that they weren't. And I'm not trying to imply that they weren't of sane minds when they did what they did, but it's a lot.

So I'm going to read them to you. Martin responded to her with things like, ah, my beloved, I slept well indeed. I will never forget the night and soon we will have more magical evenings there at the cemetery. The serpents on our rings whisper our names in unison, so that lulls my longing for you enough to get by every day. Have a sweet, loving, mystical day, my queen. I love you.

Mo. And around this time, Shenei started watching the show Dexter, you know, the show about the serial killers who's also a detective. So Dexter is a serial killer slash detective. He wants to kill bad people, but only bad people. He'll kill other serial killers, best in the likes. Well anyway, season five comes around and Dexter gets a girlfriend named Lumen. So Lumen was kidnapped by a gang and she survived brutal torture and sexual assault. And when they were done with her, they tossed her to the side to a serial killer who was going to kill her and dispose of her body. But Dexter killed the serial killer and saved Lumen in the process. And after that they were so mad, the two of them became a serial killer couple as they teamed up to hunt down Lumen's abusers so that they could kill them, of course.

Shanae was obsessed. She felt like she was the real-life Lumin and Martin was Dexter. She made it official. She quickly changed the name on her phone from Martin's contact, from my dark parents, to Dexter. And she demanded that they call each other new nicknames now. Dex, for Dexter, and Lumin, for Lumin. And the two really... Ah!

Listen, the two really romanticized the whole It it's you and me against the world, baby. We're so different, we love dark and blood, and we're not scared of scary movies. We're pickmys. We want to watch a real-life snuff film, because that shit won't scare us. Death is inevitable,

why be freaked out? The two even constructed a whole world for themselves, and they called it ashmore valley Which sounds like a Halloween shop for some reason. I think that this is the point where I'm like, okay Hold breaks it is clear that they are not actually believing any of this I'm sure that they would like it, but their own world. I mean, it's clear that the core of their bond their whole relationship Is that they're both sad and depressed. They don't feel like they belong in this society They've been rejected and they're creating their own world for themselves as an escape But soon it starts spiraling out of control because they they realize what ashmore valley is empty right now

And if we go to ashmore valley when we die How can we be king and queen with no subjects? But the only way to get people into ashmore valley is with no subjects. But the only way to get people into Ashmore Valley is they need to bring real life people to the cemetery and kill them. Then their souls go to Ashmore Valley. So it's like they're creating this step-by-step narrative of this world, but it starts getting serious because the two genuinely wanted to kill someone for those reasons. They wanted souls in Ashmore Valley. Now Shanae was not very into the idea of killing.

She was obsessed with the idea of skinning someone. She said it gave her the ultimate satisfaction when she was skinning dead animals and she just wanted to do it with a human. I mean, it's really starting to give Edgene vibes, okay? Now she wrote this once and this is fake, but, at gain, she said, Well, I woke up this morning and I realized, I had nothing to wear. So I thought for a while, and I came up with this idea that will change the world forever. I remembered that I had some old material in the back of my cupboard.

I think it's called skin. So since I had some time to spare, I stitched that skin together, forming a suit. It's quite a tight fit, so I had to stitch it to my own flesh, otherwise it would fall off. And that could get quite messy. Well, after climbing into my new skin and finishing off the rough edges, I looked in the mirror and I must say it looks quite pleasing. I went to work and I got more compliments than I expected, so it generally was a good day. But when I got home I noticed a flaw in my great creation. It seems like the suit had grown and morphed into my own flesh. My own blood now ran free beneath its surface.

It seems like I'm stuck with this suit for all of eternity. And many others want me to make suits for them as well. Soon they will all be wearing my creations. So is she trying to be a writer? I don't know. She's trying to be an Edgain writer. She wants to make a fashion design, design house with skin suits that morphed to your body. Obviously, I don't think that she's so dead animal skinned to herself and then, you know, her body just accepted it like a skin graft, but I think it was her ultimate dream.

She wanted to be edgain but tom Ford at the same time. She wanted everyone to fall at her feet of her creativity. And these types of fantasies only fed more into her dream of wanting to tear people's faces off. That's how she describes it. She said she wanted to skin a human's face. She said that was the only way to see the truth by tearing someone's face off. She wouldn't be satisfied by cutting herself anymore. She needed to cut other things, but she hated cutting Martine. She felt really bad when she stopped him because she loved

him. Now as for Martines, I'm not really sure why he developed his fantasy to kill. As far as I know, he never had any murderous urges before other than the cats. Which yeah, okay, I know, big red flag. Side note, I don't think his schizophrenia has anything to do with this because having schizophrenia and being off your meds does not make someone a killer. Most schizophrenia are not killers. Some of them are, but some doctors and church pastors are, I mean, there's no rule here. It's not like schizophrenia is responsible for murderous urges. Actually, contrary to social stigma and belief, some might have, schizophrenia typically

pose a greater risk to themselves than to others. Experts later also felt like his schizophrenia had nothing to do with this. They felt it was Sheney. Between them, Sheney was more likely to kill. She had the urges at a very young age, she was very tunnel-visioned, very focused on what she wanted, which was skinning things and how it made her feel in the release of negative emotions, this is exactly what a serial killer would say. Between the two of them, she was the instigator of the fantasies.

She probably wouldn't have the balls to kill someone alone, but if it wasn't Martine, most likely Shanae would keep looking till someone else helped her with her fantasies. So she created this world where the idea of killing and skinning a human being sounded exciting and romantic and then she just lured Martín into it and then the fantasy was fully formed. Martín said it's just something that he and Shane thought would bring them closer. So settled, Martín became obsessed with the idea of killing someone and Shane wanted to skin. But I'm getting ahead of myself because let me give you a few more text messages as contacts now. Martin sent this text message to Shane. Good morning, Lumin.

I apologize for having to leave for work so fast a while ago. Today, we start planning our escape from the wretched, saddled life. We shall have new lives soon. These pathetic humans will kneel and tremble before us, blood will stain our path and we can be happy. Finally, we can be free. I wish you strength for today my love, have hope, we are close to snapping these chains that bind us.

XX DEX. And she responded, my dear stexter, I have waited eternities for that moment, where the past kills itself only to spawn a new, Demented future in which we can be ourselves. Listen, I'm all about main character energy and romanticizing your life, but this is getting alarming. Do they talk normally? No, not really. Okay.

But then can you imagine like them just, I don't know, buying a toilet plundra at a CVS? I don't know why I'm like, how do you even do normal human being things when you text like this all the time? Like have you been to a DMV? You can't talk like this. Now, Martine also said to Shanae, my entire life was filled with deep emptiness. A dark, hopeless cold I could never feel. Then I met someone who fit into me like a hand in a glove, leaving no fingerprints, but the loving gashes in our skin. A deep understanding and acceptance that transcended my dreams. For the first time I can say something without having to put a mask around it, I can say it without putting it to word, for it has been carved into my heart all along. Since the day I

was born, I love you my Lumen. We are immortal, for we share the key to that gift Imagination no one can kill that no one can harm that which has no form it makes us eternal We have the power to create worlds world where we cannot be touched by the vile hands of these fake corrupted people the power to recreate ourselves One day we shall be released from mortal coil and return to our kingdom to rule in our ever-never-ending, fantastical dark paradise to do as we please. Side by side. Until then, we have each other in this world and the promises of dark delight to inflict upon the unwary souls which dwell among us,

together as God and goddess, snakes intertwined free ourselves. as God and goddess snakes intertwined free ourselves. XX, Dex. Can you just imagine he's typing this up at the line of McDonald's? They're like, can we get your order? Shanae responded to this completely unhinged text message by saying,

"'My dearest Dexter, I've waited eternities for someone to share myself with. My deepest secrets and desires. It was fate that brought us here. Good night my love. I will meet you in our dark place. Sweet dreams, Decks, I love you. So again, the reason I'm sharing the text is because I really think that my teens was becoming

more and more unhinged. I'm not giving him any excuses for what he does next because again, psychiatrists who talked him said his schizophrenia had nothing to do with his crime. It wasn't mental illness, but I do think it shows an interesting power balance that serves as context. I mean, the whole text message, Shanei is playing into it, but she doesn't seem necessarily as involved. She's like, yeah, I can't wait to join our underground world with you. Love you, good night. Meanwhile, he's really like there. He's feeling it.

So, Martin, he couldn't sleep that night and he responds with, hey, loom, just me reminding you that Jesus loves you so. Dex warned him to stop sending you creepy messages like that. And Dex tried to stalk the son of God but couldn't track him down because he couldn't find that little creep. So he spent the evening pondering a new concept.

He decided to call it the Jesus inbox paradox, which didn't bring him any closer to the answer of life. The universe and everything, so, you know, he just went to bed, sad, unfulfilled and confused again. I hope you get this message in the morning and I don't wake you up because it would be God's fault. Good night, my queen. Yeah, it's getting really intense. Now, Martins is getting more and more frustrated.

He just wants to try killing someone. He convinces himself or is at least trying to convince himself that that's the answer to his problems. It was a way to bond Shanae Tim forever. And together, they would rule their underground world like that. He said, My love, this emptiness, this irritation, this unsatisfactory,

with not having our dark desires fulfilled, is making me lose my mind. If we do not have someone ready by this weekend to kill, we shall go hunting and blood will flow from the lifeless body before the next Monday arrives. I hope your dark passengers ready for it? We will be feeding soon. Make it strong and willing my love. I have a wish. To visit the houses of all the weak and controlling people I've known, one starless night, and

we will murder them all. Then to derive to the black and horizon with you by my side, finally killing the pathetic old ideas of what they wanted us to be. Strength be with you, my goddess. I'm designing how our Winter Palace will look in our world. Think of a name for our place if you can. I love you. Lady Bathory Blackmore.

XX. Lord Asher the God Wolf. Wolf with a U. It's just... he's, it's just a lot. And Shanae keeps playing into it too, and she texts him. Another day lost to the persona of perfection that I must be. Just another fake smile and illusion of a happier me. You know I've perfected the art of lies, I must fake a society needs me to be. But my heart still beats.

The mere thought of your presence brings life to my dead and broken body. You're the only happiness that I know. And even though I sometimes seem lost, even to you, know that it's just the pressure of this place resting on my soul. I will always love you. Once we are bound by this place no more, we can reign in ashmore. God and God is bound yet free. So before they find the perfect victim, they start with cats. It's always the cats. And they did it in the most horrible way too. Shane and Martine's adopted two tiny little kittens from a pet shop. They thought, okay, easy. We'll practice killing and getting these kittens. Originally, the plan was that Martine would kill them and Shane would skin them. But because of their respective fantasies, they thought, why don't we try to do each other's fantasies? That way we understand each other more. I want to experience what gives you so much bliss.

That was the idea. How romantic, right? So Shanei hated the act of killing. She just decapitated the kittings, little head as quickly as possible. So sweet of her. And then she looked over at Martin who was frantically stabbing the other cat, and Shanei hated the awful noises that the kitten was making. She hated the violence but she didn't want to ruin the moment for her dark prints so she just sat back and watched. Afterwards they said they felt so much closer to each other.

What? So for a while there's a lull in their plan and that made Shane depressed. She's feeling down. So what does Martin do? He went out, bought a cat from the pet store, gifted that made Shanae depressed. She's feeling down. So what does Martín do? He went out, bought a cat from the pet store, gifted it to Shanae, and it's like, shall we keep the cat or kill it? Shanae chose to kill it and not just kill it, but skin it, and crucify it. They kept the bones of the cat that they killed, and throughout the process, they recorded and took pictures of the tortured cat. Martín's was like, oh yeah, that was her idea.

She wanted to keep the bones for art purposes. So the remains of all three cats were buried behind their apartment building, and when they were getting bored of cats, Martins suggested that they kill some dogs. Because dogs are big, right? They considered going to a shelter adopting a dog, but Shanae said, no, no, no, that's cruel. These dogs have been abused and maltreated their entire lives, and now we're killing it in the worst way possible. I'm not a monster. Yeah, not a monster, so instead of killing a dog they decide let's just do it already. We just need to kill a person. And that is how on March 31st, 2011, just what?

Four months after promising internal love to each other, Shanei made a dating profile on a site called Two Go. She made it to find a victim. And that victim was 24-year-old Michael Vanick. Michael had come from this good upper middle-class family. Michael's dad was a mine worker and I'm not so sure what he did what his exact position was, but he was able to single-handedly support a family of five kids. He put his kids through college, bought them nice cars, so it's safe to say. You know, he had a very comfortable job. Michael's dad, Henryette, was a stand-home mom of four daughters and Michael.

So it's kind of clear who the parent's favorite was, you know, we live in a society. So yeah, it was Michael. Now, before you think that it got to Michael's head, it didn't. Even though it easily could have, it didn't at all. Sure, Michael is the golden boy, but he refused to be spoiled. He wanted to work hard for his money. Even when his parents bought him his dream car, he promised. I'm never gonna take it for granted. I will treat this car like my baby and as soon as I graduate college mom, dad, I promise I'm gonna get a job and pay you back every single penny of this car. But life's not that easy. After graduating, my glad I had a hard time finding a job.

So it's really affecting his self-esteem. He's withdrawing a bit. He felt depressed. And then to add to that, you know, it starts getting worse. Him and his long-term girlfriend, his first love, they break up. So he starts really feeling sad. And he's like, okay, I gotta turn this around before it gets worse. He gets an internship as an electrician at a gold mine. And he's offered a full-time position.

Things are looking up. He's making good money. His overall mood is improving, he even felt confident. To try his hand at online dating. So he makes a profile on the app to go. And that day, he matches with a girl named Shane. They start texting just very flirty text messages, which side note, Shane would later say that she felt very uncomfortable and guilty about it. Not uncomfortable because she was flirting with a person that she was planning on killing, but because she didn't want my teens to feel jealous

that she was pretend flirting with their victim that they were about to kill together. So she really had her head screwed on tight. Shane just comes out straight forward and is like, hey, Michael, do you wanna go on a date with me? Michael Sornoff, I mean, they just started talking, but I mean, I guess he's never tried this online tating thing.

Maybe this is normal. Yeah. Why not? Let's do it. But then, Shenei mentioned that she wanted him to meet her at the cemetery. I'd welcome cemetery. Okay, now that's creepy. Shenei had a good reason for choosing the cemetery, or so she claimed.

It was the special place that she shared with Martine, where they professed their eternal love for each other, and it was the only place that she shared with Martin, where they professed their eternal love for each other And it was the only place that they could kill someone in order for their souls to go to Ashmore Valley This was like a portal if you will Like they couldn't just be buried at the cemetery. They had to die at the cemetery Of course Michael didn't know any of this if he did he would have a reason to not go But somehow Shanae was able to convince him and he agreed to the cemetery date But I can't say he wasn't hesitant But somehow Shenei was able to convince him and he agreed to the cemetery date. But I can't say he wasn't hesitant.

So there's supposed to meet up Saturday night, April 2nd of 2011. Michael had clocked out of his graveyard shift, went home, had dinner with his parents, and during dinner he made a casual remark about how he was going on a date. Never mentioned the cemetery. Michael's mom was ready. She was ready to fire out a string of questions, but she stopped herself. She's like, come on, don't do it, Henryette. You don't want to pry.

She was not trying to be a helicopter mom. Michael was finally feeling like his normal self. You know, he's trying to date, and she's going to be annoying in a Debbie Depp, so she just zipped it and sat there. She hoped that he would say more without her asking, but he didn't. She studies probably gonna go see a movie with the girl he met online, maybe grab a milkshake. You know, Michael's not a big drinker or a partyer, so his dates were, you know, relatively tame. Michael's mom would forever regret not asking questions. She shouldn't blame herself for

it, but she will. She always felt like there was more that she could have done. So after dinner, he gets ready, drives off in his car, and Henry at Wave Demoth, she had no idea that he was driving to Velcom Cemetery, where he would soon be buried. At the same time, Shenei and Martín were making final preparations for the murder, that they had been anxiously waiting for. Martín said that they were anxious, but they saved all the planning of how to actually do it literally the day before the murder. So they put together a murder back. It consisted of two hunting knives, black plastic bags, and spoons to dig a shallow grave. Not shovels, spoons, the utensil. They brought some wine glasses,

fresh anase fake date, a wine bottle, a picnic blanket, and some candles. They packed all of this into Shenei's beloved backpack that was black with printed white skulls all over it. One of the biggest regrets Shenei would have, she says in her life, was not that she killed an innocent man. But was the fact that she only packed spoons. They pick up their backpack and they walk nine miles to the cemetery on foot. And once they get there, Shenei spread out a sheet on the grass in front of the Jewish chapel.

At around 815, she gets a text message from Michael saying that he's getting ready and can't wait to meet her soon. She responds, Hey you, yeah I also can't wait. Ma, text me when you're here. See you later. And she turns off her phone. Michael gets to the cemetery 45 minutes later around 9pm. And he was driving slowly into the empty parking lot.

He didn't see any other cars, but he spotted Cheney in the shadows. She was illuminated by his headlights. And I'm sure it was a very creepy sight. She was wearing a white dress and her hair was long and black and she looked standing in that cemetery angelic and demonic at the same time. So much so that Michael shuts off his car in his lights looked standing in that cemetery angelic and demonic at the same time. So much so that Michael shuts off his car in his lights, and he found himself sitting in Erie's silence and darkness because he was too nervous to get out of the car.

He just couldn't do it. He couldn't bring himself to do it. Just took a while. And honestly, I think the only reason he eventually got out of the car was because Shane walked up to his door and greeted him with her biggest smile. Hey! Oh, hey! And then silence.

For a few minutes. Shanae was standing at his door. They were both nervous for different reasons. Michael was on the driver's side and it was weird, you know, they're in this dark isolated cemetery for their first date. They had just met two days ago. I mean, what on earth did they supposed to talk about? It was creepy, it was uncomfortable, and Michael probably wanted to hide out of there, but social norms were making it hard. He was anxious, nervous, he

was ready to leave. But of course, Shanae couldn't have that. So she did her best to lure him out of the car. She held his hand and let him out, and started leading him to the chapel where she had this weird picnic set up. They sat down, started drinking some wine, and eventually they both loosened up and started hitting it off. Well, not really. Shane said she was trying to be enthusiastic so he wouldn't jump up and leave. She said she powered through it. Yeah, the world doesn't deserve Shane. For a while they relaxed relaxed and eventually Michael felt good enough to lean in and kiss Shanae. But before he could he heard a noise come up from behind him and he jumped and he said what the fuck was that? And without warning, Martin flashed a hunting knife from his hiding

spot, ran up and stabbed Michael once, twice, three times, four times. Michael was a fighter though. He had a black belt in karate and he wasn't gonna go down easy. He ran for his car, but Martin slashed his legs. So now Michael couldn't run anymore. But he tried to fight still. Martin slashed through Michael's hands, leaving countless defensive wounds.

He stabbed at Michael's face, slicing open both corners of Michael's lips. Martin was still losing control over the situation. Michael was strong, he was pumped with adrenaline, he was trying to gain the upper hand, and Martin started freaking out. He said, Sheenay grabbed a knife, hurry! At this point, Sheenay had just been standing after the side.

She didn't expect things to go down like this. She thought it was going to be quick and easy to kill someone, and then she could get to the good stuff. Her being involved in the actual killing was never part of the plan. She wasn't a murderer. She had no interest. That was all my teen. But now she had no choice.

Michael could win, he could overpower them, and the situation would get out of control, and she wouldn't be able to skin someone's face. She ran to her backpack, grabbed her hunting knife and stabbed Michael three times. At this point, Michael dropped to his knees and cried out in pain. Martins headbutted him as hard as he could, but Michael still did not lose consciousness. He was profusely bleeding, he had been stabbed a total of 32 times, and he was conscious for all of it. Martins went into a rage and stabbed at Michael's chest over and over again. He was bleeding out and he was an excruciating agony.

Michael screamed, oh God, please just please kill me. Martins stopped, smirked at Michael, cocked his head to the side and said, would you like to pray first? Listen, they're both disgusting and evil while people. I know Shanae was the one that initiated and encouraged Martins to get into this, but he's dressed as vile. Michael closed his eyes on his knees and Martin slit Michael's throat

and tossed his body off to the side. He looked down at his handiwork and he wiped his hands on his trousers and he was happy. He was even happier when he found a lot of cash in Michael's wallet. He considered a bonus for his efforts, he said. And without saying a word, the two of them dragged Michael's body to the woods off the cemetery. Martine held a torch to light the way and he sat back and he watched his girlfriend feverishly try to cut off Michael's head

so that she couldn't get through the bone, but she tried. And she was getting tired, so Martine's lovingly passed on the torch, took the knife from her shaky bloody hands, and finished what she started. He decapitated him. And then they started digging. They didn't have any shovels, just knives and spoons. It was exhausting work to even dig the most shallow grave it took them all night long. When they couldn't dig anymore from the pain, they finally tried to fit Michael's body into the grave and he wouldn't fit. So they cut his body into the grave.

They dismembered him under the legs, under the knees. They cut off his entire right arm and they placed his arm, feet, hand, and his head into a plastic bag that they brought. And they buried the rest of Michael's remains in the shallow grave. arm, feet, hand, and his head into a plastic bag that they brought. And they buried the rest of Michael's remains in the shallow grave. They got into Michael's car and today started driving and they were blasting the song Sweet Dreams. The song that goes Sweet Dreams are made of this, who am I to disagree. They abandoned Michael's car with a key in the ignition, hoping someone would steal it, and they walk home in silence. They were exhausted. They get home in the early hours of Sunday morning so they did this from 9 p.m. to like 7 a.m. and this part is what gets me. I don't know what to say. When they get

home, Shanae sat on the couch and smiled, just fondly thinking of everything that just happened and Martine walks up to her and out of nowhere. It takes both of her hands and tears and asks, were you marrying me? Shanae smiled and she said yes, yes, and they got up and hugged each other. So they stayed chatting about their marriage, their future, if they were going to kill again, and they washed Michael's severed foot and arm with bleach, Martine went into the garden to bury them, and Sheney placed Michael's head into the fridge. They washed up, got a good night's sleep, and they woke up Sunday evening.

So this is now 24 hours after the brutal murder. Shenei woke up feeling well rested. She took Michael's head out of the fridge, held his head with both of her hands before carefully putting the head down in front of her on the counter. She grabbed the scalpel and started at the front of his forehead. She started skinning him with as much precision as she could. Martine sat on the side filming the whole thing.

She nice said that she wanted to watch it over and over again, not just so that she could relive her experiences, which is a reason, but she thought it was great practice. She could watch the video and perfect her technique for the next one. She worked through the night in excitement. She was so happy and excited she called technique for the next one. She worked through the night in excitement. She was so happy and excited she called off work the next day. That night, Martine had dinner with Shenei's parents without Shenei. She was at home.

And he asked Jock for Shenei's handed marriage and Jock and his wife thought, wow, we have a good feeling about this guy. He's intelligent, well mannered, he's perfect for Shenei. He's going to be a good influence on her. Little did they know that while they were eating dinner, Shane was busy at home cutting up Michael's face. She even turned off her phone while she did it so she could use her whole focus on the project. Meanwhile, Michael's parents couldn't focus on anything. Their lives were being torn apart. They were woken up by the cops pounding on their door.

What's going on, officers? Man, we found her son's car. It was unlocked with key still in the ignition. What? That's impossible. They look over in the driveway and sure enough, Michael's car is not there. They go to Michael's semi-detached apartment, and it was locked. She opened it up, and the apartment was normal. It's kind of like a guest house, so it's on their property, you know?

Everything was left just as he left it before he went on that date with that new mysterious girl. So his parents start panicking calling Michael's phone straight to voicemail. Oh my god, he never came home. They rushed to put on clothes and demanded to go see Michael's car with the police and when they got there, there's a young man sitting in the car attempting to drive it off. The police blocked him and confronted him. So the sky, let's call him Tony,

Tony was visibly drunk and had a wooden leg. The police are interrogating Tony, which side note, while this is happening, Michael's parents, their car almost gets stolen, it's a bit of a hectic show, but we're just getting started. So the police noticed blood on the front handles of Michael's car.

So they're like, yeah, Tony, you wanna explain that, did you kill for this car? Tony had no idea what they're talking about. He had no idea that someone had been killed. So he's being nonchalant. He lied and said, no, my good buddy Thabo said that I could pick up the car. I thought it was his.

I thought I was picking up his car. I don't know how I was stealing the car. The police reach out to Thabo to confirm the story and potentially arrest Thabo, but Thabo's wife is like, oh, sorry, he's not home. He's out of town for work. The police are not having are not having it they're like well you better get him home or else you're gonna get arrested and because of these threats Thaaboh picked up his wife's call and had to fess up that he wasn't out of town he was very much in town nearby with his girlfriend

that he was cheating on his wife with so it's not a good day for Thaaboh not only did he get implicated in a homicide, he knew nothing about because of his friend who was trying to steal a car, but his wife found out that he was cheating on her. So now Thaubo is making his way to Tony and the police because he was being implicated in car theft and wanted to explain himself.

And going off another tip from one of Michael's friends who knew about the date at the cemetery, Michael's parents, along with the police, Tony and Thaubo headed to Velcom's cemetery. So Tony freaked out at the cemetery. He confessed no, no, no, please I was drunk, I spent all my money on sex workers and when I was done partying there were no more taxis and I didn't have money and I have a wooden leg.

It was a far walk home. So when I came across this car with the key still in the ignition, I just who soon knew it was a blessing from God, I was just going to use it to drive myself home and then abandon it. That was the plan. So the police, you know, the police realize that they have the wrong guys. And while the cops are busy with the wrong guys, Michael's parents are looking around the cemetery for any sign of their son.

Henry out was on the verge of a breakdown. She had seen blood all over the chapel, saturating the sand, splattered across stone pavings, around the grass. There was a blood soaked rag near the entrance of the chapel, spiked it up, it wasn't a rag, it was Michael shirt. Now she's struggling to keep it together. Something horrible had happened to her son. The family still hope for the best though, okay? You know he's injured but he might still be alive, we need to find him soon to get a medical help. The police brought in dogs to canvas the area

and it wasn't long before the dog started signaling near a shallow grave in the woods. The police dug up Michael's mutilated body, no head, no legs, no arm. Yet the body was confirmed to be Michael because of a birthmark that he had on his upper thigh. Michael's dad was able to idea. The police were confused, though. I mean, what kind of gruesome murder is this?

Their first thought was that it was a Moody murder a moody murder is when someone kills another person to harvest their body parts for African traditional medicine known as moody and the cause of death is typically due to rapid blood loss because they're trying to get the organs out while you're still alive Now most traditional healers are super against this inhumane practice, but like anything else in this world, there will always be people willing to kill for money. The police felt like this was it, so they had three killers on their hands. There's always three people involved in a mootie murder,

always, at least three. The client who commissions people to execute a killing and the actual killer or killers, and the person that buys the body parts of the victim for healing. Now, the victims are usually killers, and the person that buys the body parts of the victim for healing. Now the victims are usually young, healthy men, and the body parts have to be removed while they're still alive. Each body part serves a different purpose or provides a different form of luck.

For instance, the skull provides protection. Genitals bring fertility and luck. The police were familiar with it because every year there's about 15 to 300 moody murders per year in South Africa. But soon the police were back to the drawing board because they found out Michael's organs haven't been harvested. So there's no way. Either way their best bet in finding the killers was to go through his phone records because he had gone missing on a date. So the date must have more information than they have. So they gave the last known

caller a ring. Straight to voicemail. Remember? Shnaya turned off her phone so she could focus on Skinning Michael's head. It was until Tuesday. The murder took place on Saturday. It was until Tuesday she picked up her phone. And the detectives tried to be sneaky with her. They're like, you need to come to the hospital

because your girlfriend was in a car accident and your phone number was found in her contacts. Shnaya knew it was a lie. She had no friends. So how could her imaginary friend get into a car accident? Norman was doing fine. Even though she was suspicious, she and Martin decided not to run. They thought if they ran now they would have to run forever and it would look guilty in

the eyes of the police. If the police really suspected them of killing Michael, they would have arrested them. So instead, she and Martin show up to the hospital holding hands and the police meet them there and cut straight to the chase. Do you guys know Michael Vanick? We have evidence that you were the last person he spoke to. Shanae was just kind of, you know, was non-committal, whatever, I don't really know him that well. Yeah, sure, you can come search our house. So the couple were put into separate police vehicles and when they got there, Martine stayed outside with the officers and Shanae took a few detectives into the apartment. All over the walls were Shanae's depressing artworks.

Most of them were of Shanae herself, but her teeth were rotten and she was almost like an alien-like, distressing figure. On the fridge, there were hung up drawings and poems and quantum physics calculations and formulas, which again, I feel like they're just both so into being edgy, it's bizarre. Shanae walked over to the police, studying the papers on the fridge, and casually opened up the freezer, and well, you remember, she pulled out Michael. They found his face, ears, and eyes, and in the shallow grave in the back, they found

his legs, and the remains of three cats. So she just willingly turning herself in? I guess she felt like they were going to find it anyway. The couple even admitted to stealing Michael's money. Martin casually said, oh yeah, we were going to use that money. We stole from him to buy shovels for next time. You know, it's not that easy to dig a hole with a soup spoon. So the couple they were arrested. The rest of their apartment was searched to which the police found strange things, a ton of Stephen King horror books, which I mean love Stephen King, I guess these aren't strange things, but voodoo dolls, a wigi board, Shane's killed journal.

So the first page was a picture of Michael from the newspaper, his age and a few words from his family that were given to the press. And the police had no doubt that if not caught Shane would have worked hard to fill more pages in her journal. Shane fit the profile of an aspiring serial killer. Even Shane's dad was sobbing when she was arrested and asked, why did you do it? Why? She coldly responded.

It's just something I've wanted to do since I was three years old. I wanted to do it and I did it and I would do it again. She later told the police that she didn't get the kick that she expected from killing Michael and didn't scratch that itch, and she had no doubt that she would keep trying until something scratched that itch. The couple were charged with murder, robbery, and mutilation of a corpse. Martins trial was delayed three times due to psych evaluations, and Martins ultimately pled guilty on all three charges, but not before taking the stand and being hostile, aggressive,

but also kind of showing some remorse kind of not really. He looked at Michael's parents and said, nothing I do where I say can bring Michael back. I know it won't help to say I'm sorry, but I don't want you to fill your hearts with hate and anger and aggression. At the end of the day, you're only dooming your own souls. So for what it's worth, I'm sorry. I mean, is that remorse? What?

I don't know how I will feel about it. Disgusted. Like, what do you, I hate that when people do the most despicable things and they're like, you know, forgiveness is key. It's like, no, Martins of Sentence to Life plus this reminds me of the Abbey Drorovert case, by the way. Crazy. My teens were sentenced to life plus 15 years for the other charges. When he was being led out of the courtroom, Michael's mom stood up and slapped him. Good for you. Shanei, on the other hand, she showed no remorse during the trial.

She refused to be interviewed by psychologists because she said, I'm not their lab brat. She even said, I know I should feel guilty for what I did because everyone says I should and everyone expects it from me, but I don't. The judge sentenced her to 20 years, but she must reappear in court to evaluate her sentence, which sounds better than a life sentence, right? But it's not. So if you get a life sentence in South Africa, you can get paroled after 25 years.

The Department of Corrections is usually a lot more lenient about paroling people. So most people get out after 25 years. But this way, Shenei's fate lies in the hands of the judges who are not so forgiving. So she will remain in prison till at least 2032, and probably longer. She'll be 41 years old when she has a chance of getting out. She is actually the first woman in all of South Africa to be classified as a dangerous criminal. And the couple wrote to each other until 2014, three years after their arrest when they decided to break up.

Shnay said it was mutual that they had both changed a lot and just outgrown the relationship. Shnay went on to study theology and taught art to local inmates. And in 2017, she wrote a letter for a website called serial killer ink. Her letter is being sold for $160 online, and the letter says, Well, this is the very shortened version, but it pretty much says, Sorry for the long wait on the letter. I wanted to wait for the media hype to die down, otherwise my letter might have been stolen on the way to you.

Some people will do anything for a bit of cash, it'd disgust me really. I guess it's all part of our wonderful human nature. Anyway, I for one would love to meet or write to Richard Ramirez, the night stalker. So if you're in contact with him, she's talking to Eric, the founder of CiroKillerInk.com. So if you're in contact with Richard Ramirez, please send my regards and ask if I can write to him. Anyway, female prison is not as bad as people make it out to be, and I've always been someone who can adapt easily to news surroundings. The other inmates treat me well, I'm all settled in, I spend most of my day

painting and drawing, I've always loved art, and I love having so much time for myself, it's quite releasing. I know in this letter you want me to tell you about myself, and yet I know nothing about you. I think it's best if we get to know each other as we continue our letters. There's no fun in revealing everything just yet. And besides, we never spoke much and thus there is not so much reason to trust each other. I would love for you to call me a friend though, and to have you as one I think we'll get along wonderfully. Take care Eric, ex, Sheney. She included a poem at the end and it read, The mind is its own place and in itself can make Heaven of hell and hell of heaven by Milton. I just

want to say that Shane made hell of heaven and I hope the only place that she will ever be out and free is her own mind. I hope that she won't be released in 20 years just because she's been a model and made. I mean she deserves to rot in prison for eternity just like she promised my team. I hope both of them rot in prison for eternity with their undying love for each other. Which is dead? Yeah, and that is the story of the welcome killing. I mean, I don't even know what to say, it's just the most...

they're just so evil. And it makes me so... it's just such a depressing case. Please stay safe out there, please. And I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode. Bye! Just such a depressing case. Please stay safe out there, please.

And I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode. Bye!