Murder of Elyse Pahler
Elyse Marie Pahler (April 24, 1980 – July 22, 1995) was an American murder victim whose parents attempted to sue the thrash metal band Slayer, claiming that the band's music contributed to their daughter's death. Pahler was murdered in the summer of 1995. Murder. 15-year-old Elyse Pahler's body was discovered near her home in Arroyo Grande, California, in March 1996. She had been raped and murdered there eight months earlier by acquaintances Jacob Delashmutt, Joseph Fiorella, and Royce Casey. The perpetrators apparently returned to the corpse and had sex with it on  several occasions. The body was located after Casey confessed to the crime following a conversion to Christianity. All three eventually pleaded no contest to her murder and are now imprisoned and serving life imprisonment . The trio lured Elyse from her house with the stated intention of killing her as part of a satanic ritual, although the crime bears many of the hallmarks of similar sexually motivated murders. In their defense, the defendants said they had needed to commit a "sacrifice to the devil" to give their heavy metal band, Hatred, the "craziness" to "go professional". Lawsuit. David and Lisanne Pahler  claimed that the Slayer songs "Postmortem" and "Dead Skin Mask" (from the albums "Reign in Blood" and "Seasons in the Abyss", respectively) gave the three killers detailed instructions to "stalk, rape, torture, murder and commit acts of necrophilia" on their daughter. The lawsuit was originally filed in 1996 but delayed until 2000 when the killers' trial was concluded. The initial case was originally thrown out, the judge stating, "There's not a legal position that could be taken that would make Slayer responsible for the girl's death. Where do you draw the line? You might as well start looking  through the library at every book on the shelf." Undeterred, the Pahlers launched a second lawsuit claiming that Slayer "knowingly distributed harmful material to minors". This case too was dismissed, with Judge E. Jeffrey Burke stating, "I do not consider Slayer's music obscene, indecent or harmful to minors." Jacob Delashmutt himself stated in a "Washington Post" interview, "The music is destructive [but] that's not why Elyse was murdered. She was murdered because Joe [Fiorella] was obsessed with her, and obsessed with killing her." Aftermath. Royce Casey was denied parole by governor Gavin Newsom in July 2021, Joseph Fiorella  has a parole hearing tentatively scheduled for July 2022 after voluntarily waiving his right to a hearing for one year and Jacob Delashmutt has a parole hearing which is scheduled for December 2024. Royce Casey is imprisoned in the Valley State Prison. Joseph Fiorella is imprisoned in the High Desert State Prison, and Jacob Delashmutt is incarcerated in the Correctional Training Facility.