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Satanic Ritual Blamed for Death of Italian ****s

Mon Jun 7,12:25 PM ET Add Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo!


By Rachel Sanderson

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian magistrate warned against the growing lure
of Antichrist cults in Catholic Italy Monday after the discovery of
the bodies of two ****agers killed in a satanic sacrifice.

Police announced at the weekend they had uncovered the bodies of
19-year-old Chiara Marino and 16-year-old Fabio Tollis, last seen in
January 1998 leaving a pizzeria with other members of their heavy
metal rock band "Beasts of Satan."


As forensic experts searched the two meter (six foot six inches) deep
grave in a wood in northern Italy, police said they had arrested four
of the band members for murdering the pair for a human sacrifice.


"It is a crime with a level of cruelty and savagery, with an intent to
cause extreme pain through ritual activity, that I have never seen
before in my career," chief investigating magistrate Antonio Pizzi
told Reuters.


"There was a very specific ritual with very specific rites and at the
end of that Chiara and Fabio were killed."


Italian media said witness statements showed Marino and Tollis died
during a cocaine-fueled ritual where Marino, a petite brunette, was
killed under a full moon by knife plunged into her heart.


Tollis, the lead singer of the band, was killed with a hammer blow to
the head when he realized the other band members were going ahead with
Marino's murder and tried to stop it.


BLACK CANDLES AND GOATS' SKULLS


The deaths have horrified Catholic Italy, home of Vatican (news - web
sites) City, with pages of newspapers given over to descriptions of
the black candles and goats' skulls decorating Marino's bedroom and
witness statements of ***ual violence.


What has fueled the fear are suggestions the double sacrifice near the
town of Busto Arsizio may not be isolated.


"Four people have been arrested for the murder of the two ****agers,
but the investigations are ongoing. We are looking at other levels of
involvement," Pizzi said.


One of those arrested in the double murder is already in prison for
the murder of a former girlfriend.


As many as 5,000 people are thought to be members of satanic cults in
Italy with 17- to 25-year-olds making up three quarters of them,
officials say.


"The phenomenon always existed in Catholic countries where the figure
of Satan is prominent in teachings as the alter-ego of Christ," La
Sapienza University professor Maria Matioti said.


"What has changed is the age of those involved, who are younger," she
said.


She said satanic cults tended to be found in northern Italy, where
traditional family communities had been split up due to migration to
find work, leaving some people demoralized and isolated. "In the
south, people are more open," she said.


Pizzi said investigators were looking into the possibility the "Beasts
of Satan" band members were instructed by Satanists in their late 20s
or early 30s. He said police were also reviewing two suspicious
suicides in the area.

"I am convinced there are others involved in this," Michele Tollis,
father of Fabio told RAI state television.

-Pawan Deshpande