Two men who murdered a 15-year-old schoolgirl when they were teenagers as part of a satanic ritual have been freed from jail.
Elyse Pahler was killed on July 22, 1995, by her high school classmates Royce Casey, Jacob Delashmutt, and Joseph Fiorella.
Pahler was lured from her family’s home in Arroyo Grande, California to a field where she was expecting to meet the trio to smoke marijuana.
She was stabbed more than a dozen times, choked, kicked and left to bleed to death as part of the boys’ sacrifice to the devil.
The trio intended to further violate her body, but instead abandoned her remains in the woods.
Pahler’s body was found eight months later after Casey confessed to his pastor about the brutal slaying. He later admitted Pahler cried out for Jesus and her mother with her dying breaths.
Delashmutt and Casey pleaded no-contest to first degree murder at their 1997 trial and were jailed for 25 years to life.
Fiorella was sentenced to 26 years to life in state prison after pleading no contest to first degree murder and an additional charge of being armed with a deadly weapon.
Elyse Pahler (pictured) was killed on July 22, 1995, by her high school classmates Royce Casey, Jacob Delashmutt, and Joseph Fiorella
Two of her killers – Royce Casey (left, as a teen) and Jacob Delashmutt (right, as a teen) – have now both been granted parole
Delashmutt, the self-described the ‘ringleader’ in Pahler’s death, and Casey, who admitted to delivering the final blow that killed her, have both been granted parole.
Delashmutt, who was 17 at the time of the murder, was released from prison in July this year after being granted parole in May.
When he was arrested, Delashmutt blamed his friends for orchestrating the killing and claimed they recruited him to participate.
But at his parole hearing this year, he admitted to being ‘the most responsible for the crime’.
‘I had every opportunity to put a stop to it, and I didn’t. I was involved in the planning from the beginning and I made this crime happen,’ Delashmutt, now 47, told the hearing, according to The Los Angeles Times.
‘I want to acknowledge all of the pain and the trauma that I’ve caused,’ he added, noting that would be ‘impossible’ for him to understand the impact that his actions had on the Pahler family.
Delashmutt was previously denied parole in 2017 and 2022. The board granted him parole in 2023, but the ruling was overturned by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The board also granted Casey, also 17 at the time of the killing, parole twice before but Newsom overturned both decisions.
‘Mr. Casey must better understand the internal processes that led him to commit the crime and hone the skills he will need to manage them beyond the controlled environment of prison,’ the governor wrote last year in a letter to the District Attorney’s Office, The Tribune reported.
Newsom also argued Casey would pose an ‘unreasonable danger to society’ if released.
Pahler was stabbed more than a dozen times, choked, kicked and left to bleed to death as part of the boys’ sacrifice to the devil
However, the killer was granted parole once again after a hearing in March that saw him admit how he was the one who ended Pahler’s life. He recalled how the girl cried out for her mother and Jesus as he stomped on the back of her neck.
Casey told the board they were influenced by death metal, alleging the music taught them to channel their anger through ‘suicide, murder, and sacrifice’.
He also shared how the advocacy work of Pahler’s father David has helped him acknowledge ‘all the pain and trauma’ he has caused.
‘Something that I remember hearing over time when Elyse’s dad has come, is that she has a face,’ he told the board, referencing how David would often bring a photo of his daughter to hearings.
‘I try to remember every day, whatever decision I’m making or whatever I do, that the ongoing impact of what I did is present all the time.’
The board affirmed Casey’s parole on July 23 and he was released to transitional housing in Los Angeles County in early August.
Fiorella, who was 15 at the time of the murder, was denied parole in 2023. He remains in prison despite claims that he is intellectually disabled and allegations that his lawyer mishandled his defense in the 1990s.
He will be eligible for another parole hearing in 2026.
Daily Mail has approached the Pahler family for comment on Delashmutt and Casey’s recent releases.
It was said that Elyse was targeted because ‘she had blonde hair and blue eyes, and because she was a virgin’
Joseph Fiorella, (pictured as a teen) who was 15 at the time of the murder, was denied parole in 2023 and will be eligible for another hearing in 2026
Prosecutors argued during their trial that the trio plotted to kill Pahler so they could ‘earn a ticket to hell’.
The District Attorney’s Office’s chief investigator, Doug Odom, testified that the three teenagers chose Elyse as their victim because ‘she had blonde hair and blue eyes, and because she was a virgin, she would be a perfect sacrifice for the devil.’
Pahler was the oldest of four sisters, and she was described as an athlete, a great student, and had close friends at school.
Her killers, on the other hand, were described as potheads who listened to metal music and were ‘weird.’
They were in a band called Hatred, modeled after the death metal band called Slayer. The trio reportedly believed that by sacrificing Pahler, they would be able to make better music.
Pahler’s parents Lisanne and David Pahler reported her missing on July 23, 1995.
The night of her murder, the family had been watching TV together, when the phone rang. Pahler picked it up, had a short chat with Delashmutt and then went to bed.
Hours later, Lisanne woke up in the middle of the night, went to check on her daughter and discovered she had run off.
When he was arrested, Delashmutt (pictured in 2015) blamed his friends for orchestrating the killing and claimed they recruited him to participate. But at his parole hearing this year, he admitted to being ‘the most responsible for the crime’
Casey (pictured in 2018) told the parole board they were influenced by death metal, alleging the music taught them to channel their anger through ‘suicide, murder, and sacrifice’
Officers spent eight months searching for the teen, and despite numerous reported sightings, her body wasn’t found until Casey confessed to a priest that he had taken part in her murder.
The priest reported the confession to police, who were then able to find her remains on March 15, 1996.
Lisanne believes the trio lured Pahler under false pretenses, she told a true crime documentary detailing her daughter’s case.
‘I think she was tricked because it didn’t make any sense that she would go out with those weird kids from high school,’ she said in an episode of ID’s series A Killer Among Friends.
David added: ‘There was a phone booth that they used to call her. The next step was to walk up to the top of our driveway, and they took her away.
‘In the confession, Royce was talking about having sold their soul to the devil and their objective here on earth is to kill 666 blue-eyed virgins as a sacrifice to Satan in order to earn a ticket to hell,’ David continued.
‘They took her to a place in the woods where a series of trees fell and took the shape of a pentagram and that’s where they built their altar and that’s where they did their sacrifice.’
Elyse was the oldest of four sisters and was described as an athlete and a great student
Fiorella (pictured in 2018) remains in prison despite claims that he is intellectually disabled and allegations that his lawyer mishandled his defense in the 1990s
Before her daughter’s death, Lisanne recalled seeing one of her daughter’s killers watching her play with her friends on a trampoline.
‘Elyse rode the bus with Joe, and Joe actually really liked Elyse,’ she remembered.
She recounted how Fiorella had once knocked on the front door to ask if the family had seen his missing black cat.
‘I had a creepy feeling about him,’ she continued, adding: ‘Once he came by and was watching them all on the trampoline. He was lingering watching them, it was weird.’
