The mother of a 15-year-old girl murdered in what prosecutors described as a satanic ritual has expressed her anger after two of her daughter’s killers were released from prison.
Elyse Pahler was killed on July 22, 1995, by her high school classmates Royce Casey, Jacob Delashmutt and Joseph Fiorella in a murder they said was intended as a sacrifice to the devil.
The three teenagers lured Elyse to a field under the pretense of smoking marijuana. They then choked, kicked and stabbed her more than a dozen times before leaving her body in woodland.
The teenagers pleaded no contest to first-degree murder and received sentences of 25 years to life in California state prison. Fiorella, who also faced a charge of being armed with a deadly weapon, was sentenced to 26 years to life.
Delashmutt and Casey have now been granted parole, three decades after the killing—a decision that has left Elyse’s family “very upset.”
“They’re baby killers—that’s what people call them, and they’re the worst,” Elyse’s mother, Lisanne Pahler, told Daily Mail.
Lisanne and her husband, David, fought to keep the men behind bars and urged the parole board not to approve their release until they demonstrated genuine remorse.
“My husband chewed out Casey and he finally showed remorse, so did Jacob [Delashmutt],” she said. She added that, despite their release, she believes “God will get them.”
“We’re Christians. The bottom line is the Golden Rule—treat others the way you want to be treated—and I don’t know who’s going to keep them safe [after their release]. Someone will try to take them out.”
Lisanne Pahler (right) has spoken of her anger after two of the men who murdered her daughter Elyse (left) were released from prison
Two of Elyse’s killers, Royce Casey (left) and Jacob Delashmutt (right), have been granted parole
Lisanne told Our News Outlet that Delashmutt and Casey’s parole had been difficult for the entire family, particularly her youngest daughter and daughter-in-law, who were “very upset about anyone getting out.”
Still, the grieving mother said Elyse’s killers would continue to face consequences for what they had done.
She said Delashmutt and Casey would be required to pay the family a substantial amount in restitution. Although she did not disclose the figure, she said “they will be paying for life.”
Lisanne said that for decades she had “never really been able to grieve or have anger.” After years of medical and behavioral-health treatment, however, she said, “I am finally able to process grief.”
“I taught my children, even the person who did the worst thing to you—they taught you a lesson,” she added.
Delashmutt, who was 17 when Elyse was killed, was released from prison in July after being granted parole in May.
After his release was confirmed, Lisanne used Facebook to condemn the parole board’s decision.
Lisanne Pahler has called her daughter’s killers “baby killers” and described them as the “worst” kind of criminals
Lisanne told Daily Mail that Delashmutt and Casey’s parole had been painful for the family. She is pictured with her husband David and their daughter Elyse as a baby
She wrote that she had spent 30 years working with doctors to cope with complex post-traumatic stress disorder and the enduring trauma caused by Elyse’s murder.
‘Jacob got out of prison today and I’m sure all three murderers of our dear Elyse Marie have had no problem sleeping all these years,’ her post reads, in part.
“No going back—pray I find the right trauma counselor with David—who has also been victimized!!!”
After his arrest, Delashmutt, then a teenager, blamed his friends for organizing the killing and said they had recruited him to take part.
At his parole hearing this year, however, he said he had been the “ringleader” and “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 said, adding that it would be “impossible” for him to fully understand the impact of his actions on the Pahler family.
Delashmutt was denied parole in 2017 and again in 2022. Although the board approved his release in 2023, Gov. Gavin Newsom later overturned the decision.
Elyse Pahler (pictured) was killed on July 22, 1995, by classmates Royce Casey, Jacob Delashmutt and Joseph Fiorella. She was stabbed more than a dozen times, choked, kicked and left bleeding in the woods in what prosecutors described as a sacrifice to the devil
Lisanne Pahler shared a photograph of a shrine containing her daughter’s belongings on Facebook in July 2025, the same month Delashmutt was released
Casey, who was also 17 at the time of the murder, had previously been granted parole twice, 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 that Casey would pose an “unreasonable danger to society” if released.
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The parole board approved Casey’s release again in March after he described how he delivered the blow that killed Elyse.
Casey also told the hearing that Elyse called out for Jesus and her mother as she was dying.
Police searched for Elyse for eight months. Despite several reported sightings, her remains were not discovered until Casey confessed to a priest that he had participated in the murder.
The pastor notified police, who located Elyse’s remains on March 15, 1996.
Prosecutors said Elyse was chosen because “she had blonde hair and blue eyes, and because she was a virgin”
Royce Casey (pictured as a teenager) told the parole board the three had been influenced by death metal, claiming the music taught them to channel anger through “suicide, murder, and sacrifice”
When he was arrested, Jacob Delashmutt (pictured as a teenager) blamed his friends and said they had recruited him. At his parole hearing, he called himself “the most responsible for the crime”
At the March hearing, Casey said he and his friends had been influenced by death metal, claiming the music taught them to channel their anger through “suicide, murder, and sacrifice.”
He also said David Pahler’s advocacy had helped him confront “all the pain and trauma” he had caused.
“Something that I remember hearing over time when Elyse’s dad has come, is that she has a face,” he told the board, referring to David’s practice of bringing a photograph of his daughter to parole 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. He was released to transitional housing in Los Angeles County in early August.
Fiorella, who was 15 when Elyse was killed, was denied parole in 2023.
He remains imprisoned despite claims that he is intellectually disabled and allegations that his attorney mishandled his defense in the 1990s. Fiorella will be eligible for another parole hearing in 2026.
At the trio’s 1997 trial, prosecutors argued that the teenagers had plotted the murder so they could “earn a ticket to hell.”
Doug Odom, chief investigator for the District Attorney’s Office, testified that they selected Elyse because “she had blonde hair and blue eyes, and because she was a virgin, she would be a perfect sacrifice for the devil.”
Lisanne and her husband David urged the parole board to keep Elyse’s killers behind bars until they showed remorse (Pictured: Elyse Pahler)
“My husband chewed out Casey and he finally showed remorse, so did Jacob,” Lisanne (pictured with David) told Daily Mail, adding that she believes “God will get them” despite their release
Elyse was the oldest of four sisters. She was remembered as an athlete, an excellent student and a teenager with close friendships at school. Her killers, by contrast, were described as marijuana users who listened to metal music and were considered “weird.”
The three belonged to a band called Hatred, which was modeled after the death metal group Slayer. They reportedly believed sacrificing Elyse would help them create better music.
Lisanne and David reported Elyse missing on July 23, 1995. On the night she died, the family had been watching television when the phone rang. Elyse answered, spoke briefly with Delashmutt and then went to bed.
Several hours later, Lisanne woke in the night with the feeling that something was wrong. When she checked on her daughter, she discovered that Elyse had left the house.
“I had this moment of gnarly separational grief. I said out loud, ‘Where’s Elyse?’” she recalled. “The words came out of my mouth, ‘She’s gone.’”
Lisanne believes Elyse was “misled under false pretenses” on the night of her death after being “brainwashed” by the trio.
She believes Elyse was targeted because of her beauty and apparent innocence, and suggested that one of the killers viewed her as a conquest.
“Joe picked her out, you know, but he could never have her,” she told Daily Mail.
“We knew she was introduced to pot a couple of years before [the murder]. But really, she was into her art, music. Elyse went out to go get marijuana, but [I think] she thought her girlfriend would be there.”
Joseph Fiorella (pictured as a teenager) was 15 when the murder occurred. He was denied parole in 2023 and will be eligible for another hearing in 2026
Fiorella (pictured in 2018) remains in prison amid claims that he is intellectually disabled and allegations that his lawyer mishandled his defense in the 1990s
In an episode of ID’s docuseries A Killer Among Friends, David described the trio’s unusual behavior on the night Elyse disappeared.
“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,” he said in the documentary.
“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.”
