Bizarre Murder Mysteries- The Fifth Case

The mysterious murder of Arlis Perry.

On the night of October 12, 1974, in Palo Alto, a 19-year-old Arlis Perry, who got married to Bruce Perry, whom she had met in high school, was murdered. Bruce was a sophomore at Stanford and Arlis was a receptionist.

Bruce said to the police that, that night they had argued, and then Arlis left, saying that she wanted to pray alone at Stanford Memorial Church. When she did not return home until it was very late, the in the middle of the night, a worried Bruce called the police to report that Arlis did not come home and informed them where she was. Then they checked that the church was locked, and everything looked fine. A few hours later, a security guard entered the church and found Arlis on the floor, not far from the altar.

When she was found, she was lying on her back. A 5-inch-long icepick was jutting from her head. It was clear that she had been strangled. A large candle was lying on her chest. She was nude from the waist down and a second candle had been inserted in her vagina.

Of all the people who went in and out of the church that night, one was never identified and the resemblance between that unknown man and a strange visitor to Arlis's workplace on 11th October was significant. Bruce Perry was quickly ruled out of suspicion.

While no less than Son of Sam serial killer David Berkowitz claimed some kind of knowledge of the case, investigators concluded he had no involvement.

Theories that have over the time being made frequently by people included some kind of satanic ritual, which in this case sounds very much logical. Another theory which says that a religious group with significant links to Charles Manson was also very much prevalent. But no one clearly knows what really happened that night, except that it was the stuff we see often in horror films.

Do you really think that there was some kind of dark magic being performed? Or was it all planned by some human being?