Premeditated Wiccan Sacrifice? (Wild Hunt Blog)

[icymist]

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While the local Albuquerque Pagan community say that Sanford was all but unknown to them, and have been working to educate the local police about Pagan faiths, this will surely prompt a new firestorm of sensationalist press, and opportunistic editorials from folks like Chuck Colson wanting to prove that polytheistic faiths are inherently, violently, sacrifice-oriented. You can also bet the network of “occult experts” who talk to law enforcement officials will be having a field day with this.

The important thing right now is to let the legal process move forward, assist law enforcement when they ask for information, and not rise to the temptation of engaging in any public speculation to the press as to why this murder was committed. We don’t know Sanford’s mental state, we aren’t sure what she actually believes, if she believes in anything at all, and we have no idea what actually transpired on the day of the killing.

What we can do if the press comes calling is to state that no modern Pagan faith teaches or condones premeditated or ritual murder, that we have no information as to what Sanford’s belief system was, and we aren’t willing to offer conjecture as to why she felt the need, if true, to “sacrifice” Joel Leyva. Anything else will simply muddy the waters and provide ammunition for those wanting to turn this into a “Wiccan killing”.
http://wildhunt.org/blog/2010/04/premeditated-wiccan-sacrifice.html