A 24 year-old Mexican youth named Edwin Juarez Palma was murdered during an initiation ceremony to become a member of a satanic cult known as Sons of Baphomet 1.

The Express is reporting on the tragic story of young Palma, who was said to have had an interest in vampirism, and who was strangled, beaten and slashed in the neck with a broken bottle in the restroom of a café owned by one of the perpetrators.

Known as Piwa to his friends, police say Palma’s body was found abandoned in the street and wrapped inside two plastic bags in a way detectives believe was meant to pass off the murder as a drug-related crime.

However, further investigation turned up even more sinister motives.

Police discovered through a protected witness that although Palma thought he was being initiated into the cult, one of the alleged killers persuaded the others to offer him as a sacrifice to Satan so that he could return to life as a vampire. His hands were then tied behind his back and the group proceeded to beat, slash and strangle him. They attempted to clean up the scene with bleach, then dumped the body in the streets.

Police later found traces of Palma’s blood in the café which led to the arrest of Gustavo Dorantes, 18, and the café owner, Omar Sanchez, 25. An 18 year-old girl named Iveth Lopez is also being held.

Lopez was using the fake name Eleanor Malina on Facebook and described herself as being a police officer in training. Her cover photo was a heart inscribed with the message, “In a relationship with Satan”. Another cover photo featured a modified version of The Last Supper with the twelve disciples covered in blood and a satanic-like figure in Jesus’ place who is depicted as standing over the Lord’s corpse on a table.

A fourth person, described as the leader of the sect, is still at large.

The name Baphomet is used by some Satanic cults and refers to a goat-headed creature often associated with Satanism and the occult.