From ENN EMERGENCY SERVICES REPORT--Thursday, March 27, 1997--Vol. 1 - 086
MASS SUICIDE NEAR SAN DIEGO ...
By Paul Anderson, ENN
Correspondent
RANCHO SANTA FE, CALIFORNIA (ENN) - In what appears to be the nation's biggest mass suicide this century, 39 men and women were found dead inside a million-dollar mansion near San Diego on Wednesday night. All of the victims were found lying in apparent peace on their backs, arms at their sides, each covered across the face and chest with a triangular shroud of purple cloth.
When they were alive, they dressed in black, wore their hair in buzz cuts and lived in a very clean mansion that was stocked with computers used to create internet world wide web sites for businesses.
A San Diego County Sheriff's Department commander said that there were no gunshot wounds and no knife wounds on any of the dead subjects. There also has been no sign of a poison found, either.
The residence was said to be a home and the site of a thriving business that designed Web pages for businesses. The company was called Higher Source. Some of its customers said that the occupants of the home did seem to be cultlike and clannish, but businesslike and proficient.
One client of Higher Source said that the people did have a strange look to them, but really did a good job with his account. He said that most of the people answered to an older man known as "Father John" and that a "Brother Logan" seemed to be the second in command.
A check of the Higher Source WWW site showed very good design work with pictures of stars and nebulae, but was mostly very straightforward and businesslike, touting the abilities of the company and a list of satisfied customers.
Police learned of the situation at the mansion after a pair of anonymous phone calls -- one to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and another to the Beverly Hills Police Department. Both calls suggested that officers check the house, which is located 20 miles north of the city of San Diego.
A sheriff's deputy arrived on the scene and went in an open door and immediately found ten bodies in a room. The smell from the decomposing bodies was said to be so bad that, at first, officers thought that it might be a poison gas. But it was only the smell of death that indicated that the people had been dead for some time.
Police investigators said there were no marks on the bodies and no suicide notes, but a videotape was found later. The bodies were said to be lying on cots and bunks throughout the house, each with a 3-foot triangular purple cloth lying over the face and chest, with the single point of the triangle facing downward.
Investigators are really left with a mystery on their hands. It is known that the house was being rented and it was for sale on the market. It has 9-bedrooms and 7-bathrooms and sits on a little more than 3 acres.
A later examination of the found videotape, and the only explanation of this bizarre and sad incident so far, indicated only that the group thought it was time to "shed their shells" and move on.
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