Murder in the Graveyard: A Family Cult Tragedy

The 911 call was harrowing.

“I accidentally killed someone. Please!” the man said, his voice rising.

“Who?”

“My stepmom. My name is Ian Anselmo. Sue-Ellen Anselmo, she’s in the car with me. My dad is going to kill me. I guess I strangled her. I don’t remember doing it. I remember the argument.”

The call disintegrated quickly, with the 20-year-old howling and sobbing so pitifully that the dispatcher could not understand what he was saying, except that he was calling from a cemetery.

The graveyard had its own lurid past as the site of a murderous teen vampire cult initiation 20 years earlier, now it was a bloody crime scene, and would later become the site of the pregnant woman’s burial, more family violence, and the removal of her body.

The call was just the beginning. Investigators would discover a family cult stained with allegations of sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, brain-washing, and total patriarchal control.

It would end in an insanity defense, with Ian’s lawyer calling the family atmosphere “crazy,” and pitting psychiatrists and psychologists against each other, revealing questionable practices, motives and techniques by those experts.

Frank Stanfield, a 50-year newspaperman, covered the case from the beginning. It is one of the most twisted tales he has covered, including the vampire case, alligator attacks, murdered cops and countless “Florida man” stories.