A church custodian is murdered in the dead of night, his mutilated corpse, bearing vicious stab wounds to his head and side mimicking those of Jesus Christ on the cross, is left in front of the altar. On the ground, in the victim's blood, is written the word 'Satun'.
The slaying on Halloween of 53-year-old Charles Jacobs, janitor at the Mormon church in the quiet, church-going town of Paarl, east of Cape Town, is the latest in a long string of murders that reflect an obsession with satanism which goes back deep into South Africa's apartheid past.
Jacobs' murder, inevitably dubbed the 'crucifixion killing', was probably just a botched burglary, police say, but to relatives in the town it was the work of the devil.
His brother, Ivor, who found the body, describes the scene at the church as 'a place filled with evil. We saw a dark spot on the floor. The word 'Satun' was written in my brother's blood.'
In murder-blase South Africa the killing's satanic overtones made it exceptional. Official police denials of any occult link and that descriptions of Jacobs' injuries are wildly exaggerated have been drowned out. To the police, the 'crucifixion' was nothing more than a clumsy attempt to disguise the motives for the killing, as well as an anguished interpretation of the murder scene by relatives.
Two men have already been arrested, a defrocked priest whom Mormon elders fired after they discovered he had lied about being ordained, and an unemployed man.