Jason Alan Thornburg was sentenced to death -Credit:AP
(AP)
Serial killer Jason Alan Thornburg slaughtered and dismembered three victims during a seven-day, Bible-driven rampage at a Fort Worth, Texas motel.
The 45-year-old apprentice electrician and former street preacher carried out the killings as a “human sacrifice” to God, claiming to possess a unique, “in-depth” understanding of the Bible.
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He further confessed to cannabilizing body parts, including a portion of one victim’s heart, and to mutilating another victim’s genitals.
Thornburg lured his victims – 42-year-old David Lueras, 34-year-old Lauren Phillips and 33-year-old Maricruz Mathis – to the Mid City Inn in the suburb of Euless where he lived, before brutally killing them, dismembering their bodies and ritually consuming pieces of their flesh.
He also confessed to engaging in sexual acts with Phillips’ lifeless body in the motel bathtub and concealing the body parts in garbage bags underneath the bed, reports the Daily Star.
The cannibal preacher felt he’d made a sacrifice to God -Credit:Forth Worth Police
Thornburg was caught after police discovered a burning dumpster containing the dismembered remains near the inn.
Surveillance footage captured Thornburg disposing of the bodies, igniting the fire and fleeing in a Jeep Grand Cherokee.
The cold-blooded killer was arrested shortly thereafter and was already on law enforcement’s radar from a prior suspicious death investigation.
In May 2021, the body of Thornburg’s former roommate, 61-year-old Mark Jewell, was recovered following a house fire caused by a gas explosion.
The inn where the murders happened -Credit:Google Maps
Authorities initially couldn’t determine a cause of death, but Thornburg subsequently admitted to slitting Jewell’s throat before removing the cap from the house’s gas line and lighting a candle to erase evidence.
He also admitted to “sacrificing” his ex-girlfriend, 37-year-old Tanya Begay, who vanished during a road trip to Arizona with Thornburg in 2017. Her remains have never been recovered.
During trial, Thornburg’s defense entered an insanity plea, arguing he was “doomed in the womb” and experienced partial fetal alcohol syndrome resulting from his mother’s drinking and drug abuse.
The defense also highlighted a moderate traumatic brain injury sustained from a 2002 assault, which allegedly caused “voices” in his head.
The scorch marks on the sidewalk -Credit:CBS Texas
“He believed the sacrifices were corrected,” the defense argued, “It’s bizarre, but that’s what he believed.”
However, prosecutors determined he was competent to stand trial and, at sentencing, declared: “He is a psychopath. He is evil.
“We want to believe we live in a world where the Bible is not a weapon, where your vulnerabilities don’t make you prey to a serial killer,” prosecutors added. “But so long as we live in a world with Jason Thornburg, said evil will exist.”
In 2024, Thornburg was unanimously convicted for the murders of Lueras, Phillips and Mathis and was sentenced to death by lethal injection by the state of Texas.