The Twisted Downfall of Brandon Tholmer

To his friends and family in the small Missouri town of DeSoto, Brandon Tholmer seemed like a typical teenage boy. The friendly, freckle-faced 18-year-old loved playing video games and generally came across as a good, if occasionally naïve kid. But behind that innocuous facade lurked something much darker that would eventually reveal itself in shocking fashion.

Brandon's double life began taking shape in the summer of 2002 when he developed a morbid fascination with Satanism and other occult practices. He began spending hours alone in his bedroom researching dark subjects online - everything from how to summon demons to detailing grotesque acts of violence and murder. What started as a disturbing exploration into fringe subcultures rapidly metastasized into something far more dangerous.

By early 2003, Brandon had fully descended down a rabbit hole of depravity and delusion. He convinced himself he was destined to become a "god" by carrying out human sacrifices through ritual murders. The teenager's online activities shifted from simply researching Satanism to actively plotting and preparing to take lives as a self-professed "discard" for these beliefs. Over many months, he methodically gathered an arsenal for his diabolical plans - machetes, combat knives, razor blades and even bomb-making materials.

Brandon's decisive descent into madness finally manifested in February 2003 when he lured his first two intended victims - a young mother named Eliza Mitrovic and her 7-year-old daughter. Under the pretense of Eliza helping him babysit, Brandon managed to get them both inside his home. Once there, he ambushed Eliza with a knife in a sickening act of savagery, stabbing and slashing her over 60 times until she bled to death.

After ensuring Eliza was dead, Brandon turned his blade toward the woman's daughter. But in a moment of merciful divine intervention, the girl managed to escape the bloody scene and find help from a neighbor. Tholmer himself then fled in a panic, kicking off a massive multi-state manhunt.

As law enforcement began piecing together the butchery inside Brandon's home, a harrowing portrait of his disturbed mindset emerged. They uncovered notes in which he had scrawled phrases about "becoming a god" and pleasing dark spiritual forces through brutal slayings. Some of the entries even suggested he may have been planning a larger-scale attack at his former middle school as a final blasphemous act.

After over a month on the run, Tholmer's rampage finally concluded in late March when he was captured in Oklahoma City. He had been living out of his car while preparing for another killing spree before being apprehended without incident. In custody, Brandon fully admitted to murdering Eliza while claiming the little girl's escape was an "act of God" that spared her life.

At his trial later that year, the defense attempted to portray Tholmer as a deeply troubled young man struggling with mental illness, arguing he should not face the death penalty. While there was no disputing his fascination with the occult had warped into something pathological, prosecutors pushed back hard. They presented a decidedly more calculated depiction - that of a cruel, remorseless killer fully aware of his actions who embraced evil and rejected all morality.

In the end, the judge agreed with the latter argument and condemned Brandon Tholmer to execution for his sickening crimes against the Mitrovich victims. He was put to death by lethal injection in October 2014 at just 29 years old. When asked for any final words, the unrepentant killer simply stared back defiantly until the drugs took their effect.

After his death, a few haunting additional details about the extent of Brandon Tholmer's conduct emerged. A forensics review confirmed he had been researching how to carry out larger-scale attacks similar to major events like the Columbine massacre at his former middle school. Some who knew Brandon also reported he was a practitioner of self-mutilation - cutting himself as sacrifices to the "gods" of his delusions.

While he didn't live to act out those grander sick ambitions, Tholmer's lone realized act of depravity - the brutal murder of Eliza Mitrovich - proved more than enough to solidify his legacy as one of true evil personified. A supposedly ordinary teenager who descended into a realm of such twisted sickness, all for the pursuit of what he saw as divine anointment through ritualistic violence. The accused Missouri "Satan God" may have departed this earth, but the bone-chilling memory of his depraved fall from grace remains forever seared into the mind of anyone exposed to his unfathomable crimes.