A coal town where hard-rock mining has given way to hard times, Pikeville is a place where most kids will do anything to escape. Like in April of 1997, when one Pikeville girl and her five fellow teenagers took a road trip to hell.
But one Pikeville teen found solace in pentagrams rather than the church. A bright but brooding girl with a history of mental illness, Natasha Cornett longed to leave Pikeville's poverty behind her.
Transported via MTV and her trailer television, Natasha became fascinated with the Goth subculture of bands like Tool, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson. She dabbled in the occult and dressed the part too, black clothes and blood-red nail polish.
Before long, Natasha's newfound sense of fashion attracted some followers. Their names were Crystal Sturgill, Karen Howell, Joe Risner , Dean Mullins and Jason Bryant.
As Natasha's miniature Goth movement gathered momentum, conservative and religious Pikeville was scandalized.
On
April 6, 1997, Natasha, Crystal, Karen, Joe, Dean and Jason decided they'd had enough of Pikeville. Packed into Joe's car, the plan was to head for New Orleans, home of Goth heroes like occult author Anne Rice and her fictional Vampire Lestat.
Unfortunately for Natasha and her friends, the road-trip would turn out to be a blood-soaked horror story in its own right.
The five teenagers were barely over the Kentucky line before they realised neither their car, nor their money, would hold out for the trip.
But at a rest stop off I-81, the Good Lord or maybe the Devil provided everything they needed. That's where the traveling teens fell in with the Lillelids, a family of Jehovah's Witnesses heading home from a conference.
When the Lillelids offered to help the troubled teens and share a little of the gospel, Jason pulled a gun and the Goth gang kidnapped the family of four and loaded them into the Lillelid's van.
A few minutes later, at the end of a long gravel road, the kids from Kentucky pulled the Jehovah's witnesses out of the van, shot them and left them for dead. When a local farmer stumbled upon the Lillelids less than an hour later, the parents were dead and the two children, barely hanging on for life. Only two-year-old Peter would survive the night.
The police found Joe's car abandoned at the sight of the murders and launched a nationwide search for the teenagers. The group, who bypassed New Orleans, were apprehended in Arizona as they attempted to cross into Mexico.
But in Pikeville, the horror had just begun. The trial, held over the Tennessee line in Greeneville, tore Pikeville apart with allegations of abusive and alcoholic parents.
And, in their testimony, the teenagers tore into one-another, seeking to pin the murders on Jason, the one they said pulled the trigger. But in the end, the jury sentenced every member of the group to life in prison for their roles in the Lillelid slaying.
That hasn't, however, ended the finger pointing in Pikeville. As the town tries to understand what drove their children to become killers, many look to the easy answers of Satanism and the occult. But the truth may be much closer to home. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I remember well this story it was shocking and tragic. What insanity could bring such a tragic killing of a family. Ruth
