The heat of the month of August was scorching, almost suffocating, especially for those walking near the banks of the Mokelumne River. In the midst of the bustle of bathers and walkers, a water biker spotted something in the distance that caught his attention: a large black bag. Faced with that strange discovery, the man decided to open the zipper. What he didn’t expect was to find a human torso inside.
Hours later, another duffel bag floated a mile away with a head inside. It was not the only discovery. When authorities began searching the area, they were able to recover up to nine more bags of human remains. It was a massacre at the hands of two brothers, the so-called Sons of Thunder, a sect whose twisted plan was to murder and dismember innocent victims to hasten the second coming of Jesus Christ. According to them, they had God’s approval.
Glenn Taylor and Justin Helzer, our protagonists, were born into a family of devout Mormons in Lansing (Michigan), although they were raised in Martínez, California, a small city in Contra Costa County, northeast of San Francisco. Glenn (1970), being two years older than Justin, has always exercised a kind of power over the youngest of the house. Glenn was the charming and sociable child, while Justin was the introverted and insecure one.
The competitiveness between them was abysmal and Glenn was always in charge of fueling it. “I’m number one and you’re number two,” she often told Justin. Therefore, he tried by all means to have his approval.
In this story, religion also plays a fundamental role in understanding the personal growth of the brothers, since one of the requirements is to go to a mission field for two years, and they did so. After graduation, Glenn went to Brazil and Justin to Texas. When they finished and returned to California, each one took a different career path: the oldest became a stock broker in San Francisco, while Justin worked as a cable installer.
As far as romantic relationships are concerned, Glenn had a girlfriend, Ann, whom he married in 1993 and had two girls. But three years later, he decided to “expand his life outside of the church,” the ex-wife explained. Apparently, the limits of religion did not allow him to experience “normal life” and he chose to leave. When he spoke of “normal life,” he was referring to drinking, smoking, taking drugs, and having sexual relations with other women, behavior for which the church ended up excommunicating him.
This new path and his way of facing life also confronted him with his own family, with whom he often argued over terms such as the existence of good and evil. For him, that was a “primitive belief system.” Little by little, Glenn began to act erratically and claim that he was a prophet serving God’s messages.
Only his brother Justin believed in Glenn wholeheartedly. In fact, the term Children of Thunder arose after participating in a “mystery dinner” organized by the Walnut Creek Mormon congregation, on May 30, 1999, and in which they met a woman, Dawn Godman. From here, Justin and Dawn began dating and succumbing to Glenn’s delusional ideas.
Among the plans of the elder Helzer were: to take over the Mormon Church, murdering its leaders if necessary, and defeat Satan by creating a state of “peace and joy,” which resulted in a kind of self-help group called Impact. America. But to carry it out they needed financing.
So Glenn developed a criminal plan where the creation of a subsidiary called Intimacy would provide them with the necessary income. As? Through drug trafficking, pimping and selling women to rich businessmen, also through the trafficking of girls, who would seduce married pedophiles whom they would later blackmail, and even the adoption of minors from Brazil to be trained as authentic hitmen. And all this with the sole purpose of taking over the leadership of the Mormon church.
“He believed that by doing that, he was fulfilling a Book of Mormon prophecy,” Dawn testified in court. Finally, the most practical solution was to extort money from one of Glenn’s former clients, a rich old man, who knew and trusted the killer enough to let him into his house and, weak enough, not to put up any resistance. .
The group formed by the brothers Helzer and Dawn was also joined by a fourth member, Selina Bishop, a 22-year-old girl, who became romantically excited about Glenn and who he used as a scapegoat to open bank accounts and collect the extortion checks. What Selina did not know is that, when her work was finished, she would also end up dead.
On July 30, 2000, the Sons of Thunder kidnapped Ivan and Annette Stineman, an elderly couple and former clients of Glenn, who were shackled, drugged with Rohypnol (the rape drug), and taken to Glenn’s house. and Justin, and forced them to issue checks for a total value of $100,000. When they already had the money, the young people began the second phase of the plan: executing them.
The Helzer brothers beat and slit the victims’ throats while Dawn watched in supposed terror. “I really couldn’t believe this was actually happening. The only thing I could do was pray that [the couple] died, so it would be over,” she said during the trial. The next day, they dismembered the bodies with an electric saw and, once the parts were put in bags, they prayed and thanked the sacrifice “for a greater cause.”
As for the money, Dawn deposited the checks into the account previously opened by Selina, alluding to an open heart operation for the young woman and making it clear that said money came from the Bishop grandparents. This was intended, in theory, to pay for the surgery and save her granddaughter’s life, and she, Dawn, was just doing them the favor of going to the bank.
The bank accepted the checks without any problems, but when Selina threatened Glenn with going to the police, the Sons of Thunder took her out. It was August 2nd. The young woman was beaten to death with a hammer in the Helzer house.
Next on the list was Jennifer Villarin, Selina’s mother, who Glenn also knew. She was the only person who could link him to the bank accounts and, therefore, who would expose him to the police. On August 4, Glenn stormed Jennifer’s home and shot the woman and her partner at point-blank range while they were sleeping.
That same day, the elders’ daughter reported the disappearance of her parents and their truck and, the next day, Selina’s colleagues also alerted the authorities. Simultaneously, a neighbor of the Helzer brothers witnessed how the boys dragged and loaded black canvas bags to a vehicle with a trailer with a jet ski. That seemed strange to him.
During the way to the river to weight the bags with all the bodies, traffic cameras captured the van where the Helzers were traveling. An irrefutable proof of his intentions. Two days later, the police located the elderly people’s vehicle: inside there was a chainsaw and an easel with blood and the brothers’ fingerprints.
Halfway through the day, Glenn called a professional carpet cleaner to remove the blood stains. However, the man was tricked into telling him that they had spilled several Kool-Aid drinks. This drink is red in color. Additionally, investigators into the Stineman disappearance searched the home and found a note from the man mentioning Glenn.
That clue led the agents to the Helzer brothers, who appeared on the security cameras in the places close to the disappearance and whose fingerprints were on the elderly people’s van. On August 7, several units proceeded to search the brothers’ house. When several drugs were found, Glenn, Justin and Dawn were arrested for possession, but as soon as they found Jennifer and her partner’s murder weapon, the charges changed. The trio was charged with murder.
While agents were searching for evidence in the house and vehicles of those involved, nine black bags appeared in the Mokelumne River with human remains. Thanks to dental records and DNA, it was confirmed that they belonged to the five missing people.
Before the trial, Dawn Godman reached a plea deal to testify against the Helzers and avoid the death penalty. In exchange, the woman received a sentence of 38 years to life in prison. For his part, Glenn surprised everyone by pleading guilty to the crimes and was sentenced to capital punishment. It was March 2004.
Regarding his brother Justin, he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but that did not exempt him from being sentenced to death. “I want to die,” the youngest of the Helzers even said during the reading of the verdict. “It’s the second coming of Manson, not Christ,” Jennifer’s sister snapped at the media gathered outside the courtroom.
In April 2013, Justin decided to take his own life and hang himself in prison after a failed attempt three years earlier. He had tried to mutilate his eyes with a pen. Currently, the prophet and leader of the Sons of Thunder remains on death row at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Center in San Diego, awaiting his execution. He remains unrepentant for the crimes.
