Arrest Made in Satanic Killing of 13-Year-Old Girl

APBNews.com, July 23, 1999
By Todd Venezia

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (APBNews.com) -- A fugitive who allegedly helped strangle a 13-year-old girl in a 1998 satanic ritual has been found hiding out in Alabama, police said.

Dennis Ronald Scott, who is among three people accused of killing Shevawn Geoghegan in a deserted mental institution in February last year, was found after a television report inspired a flood of tips to Santa Monica police.

"The tips came in after the show [America's Most Wanted] last weekend," said Lt. Gary Gallinot of the Santa Monica Police Department. "They told us that he was in Birmingham, Ala., and we contacted police there."

Birmingham police found the 24-year-old Tuesday, hanging out near a fountain in a section of town known as Five Points South, a popular spot with youth who are into alternative culture. Police said Scott had been hard to capture because he lived under numerous aliases, including the name of a dead friend, Jimmy Ronald Turner.

Victim strangled with belt

Scott is being held on a murder warrant issued in California. Gallinot said that he had waived extradition but that the details of the transfer to the West Coast are still being worked out.

The body of 13-year-old Geoghegan was found Feb. 26 wrapped in a blanket in the basement of a vacant mental hospital that police said was frequented by teens who were into their own brand of satanic worship. She had been strangled with a belt.

Geoghegan was a friend of the three suspects and voluntarily went to the hospital on the night of her slaying. Detectives found dead animals and satanic symbols near the scene of the crime, police said.

The other two suspects in the killing have already been caught by police and brought to trial. Glen Mason, 23, was convicted last week of murder, and Elizabeth Ann Mangham, 17, pleaded no contest to manslaughter charges just this week.