Three Alleged Members of German Medieval ‘Sex Circle’ Found Dead by Crossbow

Listen, there’s a lot going on in the world. The Democrats are gearing up for the election next year. Britney might not tour ever again. Aunt Becky’s probably going to jail. We may or may not be in the throws of a constitutional crisis. But in addition to all this, there’s one more thing you probably need to know about, and that is this group of German medieval sex cult members who are suspected of following through on a murder-suicide pact, using crossbows.

Our tale begins in the small town of Passau, in southeastern Germany, where a hotel employee doing her morning rounds opened the door to find three dead bodies, all of which had been impaled by crossbows. (While hunting with crossbows is apparently illegal in Germany, you don’t need a license to own one.) One of the deceased was a woman, who was found near a bed with a bolt in her neck; the other two, a man and a woman, had been shot in the heart, and died in a passionate embrace. The three were later identified as Torsten Weiss, 53; Kerstin Enders, 33, and Farina Caspari, 30. Weiss and Enders reportedly left wills on a bedside table; though authorities would not comment on the contents of the documents, they have said they believe the case was the result of a “requested killing and suicide”, suggesting that Caspari shot Weiss and Enders before taking her own life.

Things got even weirder five days later, when two more victims were found at Caspari’s apartment hundreds of miles away. A cause of death has not yet been revealed, though crossbows were not present at the scene. One of the victims was reportedly Caspari’s 35-year-old girlfriend; the other was a 19-year-old woman whose identity has not yet been confirmed.

Although police were initially stumped by the scene in the hotel, the BBC has since reported that the three people killed in the room were linked to the International Jousting League, a medieval jousting association. (A spokesperson for the IJL said the league was not aware of the three, and there were currently no competitive jousting tournaments in Germany.)

Weiss also reportedly owned a store in Hachenberg, Germany, which sold weapons and offered sword-fighting classes (though judging by photos of the store, which feature such sundry items as a sexy, blood-spattered mannequin, a Knights of Templar flag, and a guitar, Weiss may have been a little bit confused about the theme). German media outlets have since reported that Weiss may have been the leader of a medieval-themed “sex circle,” with a friend telling the German publication Bild that Weiss’s tone when talking to women was “strange.”

“They were almost submissive, I had the impression that they are hardly allowed to talk to me,” the friend, Alexander Kruger, said. “His tone was so harsh. Strikingly harsh. Not the way you talk to anyone. It was in short imperative sentences.” The investigation into the deaths is still ongoing, but in the meantime, we’re going to need a podcast about these folks, stat.