On 14 March 1989, Mark James Kilroy, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, was abducted while on vacation in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, during spring break. He was forcefully taken to a ranch where he endured hours of torture and sexual assault before being brutally murdered in a ritualistic human sacrifice. Kilroy's life was tragically ended by a machete blow, followed by the removal and boiling of his brain in a pot.

To further desecrate his body, his abductors inserted a wire through his spinal column, amputated his legs at the knees, and buried him alongside 14 other victims who had met the same fate at the ranch. Adolfo Constanzo, the cult's leader, convinced his followers that human sacrifice would shield them from law enforcement scrutiny regarding their drug smuggling activities. This heinous crime garnered significant global media attention and triggered an international manhunt due to its exceptionally disturbing nature.

After the discovery of the bodies on 11 April 1989, Constanzo escaped to Mexico City but was eventually located. As his apartment complex was surrounded by the police, Constanzo met his demise by instructing one of the cult members to shoot him with a machine gun. At the scene, Sara Aldrete, another prominent member of the cult, was apprehended along with several others. In 1993, the cult members were convicted of various charges, including capital murder and drug trafficking.