‘Deadly Cults’ starts with Eustis vampire murders
“Deadly Cults,” a four-part documentary series, starts with a vampire group that killed a member’s parents in Lake County in 1996.
The series, which debuts at 8 p.m. Sunday on Oxygen, explores the inner workings of the cult led by Rod Ferrell.
Ferrell, a former Eustis High School student, is serving life without parole in the murders of Richard Wendorf and Ruth Queen of Eustis. Ferrell was friends with the couple’s daughter Heather, who was 15 at the time of the murders.
Ferrell and three other cult members picked up Heather, stole the parents’ car and set off for Louisiana, where they were captured three days later.
Four members in the vampire cult were convicted but Heather was never tried in her parents’ murders.
Howard Scott Anderson, who received life in the case, expresses his remorse on “Deadly Cults.” His sentence was reduced to 40 years, and he will be released in 2032.
The program also features Frank Stanfield, who covered the trial for the Orlando Sentinel. He wrote the book “Vampires, Gators and Wackos” about his newspaper career.
“What responsibility does Heather have in the deaths of her parents?” Stanfield asks.
He recalls that veteran detectives were appalled by the bloodbath in the home.
It is a program for mature viewers: The documentary mixes photos of the crime scene with a re-enactment of the murders. Anderson explains how the murders unfolded and gives his theory of what happened.
The program explores Ferrell’s start in the cult and his mesmeric personality, which he used on others who were from dysfunctional families. The sensational case has been followed by TV series such as “Dateline NBC,” “America’s Most Wanted” and “Unsolved Mysteries.” Stanfield weighed in on the case in 2014 for Investigation Discovery’s “Handsome Devils” for an episode called “Blood Lust.”
The other episodes of “Deadly Cults” will focus on groups in Kirtland, Ohio; outside Rulo, Neb.; and along the Mexican border near Brownsville, Texas.