Number 7 Victor Mateo
On October the 3rd of 2019, New York pastor Victor Mateo, aged 63, positioned his car outside the
home of his estranged wife in the Throgs Neck neighborhood of the Bronx. When the woman,
named as 58-year-old Noelia, emerged to take her grandson and granddaughter to school,
Victor drove at her with his vehicle. He sideswiped Noelia, who was then able to crawl
underneath her own car, and Victor unsuccessfully tried pulling her out by her legs. The man,
who at the time was a pastor at the Christian Congregation The Redeemer Church, then got into
Noelia’s car and ran her over several times. The victim was subsequently able to crawl
to a sidewalk but Victor retrieved a machete from his car and started hacking her with it.
He then fled in Noelia’s car. A few neighbors had seen the attack but were too afraid to intervene
and try to stop the machete-wielding pastor. They alerted the authorities and did what
they could for Noelia, who’d been left bleeding profusely, until paramedics arrived at the scene.
Witnesses reported that she’d started praying on the ground before being taken to a local hospital,
where she later passed away. Roughly a week after the savage attack, Victor was taken into custody
in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, following a joint investigation conducted by the
Pennsylvania State Police, the NYPD, and the U.S. Marshals Service. He took a plea deal and,
in November of 2020, admitted culpability to one count of first-degree manslaughter. He
was consequently sentenced by the Bronx Supreme Court to 23 years in a New York State prison.
Number 6 David Jones Michigan law enforcement encountered David Jones,
on October the 6th of 2021, as he was allegedly inebriated in his car at a gas station off I-75,
in Arenac County. Deputies had been called to the scene following reports that a Jeep Compass
was idling at one of the pumps. They tried talking to Jones, who at the time was a pastor at Hilton
Oaks Baptist Church in Ferndale, but he sped off. The man drove his car across the roadway and
then rammed it into the building of a second gas station. Deputies followed him to the lot in their
patrol SUV but, after impacting the building, the pastor turned his Jeep towards them and
accelerated. He collided head-on with the police car as it sat on the edge of the parking lot
and while both deputies were still inside. Fortunately, much like Jones, neither of
them was seriously injured. They got out, smashed the Jeep’s windows and pulled the pastor from it.
He refused to submit to a breathalyzer test and a police spokesperson would later comment on
his interaction with the deputies, claiming that he’d refused “any direction from start to finish”.
A few weeks after his arrest, a judge ordered that Jones undergo a psychiatric evaluation
to determine if he was fit for further court proceedings. The pastor had a lengthy
criminal record that included 8 DUIs and an armed robbery conviction in the mid-1990s.
The charges associated with his latest offense included two counts of attempted murder,
punishable by up to life in prison. Number 5 Edwards Family
By the fall of 2020, the federal investigation into the ASLAN International Ministry, operated
by Evan Edwards and his family, had begun to gain momentum. The faith-based charity’s stated mission
was to “communicate Christian love in doctrine and service to the poor.” In the pandemic’s wake, the
Florida-based organization had applied for Covid relief and reportedly received over $8 million.
Evan’s 30-year-old son, Josh, had falsely filed paperwork claiming that ASLAN had 486 employees
and a monthly payroll of $2.7 million. The latter aspect starkly contradicted its monthly income,
which was only a few thousand dollars, based on documents associated with charity fillings.
An investigation would reveal several other alarming aspects, including the fact that the
accountant who’s supposedly approved the loan was a dementia sufferer who hadn’t
worked for the ministry since 2017. Federal agents visited ASLAN’s Orlando headquarters
and neighboring businesses told them they hadn’t seen any employees on the premises.
Additionally, the relief money had come into an account that previously had a balance of only
$25 and was then distributed to accounts under the name of Evan, his wife Mary Jane as well as
their 36-year-old daughter, Joy, and Josh. Then, on the evening of September the 17th of 2020,
the highway patrol stopped their Mercedes SUV, in which all four family members were present
at the time, for speeding on I-75 north of Gainesville. Evan told the police they were
heading to a conference in Texas but was unable to provide any further details. Federal agents,
who’d been looking to speak to the family, arrived at the scene and searched the vehicle. They found
two clear trash bags full of shredded documents, suitcases with financial records, a shredder,
a laser printer and multiple backpacks containing USBs and external hard drives.
The family’s personal electronic devices had been placed in a Faraday bag, which blocks radio
frequencies and prevents tracking. In spite of all the damning evidence, as of July 2022,
no charges were brought against the family. Number 4 Richard Shahan
On July the 23rd of 2013, the lifeless body of Karen Shahan was found at her
residence in Homewood, Alabama, and the police determined that she’d been stabbed to death,
noting that she exhibited multiple small defensive wounds. Her husband, Richard, was the Children and
Families Pastor and the Facilities Director at the First Baptist Church of Birmingham. As the
homicide investigation progressed the 53-year-old became a person of interest in her killing. He’d
claimed to have been visiting his son in Kentucky at the time but inconsistencies were reported
in his story. He was arrested in August but released after a few days, without being charged,
at which point he took paid administrative leave from his position. Shahan resigned
on December the 31st but was arrested again, on New Year’s Day 2014, at Nashville International
Airport as he was attempting to board a plane to Germany. The authorities were worried that
he was trying to flee from Germany to Russia, with which the US has no extradition agreement.
According to statements from Shahan himself and the information from a long string of emails,
he’d been having affairs with multiple men both in Nashville and in Europe. The emails indicated that
he’d intended to marry his boyfriend and never return to the US. His legal team, however, argued
that the man’s departure was known to his church and that he was taking a new position abroad,
not fleeing from justice. Emails written by Karen to a friend indicated that she’d become aware
of her husband’s extramarital affairs and suggested she’d asked him to choose between
them and their marriage. Shahan’s communication with one of his paramours indicated that he’d
often pondered and prayed for his wife’s death. The case against him seemed solid but, in 2017,
prosecutors dropped it without prejudice, meaning the former pastor could be recharged at a later
date if more damning evidence was to emerge. Number 3 Hennie Chabalala
28-year-old Hennie Chabalala, a pastor from South Africa’s Limpopo Province, left the village of
Siyandhani, on April the 5th of 2019, accompanied by friend, neighbor and church follower Godfrey
Pulasi as well as two other companions. They were reportedly heading to Maputo,
in Mozambique, to perform rituals for the church. The trip was performed on foot and, at some point,
Chabalala and Pulasi decided to turn back while their companions continued onwards. Pulasi
wasn’t seen again and his body was also missing. Chabalala was arrested for trespassing at Kruger
National Park the following day and he was found to be in possession of Pulasi’s identity document
and cellphone, which he’d used several times. He was charged with murder but the case was ongoing,
as of September of 2019, with its difficulty exacerbated by the lack of a body. Chabalala
had had other run-ins with the law. A few months after Pulasi’s disappearance, he pleaded guilty
to a previous motor vehicle theft, for which he was given a five-year jail sentence, suspended
for five years. In August of 2017, he was arrested during a live radio interview at Giyani Community
Radio Station. On his Facebook page, Chabalala had accused a fellow villager of witchcraft,
claiming God had told him she’d bewitched her daughter, who’d recently passed away.
He reportedly envisioned her being kept as “a zombie in a secret room” but then withdrew
the prophecy amidst outrage in the village and ultimately avoided being legally punished for it.
Number 2 Matthew Dedmon
On May the 28th of 2022, a Missouri pastor gunned down a man he believed was having an
affair with his wife. 57-year-old Joe Newburn was shot multiple times, in broad daylight,
on a roadway in Ozark, by Matthew Dedmon. The latter, a pastor at Heritage Baptist Church
in Rogersville, had been suspecting his wife of infidelity. He’d driven to the scene in his truck,
with the intention of confronting her, and saw the woman having lunch with Newburn at a restaurant
close to the town’s courthouse. 47-year-old Dedmon waited until the pair got into a car together
then exited his own, armed with a handgun. He approached Newburn, who’d remained in his vehicle,
and shot him three times in the chest. The man died in a local hospital, about an hour later,
while Dedmon was arrested and held without bond on a charge of first-degree murder.
Number 1 Shannon Coutouzis A Texas church pastor was arrested in August
of 2019 following allegations that she’d had indecent contact with a minor. 29-year-old Shannon
Coutouzis had been indicted by a Fort Bend County grand jury since July of that same year while the
incident itself had taken place on November the 13th of 2018. She’d had access to the victim,
only identified as a male teenager from Richmond, through her capacity as a coach and youth
minister. Coutouzis had allegedly taken advantage of the position to have intimate relations with
him. In the scandal’s aftermath, Coutouzis was released on $25,000 bond and ordered to
surrender her passport as well as to maintain a 500 feet distance from the victim’s home.
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