Calls flooded the Fulton Police Department and the Callaway County Sheriff’s office from concerned parents. Some of their children had claimed to have seen men watching them from tree limbs. Some of these men had shaved heads and wore black robes. A rumor had been going around that a Satanic cult was planning to kidnap children on Halloween while they were out trick-or-treating. The law enforcement agencies assured the public that they were investigating the rumors.

The public was already familiar with the dangers such cults posed. Like the rest of the country, Fulton residents watched Geraldo Rivera’s prime time report on these organizations that previous October. Locals had a special interest in the program as part of it was filmed in their town. Rivera had traveled to Fulton to interview a young man in the corrections facility who had murdered a classmate. He claimed the murder was conducted in the name of Satan.

In town, teenager Michelle Boffa had went home after attending a high school football game. She had a surprise waiting for her. On the front porch there lay a single black rose. Another girl across town discovered the same thing. These two girls had something in common: they both had blonde hair and blue eyes. They had been chosen.

When Halloween came, law enforcement increased their patrols. They had received an anonymous phone call that claimed a ritual was going to be held in the Millersburg area. In town, a patrol car came across a group wearing black robes in a local cemetery. They turned out to be a group of sorority girls who left quietly when asked.

These girls were lucky because if someone else had spotted them, they may not have been able to leave so peacefully. Like a scene from the Wild West, young men formed posses to protect potential victims and hopefully to catch the cult members. These young men armed themselves with baseball bats, knives, and even the occasional gun. While some of them felt a genuine need to protect their communities, others tagged along as if they just wanted an excuse to beat someone up. Throughout the night, car loads of these young men drove around the county making stops at places rumored or suspected of being spots Satanists would hold their ceremony.

They made frequent stops at a couple of claypits. They also drove around neighborhoods in town to watch for attempted kidnappings where kids were trick-or-treating. They kept a careful eye on any vans that they saw. White vans attracted special attention and were followed. But if these self-styled vigilantes had driven to the city of Columbia and pulled into the parking lot of a television studio, they would have finally found the white van that they were looking for.

Fulton police officer Roger Rice reported to the Fulton Sun that the white van at the homecoming game that was rumored to hold devil worshippers was actually a television news crew recording footage for the evening news.

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