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Crime News Snapped

“Wiccan Witch” Uses "Ceremonial Dagger" to Perform “Human Sacrifice” on Man She Lured to Trail

Police said Angela Sanford listed her victim, Joel Leyva, as “sacrifice” in her phone contacts.

By Caitlin Schunn
Angela Sanford featured on Snapped Season 35 Episode 5.

When a man hiking on the Copper Trailhead outside Albuquerque, New Mexico stumbled upon a woman wearing only her underwear and socks and claiming she’d been raped, he immediately contacted police. But authorities investigating the case soon discovered the real story included murder and human sacrifice.

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After police responded to the man's call on March 22, 2010, they found 30-year-old Angela Sanford along with a group of hikers who had stopped to help her. She said her alleged attacker was further up the trail.

“Officers found a male laying kind of in the kneeling, praying position almost,” said Kevin Morant, former Albuquerque Police Detective, on Snapped, airing Sundays at 6/5c on Oxygen. “With his pants a little undone, and he was unresponsive … they rolled him over onto his back and that’s when they saw all the stab wounds.”

A knife was found on the ground near his body, described by Sanford to police as a “ceremonial dagger.”

“I found it to be rather fantastical,” prosecutor Jonathan Ibarra said on Snapped. “It looked like it had some Egyptian markings. More of a fantasy thing, more of the type of thing you would display.”

The man was identified by his driver’s license as 52-year-old Joel Leyva. But from the beginning, police questioned if Leyva was killed in self-defense.

“Her story was confusing,” Darren White, former Albuquerque Public Safety Director, said on Snapped. “The whole thing was bizarre … there is what appears to be almost overkill. That doesn’t fit an act of self-defense.”

What did Angela Sanford claim happened when she was hiking with Joel Leyva?

When police first interviewed Angela Sanford, she claimed she knew Joel Leyva and was not randomly attacked. She told police the two had met at a local casino a few days previously, and she’d invited him to go on a hike with her. She was a follower of Wicca, a pagan religion, and claimed she asked him to help her celebrate a holiday known as Beltane.

Friends told police Sanford’s interest in Wicca began when she was 19 years old.

“She would post about vampires and dark beings,” therapist Anjoli Reed said of Sanford’s social media on Snapped. “She also was very interested in serial killers and the notoriety that they would gain from their crimes.”

As they were hiking, Sanford alleged to police that Leyva tried to rape her.

​"She had a ceremonial rope around her waist that she said he removed and tried to tie her hands with behind her back,” Morant said. “She said that she grabs the dagger and as an effort to get away, stabbed him about three or four times, and then ran.”

Angela Sanford featured on Snapped Season 35 Episode 5.

What evidence at the scene made police question if Joel Leyva was murdered?

After an autopsy was performed on Joel Leyva, it was immediately clear that Angela Sanford was lying about what happened while hiking.

“She said she had stabbed him about three times, then run away,” Ibarra said. “And he was stabbed well over 20 times.”

A sexual assault examination was also performed on Sanford at a hospital after the alleged attack.

“They did not find evidence that there was sexual intercourse,” White said. “And they did not find anything that they believed would be consistent with sexual violence.”

The examination showed she was most likely not attacked at all, police said.

“No evidence of defensive marks. Bruising. Or scrapes or anything other than some mild abrasions on her knees,” Morant said.

More evidence at the scene of the alleged attack made police question what happened. Witnesses told police they’d helped Angela find her clothes and discovered them neatly folded in a pile.

“The fact that her clothes were nicely folded instead of just thrown off like you would think would have happened in something like a rape — that didn’t make sense,” Ibarra said.

Joel Leyva featured on Snapped Season 35 Episode 5.

 

Why do police believe Angela Sanford killed Joel Leyva?

More elements of Angela Sanford’s story didn’t check out with police. Officers learned that the Beltane holiday usually occurs in May, not March, when Leyva’s death occurred. Sanford’s phone records also showed she was the first to contact him. His contact information in her phone also concerned police.

“She didn’t list him as ‘Joel Leyva’ or just ‘Joel.’ She listed him as ‘Sacrifice.’ All kinds of bells went off at that point,” Morant said. “The fact that she lured him to a spot where nobody could see them, [it] all led me to believe that she had intentionally planned this out to kill Joel as part of her so-called Wiccan celebration.”

On March 24, 2010, Angela Sanford was arrested and charged with Joel Leyva’s murder. She eventually pled guilty to his murder.

“She doesn’t give a statement,” White said. “The information that we have is she felt like she had to sacrifice somebody. And regrettably, that person was Mr. Leyva.”

In December 2011, a judge sentenced her to 20 years in prison.

“This was somebody who lured somebody to this location to complete a human sacrifice … that’s chilling to the bone,” White said.

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