Yahwehs suspected in more murders

In addition, detectives are investigating at least two out- of-state murders and are searching for two potential witnesses who have disappeared.

In numerous debriefings, former Yahweh disciple Robert Rozier, who is serving a 22-year sentence for four murders, has described other sect-ordered slayings not included in last month's 25-page federal indictment.

Federal authorities are seeking corroboration from other witnesses before filing charges, a law enforcement official said.

But investigators think Rozier is telling the truth. So far, police have not caught him in a lie and he has described details in other murders that only someone familiar with the killings would know.

A lead investigator, Metro-Dade police Sgt. Rex Remley, said he could only say: "We're looking at other cases, but at this time they're still under investigation."

Said Diane Cossin, spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office: "Because this is an ongoing investigation, I cannot elaborate about any additional charges."

Public records show Remley was recently investigating the 1986 stabbing murders of three frail, down-and-out men.

The trio of unsolved homicides resembles other alleged sect-ordered stabbings of "white devils" that occurred during the same year. Prosecutors have accused Yahweh "death angels" of randomly killing white victims to avenge perceived discrimination upon the orders of religious leader Yahweh Ben Yahweh. The Yahweh members allegedly drove through the Miami area at night, looking for vulnerable "white devils," prosecutors said.

The three victims not included in the indictment were white men who happened to be out on the streets late at night -- and could have been easily overpowered. In two cases, the murders happened just days before other slayings with which Yahweh members have been charged.

All three were stabbed repeatedly and left for dead.

Harold Maxwell Barnett was found dead in Northwest Dade, a knife in his back, on the morning of April 13, 1986.

The 70-year-old had been stabbed six times in the back and at least twice in the neck. He collapsed on the roadside at 7600 NW 27th Ave., a trailer park.

Described by Metro police as a "derelict," Barnett had lived at the trailer park until his trailer burned down. Then he had been sleeping "under existing structures," according to police.

Witnesses last saw him alive the night before, wearing gray pants and green shirt and drinking from a half-gallon bottle of vodka. He was heard moaning and muttering about 1 a.m.

He weighed 120 pounds and was five feet seven inches tall.

His body was found six days before Yahweh Ben Yahweh allegedly ordered the deaths of Glendell Fowler, 52, and Kurt Doerr, 44, who were found stabbed to death in their Coconut Grove apartment. The actual killer isn't charged in the indictment, but Rozier, by his own confession, is linked to the double homicide.

Two months later, at about 5:30 a.m. on June 6, 1986, a passerby found Carlos Alonso, 54, bleeding in the doorway of a building at Northeast First Avenue and Sixth Street. He had been sleeping. A black man was seen running away from the area.

Alonso had several stab wounds to his neck and shoulders. He died at Jackson Memorial Hospital soon after he arrived.

Police identified him as a drug abuser who lived on the streets. One of his few IDs: immigration number A 247923996. Alonso, who was 129 pounds and five feet seven inches tall, came to Miami in May 1980 during the Mariel boat lift.

No one claimed his body. He was buried at county expense.

Miami homicide detective Mike Osborn said police were never able to find a suspect. "There wasn't much to go on, to be honest," he said.

Osborn said no one suspected a Yahweh connection until Sgt. Remley asked for the records.

"They looked into it -- I don't know to what conclusion," he said.

But he added that Miami homicide detectives didn't suspect Fowler and Doerr were Yahweh-ordered murders, either. "That came as a surprise," he said.

The body of the third potential Yahweh victim not listed in the indictment was found at Pier No. 3, 2100 NW North River Dr., on the morning of Aug. 31, 1986.

A boat owner found Luis Llerena, 41, floating face down at the base of the pier. He had been stabbed 11 times in the upper torso and twice in the right arm. He appeared to have been dead for several days.

His blue jean pockets were empty except for 35 cents and a white handkerchief. His only identification was a tattoo depicting a casket with flowers, a cross and the date 10-6-59. Police later identified him by fingerprints on file in the Metro-Dade Police Department.

He was five feet five inches tall and 126 pounds.

Five days later, Yahweh allegedly ordered the death of a "white devil," according to the indictment. Disciple Carl Douglas Perry, 34, also known as Aher Israel, is accused of choosing a 22-year-old homeless man, Lyle Austin Bellinger.

Rozier said Perry told him that he had killed a white man wearing a Star of David T-shirt, using a two- to three-foot-long Samurai sword, prosecutor Trudy Novicki alleged. Miami police found Bellinger's body near the floodgate of the Little River Canal. He was wearing a Star of David T-shirt and suffered deep wounds, indicating the use of a sword, Novicki said.

Perry is also accused of three other Yahweh-related murders, and Miami police are investigating Rozier's allegations that his former friend told of raping and killing a woman in 1986 and leaving her body in a field near Interstate 395.

In this case, as well, investigators are trying to find corroborating witnesses. Yahweh did not order this murder, they addded.

The woman has been identified as Elizabeth Schwark, 46, who had journeyed from San Francisco to "find herself" in Miami.

A source said investigators also suspect Yahweh members may have committed at least two out-of-state murders.

One is a 6-year-old unsolved stabbing of a Newark, N.J., vagrant on the same block as a Yahweh temple.

Attillio Scalo was stabbed in the chest and stomach on July 3, 1984. He died at University Hospital in Newark. Witnesses saw two suspects, described only as black men about five feet nine inches tall, said Newark police detective Daniel Collins. "They were last seen fleeing on foot," he said.

Newark investigators said they didn't suspect a Yahweh connection until Metro-Dade homicide detectives began making inquiries.

However, Yahweh defector Lloyd Clark testified in a 1987 civil lawsuit that the Yahweh killer took him to "a big blood spot" on a Newark street and confessed to him, labeling the victim a sacrificial goat and white devil.

Sgt. Remley said he and other detectives have tried to find two other men who disappeared -- but who may have information about the Yahweh violence. "So far, nothing," he said.

One is a man who was beaten during a class taught by Yahweh on July 27, 1983. "A crowd of Yahweh followers surrounded an individual, grabbed him and severely beat him," according to the indictment.

A 300-pound Yahweh has disappeared, as well: Enoch Israel, born John Foster, who in 1981 allegedly helped to beat Yahweh dissident Aston Green -- and then beheaded him.