Slaughter of the Innocents (film)

In Timberlake, Utah, two girls are murdered by a hooded figure. Five years later, Stephen Broderick is a Cleveland FBI whose gifted 10-year-old son Jesse takes an interest in his work. Jesse notices similarities between the Utah case and a new one. In both cases, the victim's mothers saw what looked like an old lady wearing a black dress picking something on the side of the road and putting it into a basket. Broderick goes to Draper Penitentiary to meet the man sentenced to death for the Provo Canyon massacre, Bobby Martel. Broderick is greeted by FBI Agent Roxanne Lemar. While footprints confirm that Martel was near the crime scene, they ask to recheck a pubic hair that was found directly on the corpse, using new technology that was not previously available. However, the warden refuses to delay the execution and Martel dies before the new tests, which exonerate him, come in. Broderick surmises that Martel came to watch the girls undress while the killer was there. He and his son travel to Timberlake. Jesse finds sage where the old woman was seen on the night of the murders. After reading that the killer took one of the girl's ribs, and left sandal footprints, he suspects that the killer was trying to impersonate God. The killer murders the owner of a general store and screams "I will gather the species two by two" before stealing his two taxidermied birds. Through a computer program, Jesse ties the general store attack to the previous crimes. They visit the crime scene and adds further findings to their speculative profile of the killer. The killer is 6"2' tall and weighs 205 lbs, is right-handed, has never been arrested, and he is blood type b and has not been to the dentist in a long time due to bite marks found on the girl as well. They also know he drives a pre-1968 Volkswagen van. A young girl is abducted at a gas station, Broderick goes back to Utah when news of the kidnapping reaches him, and Jesse goes home. The Utah police are called due to a foul odor coming from a house. Officer Ben Olmon finds sage hanging from the ceiling and a man, woman, and little girl in black robes along with the ritualistically murdered body of a young boy. Broderick investigates the house of the cultists who belong to a Moab religious sect. The killer goes to a public library and views books on Flemish paintings. Broderick and Roxanne get a tip from the library that a man fitting the killer's description has been there recently. They find fingerprints that match those from the previous crime scenes. Among the other books checked out by the killer is one called Mother Less Child, which deals with S&M photography. Broderick recounts that a 1930s mystic named Sarah Proctor who stored corpses in her basement and used sage to mask the smell, and surmises that the killer is using sage for the same reason. Jesse meanwhile finds an older police report where two giraffes were stolen from the Salt Lake City Zoo, and books a flight to Salt Lake City using his father's credit card. Broderick and Roxanne investigate the former leader of the Moab sect, Robert Vale, who has since become a Neo-nazi. A confrontation ensues and Vale is killed. Jesse goes to the Salt Lake City Zoo and uses personal information he has gathered about an employee to force the latter to admit that he knows who stole the giraffes. Inside the perpetrator's locker, named Mordecai Booth, Jesse finds evidence tying him to the crimes and text on a crumpled bible page. Jesse cross checks the imagery described in the passage with locations near the PO box of Mordecai Booth. He is able to identify a closed uranium mine near Castle Rock. Jesse rents a dirt bike and travels there. Broderick accesses Jesse's computer and finds out the coordinates of the mine. Inside the mine, Jesse finds displays of totured bodies. He also finds a life size ark covered with dead bodies and taxidermied animals. Jesse is captured by Booth and tied up to the ark near Kristi, who is still alive. Booth, having completed his ark and gathered two of every animal, asks God to send the rains and releases the ark towards a cliff. Broderick arrives and wounds Booth. He climbs aboard the ark and frees the children before the ark falls. Booth is killed in the crash, before Roxane arrives. Later, Broderick buys a cemetery plot for Bobby Martel. ==Cast==