Unsolved Mystery: Teen’s Mysterious Death in 1984 San Francisco Bay Linked to Occult Group
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – September 18, 2023 – Nearly four decades after his body was discovered on a remote San Francisco beach, the death of 17-year-old Kurt McFall remains officially “unknown,” a ruling his father vehemently disputes, convinced his son was murdered in connection with his involvement in a shadowy world of paganism and a feared “Satanic cult.”
On September 8, 1984, Kurt McFall, a high school student from Concord, California, drove across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco, telling his father he would stay with a friend and return Sunday evening. He never did. Two days later, his partially clothed body was spotted by birdwatchers below the cliffs of San Francisco Bay.
Kurt’s father, Tom McFall, knew instantly his son’s death was no accident. “Kurt told a friend of his that he was involved in some kind of Satanic cult and that he wanted out, but he thought that they might try to kill him,” McFall stated. “He really feared for his life. It was a murder. It needs to be investigated.” McFall also emphasized Kurt’s physical capabilities, “Kurt could’ve handled himself in that cliff area because he was an experienced mountain climber and he was a diver. So he would not have drowned in the water or fallen down the hill.”
Further investigation into Kurt’s life revealed a perplexing duality. In his room, Tom McFall discovered disturbing items: a knife crafted from a deer’s hoof, a necklace of stone and feathers, and drawings depicting themes of witchcraft and violent fantasies. These items suggested Kurt was leading a secret life.
The year before his death, Kurt had joined a group that engaged in medieval reenactments, practicing sword fighting in an Oakland subway station parking lot. Around the same time, he also became involved with another organization that initiated him into a pagan religion. This new group alarmed one of Kurt’s old high school friends, who later contacted Tom McFall and spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for his own safety.
“Gradually, over a period of perhaps six months, his attitude towards other people changed drastically,” the friend recounted. “He kind of moved from just studying with an interest in medieval religion, to actually adopting that religion as his.” The friend likened Kurt’s deepening involvement to a “drug addiction,” where one “loses that sense of knowing when to stop until you’re a junkie.”
Kurt’s guide into the pagan religion was Gabriel Carrillo, known by the ancient Welsh name “Caradoc.” Carrillo described his practice: “This is a religion that is also an art, a craft, and one that has techniques that are, at their essence, magical. I met Kurt because he had evinced an interest in magic. Kurt was real bright and real curious about just about everything.” Carrillo maintained that his group emphasized individual control: “I do not make any attempt to control people’s lives. People are free to come and go at their own discretion, just as Kurt did.”
According to Carrillo, Kurt spent Saturday, September 9th, at his apartment. They had dinner, went to a movie, and around midnight, Kurt went swimming at Ocean Beach, just blocks from Carrillo’s home. Carrillo stated that Kurt, seemingly restless, knocked on his door at approximately 3 AM, saying he was returning to the beach. Kurt was never seen alive again.
Carrillo believes Kurt’s death was tragic accident. “My best guess is simply that he took one too many chances,” he speculated. “He might have gone swimming in the ocean and been pulled by the undertow. He might have gone climbing on the cliffs at Land’s End and slipped and fallen, or any one of a number of other things.”
The following evening, Kurt’s car was discovered abandoned on a golf course overlooking the ocean. Inside, puzzling clues were found: Kurt’s driver’s license on the floor, his car keys on the seat, a $20 bill in the glove compartment. Notably, Kurt’s prized suit of armor, used for sword fighting, was missing from the trunk. Several beer bottles were also scattered in and around the vehicle.
Tom McFall found the beer bottles particularly suspicious. “The car has to be a phony scene that was set up, because Kurt did not drink beer,” he asserted. “That’s also inconsistent with the autopsy report that shows that there was no sign of alcohol or drugs in the body when it was recovered. So that looked very suspicious.”
At 10:15 AM the next morning, National Park Service lifeguards recovered Kurt’s body from a cove less than two miles from Carrillo’s apartment, directly below the cliffs where Kurt’s car had been found. Lifeguard Brian Cameron observed, “When we came upon the body, we noticed it was in fairly good condition, fairly pale, usually a sign of being in the water for an extended period of time. No obvious external trauma. He looked pretty clean, other than a few small abrasions on the body, but nothing obvious.”
Kurt was found without shoes, socks, or a shirt. His back and shoulders were covered with cuts and abrasions, and his belt was missing its buckle. Chief Petty Officer Ron Wilton with the U.S. Coast Guard offered his “educated guess” that Kurt “simply fell off the cliff.”
The coroner ultimately determined Kurt died from multiple traumatic injuries and severe blood loss, but the exact cause of these injuries remains unknown. The official ruling was “cause of death, unknown.” This determination is unacceptable to Tom McFall. “I went to the San Francisco coroner and I said, ‘What do you think happened to Kurt?’ And he said, ‘I think the most probable cause of Kurt’s death is homicide’,” McFall recounted. “But he said he didn’t have enough to testify to that in a court of law. And so he sent his ruling up to homicide classified as ‘unknown.’ I can’t accept that.”
Police further investigated but found no reason to change the ruling from “unknown” to “homicide.” They declined to be interviewed for this story. Tom McFall continues to believe his son was murdered, theorizing, “Kurt may have uncovered something in the organization and may have indicated to people that he was going to expose this. And I feel that all of these things probably contributed to them wanting to do away with Kurt.”
Gabriel Carrillo vehemently denies any involvement in Kurt’s death. “If I wanted to murder somebody, the last person I would murder would be somebody who was staying at my house and whose father knew that he was staying in my house,” Carrillo stated. “I mean, the whole thing is stupid.”
Nearly 40 years later, the mystery of Kurt McFall’s death persists. His father, Tom McFall, continues to hold onto hope that someone will come forward with new evidence to finally re-open the investigation and bring clarity to his son’s tragic and enigmatic passing.
