Cops venture into murdered man's attic and are left chilled to the bone by what they see

The mysterious discovery of a murder victim's body led two detectives to the headquarters of a voodoo sex cult – and an altar with their own names on it

A chance discovery by two motorists set into motion one of the strangest and most perplexing criminal cases in history. Perhaps most disturbingly, the two police officers sent to investigate the grisly murder found their own business cards on a voodoo “altar” in the victim’s home.

Podcaster Mr Ballen explained that the body of 45-year-old businessman Mark Foster was found by the side of a deserted country road in Douglas County, Wisconsin in July 1997. Foster was unusually dressed, with every item, right down to his belt and his shoes, being white.

But at the centre of his chest was an ugly red bloodstain where he had clearly been shot at close range. The first mystery was how Foster had come to be found some 270 miles from his home in Minneapolis. The second was a bizarre note that was hidden in his shoe.

The note read: "Jack Frazier isn’t here but it’s Jimmy Bailey? Or look alike? Geez It’s 3 toughs. Hope I’m OK."

A Douglas County detective named Steven Long was assigned to the case, and one of the first things he discovered was that two men with those names lived, as the victim had done, in Minneapolis.

Mr Ballen said: “Detective Long decided he would have to go to Minneapolis to try to find out more. A few hours later Detective Long parked his car at the Minneapolis Police Station. He got out and walked inside the building – waiting for him inside was a local detective who Mark had already spoken to and so after meeting this detective the two of them went into an interview room where Mark Foster's wife was waiting for them.

“Right away Detective Long noticed that she was very pregnant and at least 15 or 20 years younger than Mark. But despite that she seemed very composed. It would turn out she had already been told about her husband's death and was basically resigned to the fact that she was here to try to answer questions to figure out what happened.”

But Sarah Foster’s composure dissolved when the detectives read out the mysterious note found in the dead man’s shoe. Sarah had dated both of those men before meeting and marrying her older, very wealthy, husband.

It seemed as if Mark Foster had been killed in a crime of passion sparked by the jealousy of two of his wife’s former lovers. However, when Jack Frazier and Jimmy Bailey were interviewed, it soon became clear that they had been nowhere near the crime scene at the time of Foster’s death.

The detectives paid a visit to Sarah to ask her more questions, finding her in a palatial home absolutely littered with hardcore pornography and sex toys. She gave them permission to search the house, and they were stunned to find an attic room decked out with pornography and sex toys. Most disturbingly, they also found a pseudo-religious altar, and sitting on top of it were their own business cards.

It emerged that Foster had been the head of a voodoo cult that had been conducting bizarre sex-magic rituals in that suburban attic. It was later theorised that his supporters had placed the business cards there to confuse the police and derail their investigation – but how they knew those particular officers would be searching the attic on that particular day remains a mystery.

Despite his apparent wealth, Foster been deeply in debt. His wife, who had initially co-operated with the investigation, declined to comment on the attic or its contents. Without any further testimony from Sarah, detectives had hit a dead end.

The case stalled until dramatic new evidence emerged some 18 months later. Brent Thompson – who was a member of Foster’s cult, came forward and confessed his involvement in Foster’s death. He and another cult member, Gregory Friesner, had driven their leader to Wisconsin where he calmly allowed them to shoot him – tucking the note into his shoe in order to incriminate two people he had a grudge against.

Foster apparently believed that, after his death, his spirit would pass into the bodies of his two killers, and he had named them as the beneficiaries of a substantial life insurance policy he had taken out shortly before his death.

In a video made shortly before he died, he had said: “We celebrate life as we celebrate death. Death is nothing to be afraid of. Death is a great crossroads.”

Thompson, who had driven Foster and his killer to Wisconsin, was sentenced to three years for his role in the crime. Friesner, who had pulled the trigger and shot Foster in the heart, was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Despite suspicions that she must have at least known about her husband’s bizarre scheme, Sarah was not prosecuted.

Jack Frazier, who Foster had tried to frame for his own murder, was baffled by the events: “They tried to set me up on a murder charge,” he said. “It’s like something you read about in a book. Crazy people do crazy stuff.”