Content warning: This book contains multiple accounts of sexual abuse and murder, which are discussed in this section.

Krakauer opens by introducing the facts of a murder in Utah County on July 24, 1984. Allen Lafferty, a man in his mid-forties, went to work, leaving his wife Debbie and 15-month-old daughter, Erica, at home. When he returned that evening, he found his wife and child had been brutally murdered. Allen told law enforcement that he believed his oldest brother, Ron, was responsible for the ritualistic murders.

Krakauer shares three news articles covering the case. The first indicates that Ron Lafferty was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for his involvement in fundamentalist and polygamist sects of the LDS. The second shares that Ron was a prominent figure in his community of Highland. However, in the two years prior to Debbie and Erica’s murder, Ron’s life seemed to crumble. He and his wife, Diana, divorced, and she took their six children out of the state. Neighbors and friends shared that Ron’s religious and political beliefs had become more extreme. The final article reveals the arrest of two more men alleged to be involved in the murder, Ron and Allen’s brother

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