Twenty-five years Sheriff’s Deputies responded to an anonymous 911 call reporting a mass suicide in a Rancho Santa Fe mansion.

In all, 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult were found dead.

The cult members had poisoned themselves in an elaborate ritual carried out over several days. They left documentation indicating they had systematically planned their deaths for months. even years. They left behind videotapes that said they were shedding their bodies, which they referred to as “containers,” in order to board a spaceship traveling behind the Hale-Bopp comet.

From The San Diego Union-Tribune, Thursday, March 27, 1997:

By Ruth L. McKinnie, Staff Writer

RANCHO SANTA FE — At least 39 members of a religious group, who referred to themselves as angels, were found dead yesterday inside a rented million-dollar-plus estate.

Sheriff’s investigators, who began searching the house only late last night, said the deaths appeared to be a mass suicide. If so, it would be one of the largest such incidents in U.S. history.

The men and women, many between the ages of 18 and 24 but some older, had been dead at least three days, authorities said.

The bodies were found by a sheriff’s deputy sent to the house just after 4 p.m. yesterday in response to an anonymous caller’s tip to check on the welfare of the people inside the secluded house on Colina Norte. A similar call was received by Beverly Hills police and routed to San Diego sheriff’s officers.

The first deputy to enter the home found several bodies and stopped counting at 10. He left the house and waited until another deputy arrived. Together they counted 39 bodies.

The dead were scattered throughout the rambling two-story house, sheriff’s officials said. Some were on their backs on the floor with their hands at their sides, while others were lying on cots or mattresses. Sources said all but two had their heads and shoulders draped with purple, silky scarves, with one corner on the forehead and two corners on the shoulders.

Union-Tribune reporting on the 1997 Heaven’s Gate cult suicide in Rancho Santa Fe

Initially investigators thought all of the dead were young men, but they revised that report early this morning.

“They were all in a prone position on their back with their arms at their sides,” said sheriff’s Cmdr. Alan Fulmer. “All appeared as if they’d fallen asleep.”

All the dead were wearing dark trousers, sneakers and light-colored shirts. There were no obvious signs of injury on any of the bodies, and there was no sign of a struggle inside the house, he said.

“This is the worst (crime scene) in terms of the numbers of people in one place at one time that I’ve ever seen,” Fulmer said.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” said veteran homicide Detective Lt. Jerry Lipscomb.

There were many computers inside the house. One computer monitor was on with a note indicating that it should not be turned off.

“I’ll bet that’s their suicide note,” a law enforcement source said.

An attorney for the businessman who owns the home said it had been rented in October to a religious group he knew by the name of WW Higher Source. Others said the men designed pages for the World Wide Web.

Realtors said the home’s owner, Sam Koutchesfahani, rented it for $10,000 a month after unsuccessfully trying to sell it for $1.595 million.

The renters “referred to themselves as angels,” said Milton Silverman, Koutchesfahani’s attorney. “They didn’t drink, they didn’t smoke, (they) were celibate. . . .

“They believed they were sent to Earth as angels,” he added. “They met in Middle America, U.S.A.” Silverman said there are affiliates or chapters of their group in New Mexico and Arizona.

Marshall Applewhite, leader of the Heaven’s Gate cult, is shown in an undated image.

Heaven’s Gate followers thought the arrival of the Hale-Bopp comet was their chance to exit Earth on a following space craft. The comet was seen above the Hale telescope at the Mount Palomar observatory on March 26, 1997, the same day 39 bodies of members of the cult were discovered in their rented Rancho Santa Fe mansion.

This image of the Heaven’s Gate website was captured on March 27, 1997. The website continues to be maintained by two former Heaven’s Gate members.

A photograph provided by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department shows the position of some of the Heaven’s Gate members when their bodies were discovered on March 26, 1997, in a Rancho Santa Fe mansion. They died in a mass suicide.

Photo taken from the Heaven’s Gate website of Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles, who went by Bo and Peep and led the group.

This is a copy of a photo the Sheriff’s Department released at a news conference on March 27, 1997, showing the inside of the Rancho Sante Fe mansion where the bodies of 39 Heaven’s Gate members were found the day before.

San Diego County sheriff’s deputies and investigators gathered in the driveway of a Rancho Santa Fe mansion on March 26, 1997, shortly after the discovery of a mass suicide inside the home. In all, 39 bodies of Heaven’s Gate members were found inside.

Sheriff’s deputies and officials go under the police tape leading up the driveway to the Rancho Santa Fe mansion where 39 bodies of Heaven’s Gate members were found on March 26, 1997.

Investigators gather outside the Rancho Santa Fe mansion 39 bodies of Heaven’s Gate members were found on March 26, 1997. They died in a mass suicide.

Investigators gather outside the rented Rancho Santa Fe mansion where the bodies of 39 Heaven’s Gate members were found on March 26, 1997. The bodies were found throughout the house.

Sheriff’s investigators waited outside a Rancho Santa Fe mansion for hours until a search warrant was issued to enter the home where the bodies of 39 Heaven’s Gate members were found on March 26, 1997.

San Diego County Sheriff’s Cmdr. Alan Fulmer (center) briefs reporters about the discovery of 39 bodies of Heaven’s Gate members inside a Rancho Santa Fe mansion on March 26, 1997.

Tom Goodspeed, general manager of the Polo Club, is surrounded by news media the morning after 39 bodies of Heaven’s Gate members were discovered in a nearby Rancho Santa Fe mansion on March 26, 1997.

A San Diego County Sheriff’s investigator shines a light at a window outside the Rancho Santa Fe mansion where 39 bodies of Heaven’s Gate members were found on March 26, 1997.

San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office workers and sheriff’s deputies loaded the body of a Heaven’s Gate member into a refrigerated truck parked in front of the rented Rancho Santa Fe mansion where 39 bodies were found on March 26, 1997. This photo was taken the next day.

San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office workers and sheriff’s deputies load the bodies of Heaven’s Gate members into a refrigerated truck. The truck is in front of the rented Rancho Santa Fe mansion where 39 Heaven’s Gate members committed mass suicide on March 26, 1997.

Medical examiner’s personnel bring the bodies of some of the 39 Heaven’s Gate members down the steps of their rented Rancho Santa Fe mansion on March 27, 1997, the day after the mass suicide was discovered.

Scott Lindlaw of the AP news organization uses his cellphone while reporting from the location where 39 bodies of Heaven’s Gate members were found inside a Rancho Santa Fe mansion on March 26, 1997.

Television reporters did live shots from a hillside just west of the Rancho Santa Fe home where 39 bodies of Heaven’s Gate members were found on March 26, 1997.

County medical examiner workers and sheriff’s deputies bring down the steps of a Rancho Santa Fe mansion the body of a Heaven’s Gate member. The bodies of 39 Heaven’s Gate members were discovered inside the home on March 26, 1997. They died in a mass suicide.

County medical examiner personnel leave after removing some of the 39 bodies of Heaven’s Gate members found inside a Rancho Santa Fe mansion on March 26, 1997.

Fox Network photographer Scott King of Los Angeles, left, worked with reporter Fred Villanueva during a live spot near the Rancho Santa Fe mansion where the bodies of 39 Heaven’s Gate members were found on March 26, 1997.

Mark Malamatos, a San Diego County medical examiner’s investigator, pauses as he prepares to help unload bodies at the Medical Examiner’s Office in Kearny Mesa on March 27, 1997, the day after the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe was discovered.

Workers at the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office use a forklift to unload bodies removed from the Rancho Santa Fe mansion where 39 Heaven’s Gate members committed suicide on March 26, 1997.

On March 27, 1997, weary personnel from the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office in Kearny Mesa sit on the receiving dock after unloading 39 bodies of Heaven’s Gate members. The group’s mass suicide was discovered the day before.

Members of the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s and Los Angeles County Coroner’s offices load bodies from the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide into a refrigerated truck on March 27, 1997. The bodies were discovered the day before in a Rancho Santa Fe mansion.

News photographers stood on ladders to photograph San Diego County medical examiner personnel as they unloaded the bodies of Heaven’s Gate members from a semi-tractor trailer and took them inside for autopsies.

The brother of one of the victims of the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide waited outside the county Medical Examiner’s Office to be let in to identify the body. In all, 39 bodies were found inside a Rancho Santa Fe mansion on March 26, 1997.

Workers from the county Medical Examiner’s Office unloaded a body from a forklift to a refrigerated semi-trailer at the Kearny Mesa facility on March 27, 1997, the day after the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide was discovered at a Rancho Santa Fe mansion.

Personnel at the county Medical Examiner’s Office in Kearny Mesa prepared to remove two of the 39 bodies discovered after the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe on March 26, 1997.

Medical examiner’s employees prepare to wheel inside the agency’s Kearny Mesa office a body removed the Rancho Santa Fe masnion where the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide was discovered on March 26, 1997.

George Dicka, a deputy investigator with the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office, was surrounded by news media as they tried to interview him and a co-worker. They were in the process of transporting to the morgue some of the 39 bodies of Heaven’s Gate members found on March 26, 1997.

Photo by Fred Greaves for the San Diego Union-Tribune

Photographers did what they could to get their cameras over a chain link fence to shoot photos of bodies being unloaded at the Medical Examiner’s Office in Kearny Mesa on March 27, 1997. The day before the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide was discovered inside a Rancho Santa Fe mansion.

Law enforcement personnel gathered at the Rancho Santa Fe mansion where 39 bodies of Heaven’s Gate members were found on March 26, 1997.

Workers from the Medical Examiner’s Office unload a body from a forklift to a refrigerated semi-trailer at the agency’s Kearny Mesa office on March 27, 1997, the day after the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide was discovered in Rancho Santa Fe.

Leaning over and poking their arms through a fence, reporters interview Deputy Investigator George Dicka of the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office on March 27, 1997, the day after the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide was discovered in Rancho Santa Fe.

A list at the county Medical Examiner’s Office of the names of the 39 people who died in the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide that was discovered on March 26, 1997, in Rancho Santa Fe.

A news photographer in a helicopter captures personnel from the Medical Examiner’s Office removing some of the 39 bodies of Heaven’s Gate members found after a mass suicide was discovered on March 26, 1997, in a Rancho Santa Fe mansion.

County Medical Examiner Brian Blackbourne speals to the news media at the Del Mar Fairgrounds on the evening of March 26, 1997, after the bodies of 39 Heaven’s Gate members were found in a rented Rancho Santa Fe mansion.

Journalists at a news conference at the Del Mar Fairgrounds gather around one of two monitors to watch sheriff’s video of the inside of the Rancho Santa Fe mansion where the bodies of 39 Heaven’s Gates members were found on March 26, 1997.

San Diego County Medical Examiner Robert Blackbourne answers questions from the huge crowd of journalists the day after the Heavan’s Gate mass suicide was discovered on March 26, 1997, in Rancho Santa Fe.

Among the items recovered from the Rancho Santa Fe home where Heaven’s Gate members committed mass suicide was a T-shirt with an extraterrestrial theme. The cult’s property was stored at the county public administrator’s office before being auctioned off.

A copy of “How and When Heaven’s Gate May Be Entered” sits among the cult members’ belongings recovered from the Rancho Santa Fe house where they committed mass suicide.

Chris Peterson, the county’s senior estate mover, opened a crate full of possessions of Heaven’s Gate members. The bodies of 39 members of the cult were discovered on March 26, 1997, in a Rancho Santa Fe mansion.

Color artwork found among the possessions of the Heaven’s Gate members who committed mass suicide in a Rancho Santa Fe mansion in March 1997.

Susan Jamme, the county’s deputy public administrator, holds two vitamin bottles that belonged to Heaven’s Gate members. Jamme said the three letters on each bottle refer to the name of a group member. The letters do not correspond to their legal names. “BRN” is Norma Jean Nelson. “STM” is Gordon Welch.

Susan Jamme, a county deputy public administrator, goes through items left behind by members of Heaven’s Gate, who committed mass suicide in a Rancho Santa Fe mansion in March 1997.

The Ernst Family leaves the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office. Their daughter Erika Ernst was one of the 39 Heaven’s Gate members who committed mass suicide in a Rancho Santa Fe mansion in March 1997.

Edwald Ernst, right, and other family members)talk to San Diego police officers outside the county Medical Examiner’s Office, where their daughter, Erika Ernst, was identified as one of the 39 Heaven’s Gate members who committed mass suicide in March 1997.

On March 31, 1997, county Medical Examiner Brian Blackbourne showed the updated list of names of the 39 Heaven’s Gate members who died in a mass suicide that month in Rancho Santa Fe.

San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office personnel watch and take photographs from the doorway of their office during a news conference on the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide in March 1997.

Heaven’s Gate leader Marshall Herff Applewhite, shown in this Aug. 4, 1972, file photo, was one of the 39 bodies found at the scene of a mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe on March 26, 1997. Applewhite was active in the Houston music scene during the 1960s and ‘70s.

Marshall Applewhite, right, leads a rehearsal of the Festival Chorus shortly before its initial concert appearance on Nov 21, 1969, at Jones Hall in Houston. The group was a civic choral organization sponsored by the University of St. Thomas where Applewhite taught from 1966 to 1970. Applewhite was the leader of the Heaven’s Gate cult and died in a mass suicide by the group in March 1997.

The Rev. William J. Young was the president of University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, in 1966 when he hired Marshall “Herff” Applewhite as director of the school’s glee club. Applewhite worked for the school from 1966-1970. Applewhite was the leader of the Heaven’s Gate cult and died in a mass suicide by the group in March 1997.

San Diego Sheriff Deputy Robert Brunk stood near the entrance to the property in Rancho Santa Fe where 39 Heaven’s Gate members committed mass suicide inside a mansion. Brunk, shown 10 years ago, was the first responder to the call that there was a problem at the house and found room after room of bodies on March 26, 1997. The mansion was razed but a new building was constructed at the site.

This is an undated photo showing Cheryl Elaine Butcher. Butcher was one of the 39 Heaven’s Gate members who committed suicide on Wednesday March 26, 1997, in Rancho Santa Fe.

This is an undated photo showing Robert John Arancio. Arancio was one of 39 Heaven’s Gate members who died in a mass suicide on March 26, 1997, in Rancho Santa Fe.

Marshall Applewhite, leader of the Heaven’s Gate cult, is shown in an undated image taken from a recruiting video. He was one of the 39 members of the cult who committed suicide in March 1997 in Rancho Santa Fe.

Dana Tracey Abreo, shown in a file photo, was one of the 39 people found dead in a mass suicide on March 26,1997, in Rancho Santa Fe.

Susan Frances Strom, shown in a 1969 photo, was one of the 39 people found dead in the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide on March 26, 1997, in Rancho Santa Fe. Strom, 44, was a 1971 graduate of Omaha Marian High School, an all-girls Catholic school.

This is an undated Arizona driver’s license photo of Thomas Alva Nichols, 59, one of the 39 Heaven’s Gate members who committed suicide in Rancho Santa Fe and was discovered on March 26,1997. His driver’s license had a Mesa, Ariz., address.

This is an Arizona driver’s license photo of Nancy Diane Nelson, 45, one of the 39 Heaven’s Gate members who committed suicide in Rancho Santa Fe and was discovered on March 26,1997. Her driver’s license listed a Scottsdale, Ariz., address.

This is an undated California Department of Motor Vehicles photograph of David Geoffery Moore, 41, who was found dead on March 26,1997, along with 38 others in the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe.

This is an undated California Department of Motor Vehicles photograph of Brian Alan Schaaf who was found dead along with 38 others in the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe on March 26, 1997.

This is an undated California Department of Motor Vehicles photograph of Suzanne Sylvia Cooke who was found dead on March 26, 1997, along with 38 Heaven’s Gate members in a mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe.

Gail Maeder, in a 1992 family handout photo, was one of the 39 Heaven’s Gate members found dead in a mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe on March 26, 1997. The 28-year-old was terrified of death, her mother Alice Maeder said in a telephone interview from the family’s Sag Harbor, N.Y., home at the time. Fear of death drove Gail to the cult called Heaven’s Gate, the belief that aliens would take her on a spaceship to a kingdom “beyond death,” and, finally, suicide, said Mrs. Maeder. “They promised her she would never die,” Mrs. Maeder said. “Her mind was controlled beyond her control.”

Julie A. LaMontagne is pictured in an undated photo during her school years at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, where she studied nursing and graduated Cum Laude in the class of 1974. LaMontagne, 45, was one of the 39 Heaven’s Gate members whose bodies were discovered on March 26, 1997, in a mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe.

Alan Bowers, seen in an undated family handout photo, was one of the 39 Heaven’s Gate members whose bodies were discovered March 26, 1997, in a mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe. When police found his body in the Southern California mansion with 38 other dead cult members, they found a Florida driver’s license and he became “Raymond Alan Bowers, 45, of Jupiter, Florida’’ on the victim lists. But Bowers was no Floridian. He had lived in several towns in Connecticut, where he left his family behind after his divorce a few years ago.

Ladonna Ann Brugato, 40, shown in this undated family handout photo, was one of the 39 Heaven’s Gate members found dead in a mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe on March 26, 1997. Brugato’s family had been searching for her for some time, and, according to her father, they were within a week of locating her at that time of her death.

This is an undated California Department of Motor Vehicles photograph of Darwin Lee Johnson who was found dead on March 26, 1997, along with 38 other Heaven’s Gate members in a mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe.

This is an undated California Department of Motor Vehicles photograph of Gail Renee Maeder who was found dead on March 26, 1997, along with 38 other Heaven’s Gate members in a mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe.

A county Medical Examiner’s Office worker, left, sitting in the back of a storage truck, handed a Heaven’s Gate suicide victim’s personal property and paperwork to a local funeral home employee in the parking lot of the Medical Examiner’s Office.

Employees from ADA Mortuary Service loaded into a vehicle one of the bodies from the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe. The bodies of 39 people were found there on March 26, 1997.

Worshipers gather at the El Camino Memorial Park and Mortuary for Easter Sunrise Services on the Sunday morning following the discovery of the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe on March 26, 1997.

Tom Pieper plays the opening music for the Easter Sunrise Services at the El Camino Memorial Park and Mortuary on the Sunday after the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide was discovered in Rancho Santa Fe on March 26, 1997.

Worshipers gather at the El Camino Memorial Park and Mortuary for Easter Sunrise Services on the Sunday after the Heaven’s Gate mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe on March 26, 1997.

The house remained on the market, Silverman said, though the group asked not to be bothered by prospective buyers this week.

“They requested that the house not be shown this week because it was their holy week,” Silverman said. “They appeared to be peaceful, religious people.”

Holy Week, the last week of Jesus’ life, started Sunday with Palm Sunday. Purple -- the color of the scarves found on the corpses -- is one of the traditional colors associated with the Lenten season.

Sheriff Bill Kolender, Undersheriff Jack Drown and Gov. Pete Wilson were said to be on their way to the mansion from out of town last night, while as many as 20 sheriff’s detectives waited outside the home for hours until a search warrant was issued.

Investigators also waited until members of the county’s Hazardous Materials Team made sure no toxic chemicals were inside the house. Fulmer said the team detected no gas fumes inside the residence.

The first two deputies to enter the house -- wearing surgical masks -- smelled a noxious, pungent odor inside. The house was completely shut up, with all the windows and doors closed, although the deputies found an unlocked side door through which they entered.

The two deputies were examined at a hospital as a precaution and were discharged.

Last night, a sheriff’s evidence technician in the rear of the home was seen taking numerous photographs of apparent writing on a sidewalk.

As sheriff’s officials began their investigation, seven helicopters and one small plane, all possibly hired by the media, flew low over the house. El Camino del Norte, the nearby main thoroughfare, was congested with interested passersby.

Bill Strong, a Realtor who lives next door to the home where the bodies were found, said the last time he saw anyone go in or out of the house was on Saturday.

Strong said he occasionally saw people coming and going from the home in four large vans with New Mexico license plates. He said he exchanged waves with them, but never words.

“It almost seemed like they were a nonspeaking order,” Strong said. “I never heard a noise from there.”

Strong said he once saw a chalkboard inside the house and used binoculars to try to read what was written on it. He said he saw a list with five columns with three letters written under each column, but he could not decipher the meaning.

Four or five members of the group apparently did computer work for Web Sites Now, which is owned by Interact Entertainment Group in Beverly Hills, according to Lili Ungar, a Santa Monica publicist whose clients include Interact.

One of those members left the group about three months ago and is now employed by the company, she said last night.

Ungar spoke with Nick Matzorkis, Interact’s owner, after learning of the deaths. “He didn’t believe they were part of a cult or anything like that -- they were just people,” Ungar said.

One cult expert said that yesterday’s grim discovery was reminiscent of the ritual deaths of followers of the Order of the Solar Temple, a Swiss-based cult, who apparently believed that by killing themselves they would be transported to a new life in a world called Sirius.

“The M.O. is similar,” said the Rev. Peter Barnes, who became a student of cults and a Baptist minister after leaving a cult.

The fact that the bodies were positioned somewhat alike -- many lying on their backs -- was among the similarities. The bodies found in two 1994 mass suicides, which claimed a total of 53 lives, were found in circles. In a mass suicide ritual within the same cult the next year, the 16 bodies were arranged in a star formation.

The Solar Temple deaths may also have been linked to the position of the sun.

But another expert played down the possible links.

“There’s nothing at this point that appears linked to the Solar Temple,” Mike Kropveld, executive director of Info-Cult, a Montreal organization, told The New York Times. Kropveld said all known Solar Temple members have been accounted for and authorities did not know of any large group of them that was missing.

The 9,200-square-foot house with seven bedrooms and 7 1/2 baths is one of five or six expensive homes on the cul-de-sac. The home sits on a 3-acre lot with a swimming pool, spa and tennis courts.

Koutchesfahani, the owner, recently pleaded guilty to tax evasion and fraud. He admitted that he took as much as $350,000 from Middle Eastern students between 1989 and 1995 and used the money to bribe instructors at San Diego City College, Mesa College and Palomar College to illegally enroll the students and certify them as California residents.

Neighbors Arnie and Claudia Kapan, who moved into their house on Colina Norte in October, said Koutchesfahani joked about renting his home to monks.

Koutchesfahani “was a real nice guy,” said Arnie Kapan, 72. “He said, ‘You are one of the nicest neighbors around.’ He said to me jokingly, ‘I am going to rent my house to some monks.’ ”

“We think we are in paradise,” said Claudia Kapan, 65. “We left L.A. because it was getting gnarly up there. . . . We thought we were moving to a safe utopia. The only exciting thing around here is the ditch they are digging out front to put in a pipe.”

Most homes in the area are behind security gates. Several residents declined to speak to reporters last night, while others expressed alarm.

“I am very shocked something like this would happen on our quiet street,” said Jody Honnen, 63, who lives next to the home where the bodies were found. “Everyone is very respectable. Everyone stays to themselves. And everyone is very nice.”

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Merrie Monteagudo is research director for The San Diego Union-Tribune.

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