Confessed Serial Killer Jason Thornburg Says He Had to Make “Human Sacrifices”

He Started With His Girlfriend

Joni E. Johnston, Psy. D.
6 min readDec 30, 2021
copyright free, courtesy of Fort Worth police department

Forty-one year old Jason Thornburg was arrested in Fort Worth, Texas in September, 2021. His journey to jail began after police were called to a dumpster fire at 6:15 a.m. on Wednesday, September 22 and discovered three charred and dismembered bodies inside. Nearby video surveillance showed a man dressed in a hazmat suit carrying large plastic bins from a black Jeep Grand Cherokee to this dumpster, emptying them, and returning the empty ones to his car. On his last trip, he can be seen throwing something into the dumpster and the contents bursting into flames.

The car was a clue but not a smoking gun. There were 7000 of the exact same make and model registered to local citizens. However, a police officer’s keen memory quickly pointed them in the right direction.

Jason Thornburg’s name on the list of registered Jeep Grand Cherokee owners rang a bell with one of the officers; hadn’t he been a suspect in an apartment fire a few months back? A quick check revealed that, yes, on May 21, 2021, the apartment in which Thornburg was living had burned to the ground. His sixty-one year old roommate, Mark Jewel, had died in the blaze.

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Joni E. Johnston, Psy. D.
Joni E. Johnston, Psy. D.

Written by Joni E. Johnston, Psy. D.

Forensic psychologist/private investigator//author of serial killer book. Passionate about victim’s rights, the psychology of true crime, and criminal justice.

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