The fires of the witchcraft allegations burned through the towns and villages of New England during the 1600s, leading to accusations, trials, and even hangings. Many communities regretted the belief that the Devil was at work in their own until it was too late and near the end of the century, the fires that had burned so hot began to cool.

But not before the events at Salem Village occurred in 1692, spawning the most infamous witchcraft panic in American history. The town was a hotbed of gossip, hostility, and family squabbles and when religious fanaticism was added to the mix, accusations of the Devil’s work soon followed.

But not just in Salem. Most don’t realize that another witchcraft panic was occurring at the same time, a short distance away, and that Salem’s so-called “Afflicted Girls” had a starring role in that terror, too.

In 1987, ten-year-old Amy Rachel Schulz vanished from the quiet town of Kell, Illinois. By morning, her body was found in a rural oilfield — brutally murdered. The investigation that followed tore through southern Illinois, led to a death sentence, and decades later unraveled into one of the most controversial cases in the state’s history. This is the story of innocence lost, forensic failure, and the haunting legacy Amy left behind.

A war raged in the Puritan New England of the 1600s with both the indigenous people who first settled the land and against the “Spirits of the Invisible World” who used “horrid sorcerers and hellish conjurers who conversed with demons” to torment and persecute the faithful.

It was a time of sin, suspicion, wild accusations – and witchcraft. Those who had made pacts with the Devil were intent on the destruction of the “purified” world that the Puritans had created – and they would do anything to stop it.