Mesa man accused of trying to bring woman back to life by stabbing her in ritual

MESA, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) — A Mesa man performed a ritual to bring a dead woman back to life by stabbing her in the heart and then didn’t tell law enforcement about the body for days, new court records say. The incident happened last month, but 34-year-old Stephen Joseph Anderson was arrested on Wednesday.

According to court paperwork, Anderson met 33-year-old Rebecca Lynn Lambert at a park close to Signal Butte and Broadway roads around Nov. 12 and took her to his nearby house. They went to his bedroom and did methamphetamine, detectives said. Anderson told investigators he took a shower, and when he returned to the bedroom, Lambert was dead. Court paperwork said Anderson later told detectives he wanted to revive her, so he performed a ritual by stabbing her in the heart with his 5-inch silver knife. It went all the way into her body.

Roughly two days went by, and on Nov. 14, Anderson was spotted in the middle of the road holding a knife and a hammer. According to court documents, neighbors said he jumped out in front of a driver who went by, and they thought he was going to attack the driver, who briefly stopped. When officers arrived, he only had his knife, and they told him to drop it, which he did. He was then taken into custody. Officers noticed the knife had a little blood on it, but they didn’t know about the body in the house.

Anderson was then taken to a facility for those with mental health issues. On Nov. 15, police say he called his mom from the facility and told her to keep his kids away from his bedroom. The mother wondered what was wrong, so she went to Anderson’s house and found Lambert dead in his bedroom. She then called 911. Once Anderson was released from the facility, he was arrested at his home on Wednesday. Police said he admitted to the allegations and knew it was wrong to stab a body. He was booked into jail on a felony count of disorderly conduct, one felony count of mutilation of a body and a misdemeanor count of failure to report a death. He also faces recommended charge of being a prohibited possessor of weapons since he is a convicted felon and is not allowed to have the knife, court documents said.

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