BELLAIRE, Ohio — The man who worshipped Satan and who was convicted of murdering his parents as a 17-year-old Bellaire High School student nearly 30 years ago will now have to wait another three months to learn if he is eligible for parole.
Nathan John Brooks, 47, is serving a life sentence at the London Correctional Institution in London, Ohio, after being convicted on two counts of aggravated murder and one count of using a firearm in the commission of the murders of his parents’ murders in 1995.
On Wednesday, the Ohio Parole Board delayed his August parole hearing until November without explanation. This was slated to be his first scheduled parole board hearing.
Brooks shocked the Ohio Valley community on Sept. 30, 1995, when he killed his father, Terry Brooks, and mother, Marilyn Brooks, in their home. Authorities said Brooks, who claimed to worship Satan at the time, shot his father, then decapitated him with a hacksaw and placed his head in a punch bowl. He also stabbed his mother to death.
Brooks was arrested later along Riggs Road after his brother, Ryan Brooks, discovered the bodies and contacted police. Investigators later found a list in Brooks’ bedroom containing names of other community members he reportedly planned to kill, prompting Bellaire officials to cancel trick-or-treating that year out of concern for residents.
Belmont County Sheriff James Zusack, who was a young deputy at the time, told media outlets that he spent significant time accompanying Brooks during court appearances, medical appointments, and other events, often sitting unarmed in the back seat of the transport vehicle with him. He also recalled Brooks speaking fluently in both English and Latin, which he found unusual.
Zusack did not believe Brooks would be paroled.
The Ohio Parole Board has not yet announced the exact date of Brooks’s next hearing.
