RIP Corey Mitchell

Reports began to arrive early this afternoon that Corey Mitchell, the true-crime author and Housecore Horror Film Festival co-founder, had suffered a heart attack this morning outside Emo’s and subsequently died mere hours after the second annual event had concluded.

At the time of his death early Monday morning, Mitchell, 47, was apparently loading up his car with help from a fan who had spent the night nearby. According to Kate Richardson, partner of Housecore Records founder and Pantera/Down frontman Philip H. Anselmo, “[The fan] heard a thud and turned around and saw [Mitchell] on his knees. Then he fell all the way down. He got him on his side and then he called for help.”

”We’re really just still in shock,” said Anselmo, who we reached by phone. “After Danzig was done, Corey and I got up on stage and thanked all the bands and all the fans, the filmmakers, and the Texas Chain Saw people. It’s all just horrifically surreal. This one hurts, man. They all do, but this has a special kind of hurt to it. The event was such a blast, such a success, and everybody had such a great time. Nobody worked as hard as Corey. He believed in it so fucking much. He fought for it every inch of the way. It’s like lightning striking, man, you just never know.

As a writer, Mitchell penned multiple best-selling true-crime books, including 2005’s Murdered Innocents, the definitive accounting of the Austin Yogurt Shop Murders. At the time of his death he was working on Anselmo’s autobiography Mouth for War: Pantera and Beyond,” due out from Simon & Schuster in January 2015. He is survived by his wife Audra and daughters Emma and Sabrina.