Every so often children are murdered by people who claim a child was possessed by a demonic force, or that the Devil told them to do it. These so-called “Demonic Child Murders” are usually perpetrated by people who are either using drugs or have a history of mental illness. It’s not a problem of Satan worshiping people sacrificing children to the Devil as has been insinuated by some of the hysterical moral panic to sweep through the nation in recent decades. (1980’s & 1990″s) Either way, the result is the same. Here are some stories of children murdered because of delusions about the Devil:
Parents Who Murder Their Children Claiming Devils, Demons, or Ghosts Made Them Do It
Flushing the Devil From Your Child
In Portales, New Mexico, a 25-year-old mother was set to go on trial in the killing of her 6-year-old son, Lorenzo Cabral. Teresa Gilman says God told her to flush the devil from her son. A preliminary autopsy said the boy suffered head trauma, but drowning could not be ruled out as a cause of death. (USA Today, 4-25-2008, 10A)
Demons Make Father Throw Boy Off Bridge
In Baltimore, Maryland, DNA tests confirm the body of a child found along the Patapsco River is that of 3-year-old Turner Nelson. The boy’s father, Stephen Nelson, told police in February that he threw his son from the Francis Scott Key Bridge because demons told him to do it. He is charged with murder and child abuse. The boy’s body was pulled from the river about a mile from the bridge. (USA Today, 7-30-2008, p. 9A)
Mother Claims Ghost Killed Her Girls
Naiyana Patel, a 33-year-old North Carolina woman accused of hacking her two young daughters to death with a hatchet, claims a ghost was responsible for the killings, according to court papers. The mother herself is recovering from what police say are self-inflicted injuries at Mission Hospital in Asheville. Authorities say she repeatedly hit herself in the head with the same hatchet that was used to kill her daughters Jiya, 8, and Piya, 4. The mother has been charged with 1st degree murder. (Ostendorff, 2011)
References:
1. Jon Ostendorff, “N.C. hatchet killing blamed on ‘ghost,'” USA Today, Aug. 30, 2011, 3A