A married couple from the central Russian city of Voronezh have been charged with murdering their daughter in an attempt to exorcise her of demons, media reports said on Thursday.
Reports say that 25-year-old Alexandra, a mother of two, confessed to her parents during Orthodox Christmas (January 7) that she heard voices in her head and suspected she had been possessed by “unclean spirits.”
Her parents then decided they would have to exorcise her and persuaded her to drink five liters of holy water. But their daughter was unable to swallow such a vast amount of liquid, so her father, Sergei, held her down while her mother, Yelena, poured the rest of the water into her mouth.
They then jumped up and down on her until she died, investigators say. They also say that the parents expected their daughter to be resurrected after the expulsion of the “demons.”
The woman’s baby and her three-year-old child were taken to another room by the dead woman’s 13-year-old sister when the “exorcism” began.
The couple are currently undergoing psychiatric evaluation.
MOSCOW, January 13 (RIA Novosti)
