{"id":58030,"date":"2018-02-05T05:32:45","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T05:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=58030"},"modified":"2018-02-05T05:32:45","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T05:32:45","slug":"child-taken-voodoo-practitioner-discipline-police-say-will-permanently-disfigured","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/news\/child-taken-voodoo-practitioner-discipline-police-say-will-permanently-disfigured.html","title":{"rendered":"A child was taken to a voodoo practitioner for discipline. Police say she will be permanently disfigured."},"content":{"rendered":"

A child was taken to a voodoo practitioner for discipline. Police say she will be permanently disfigured.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The cause of the girl\u2019s misbehavior was obvious, the women said. There was a demon inside her, and it needed to come out. It would not do so willingly.<\/span><\/p>\n

So the women \u2014 Peggy LaBossiere, 51, and Rachel Hilaire, 40, of East Bridgewater, Mass. \u2014 bound the 5-year-old\u2019s feet together and tied her hands to a long stick over her head, preventing her from resisting the voodoo ritual that followed, according to a police report obtained by the Enterprise, a Brockton, Mass., newspaper. Then LaBossiere kissed the girl \u201call around her face like a snake,\u201d the report said, then used \u201ca pointy object like a needle\u201d to cut the girl on her arm and around her collar, drawing blood.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then came the burning.<\/span><\/p>\n

LaBossiere blew flames from a burning stick over the girl\u2019s face. She also put oils and at least one caustic chemical on the girl\u2019s head and in her eyes, causing a burn that doctors say will cause permanent disfigurement, the police report said.<\/span><\/p>\n

LaBossiere also allegedly worked voodoo on the girl\u2019s 8-year-old brother. When he resisted, she threatened to cut his head off with a machete, police said, according to the Associated Press. LaBossiere made him undress and rubbed his entire body with a \u201cplant-like substance and blew fire on him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear what caused the police in East Bridgewater, about 25 miles south of Boston, to ultimately intervene, but when they arrived, both children smelled of smoke, the AP said. They were taken to a hospital.<\/span><\/p>\n

LaBossiere and Hilaire are both charged with assault after being arrested in mid-January. Hilaire is accused of aiding in the ritual by holding the children down.<\/span><\/p>\n

The children\u2019s mother, a hairdresser who has LaBossiere as a client, was not charged, although she was taken to a mental hospital for evaluation. The children were taken into custody by child welfare authorities, police told the AP.<\/span><\/p>\n

All the people involved are of Haitian descent, including the children\u2019s mother. The public defender for LaBossiere and Hilaire could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The siblings had been told they were going to LaBossiere\u2019s house for a sleepover.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the AP, the women told authorities they\u2019ve performed \u201ccleansing baths\u201d for friends and family for years. During such practices, they chant prayers and rub eucalyptus oils, frankincense, myrrh and sea salt on people\u2019s bodies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Burns are a part of the rituals, the sisters told authorities, saying they happen as evil spirits are leaving the body.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hilaire and LaBossiere remain jailed. They have another hearing Wednesday, which will determine if they will be a danger to the public if released.<\/span><\/p>\n

Long a popular horror movie trope, voodoo is an Afro-Caribbean religion that originated in Haiti but is practiced in many countries in the Western Hemisphere.<\/span><\/p>\n

It started with slaves who combined aspects of their West African traditions with the Catholicism they were forced to adopt by their masters, according to Live Science.<\/span><\/p>\n

As The Washington Post\u2019s Sarah Kaplan wrote in 2015:<\/span><\/p>\n

The faith .\u2009.\u2009. is revered for its role in Haitian\u2019s successful struggle for independence from French rule. Like Christianity, voodoo has one God, but in practice the religion bears much more resemblance to the traditions of the West African slaves who founded it: Spells are cast, animals are sacrificed, one of the religion\u2019s 401 spirits are invited to possess followers at raucous, colorful ceremonies.<\/span><\/p>\n

But aspects of the religion have been appropriated and distorted for horror movies or to sell voodoo dolls, potions and broomsticks to tourists.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2015, The Post\u2019s Karen Tumulty reported that former president Bill Clinton had written about a day he and Hillary Clinton saw voodoo in practice near Port-au-Prince, Haiti\u2019s capital.<\/span><\/p>\n

The priest gave the visitors what Clinton described as a \u201cbrief course in voodoo theology,\u201d and then the late-afternoon ceremony began.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter several minutes of rhythmic dancing to pounding drums, the spirits arrived, seizing a woman and a man,\u201d Bill Clinton wrote. \u201cThe man proceeded to rub a burning torch all over his body and walk on hot coals without being burned.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe woman, in a frenzy, screamed repeatedly, then grabbed a live chicken and bit its head off. Then the spirits left and those who had been possessed fell to the ground.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/true-crime\/wp\/2018\/02\/04\/a-misbehaving-child-was-taken-to-a-voodoo-practitioner-police-say-she-will-be-permanently-disfigured\/?utm_term=.05f7d13a67f5<\/span><\/p>\n

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