Suspects in alleged exorcism case part of 'demon assassins'

[link to www.cbc.ca] Two women who police say killed two children while performing what they thought was an exorcism will continue to be held without bond as prosecutors seek a psychiatric evaluation to determine if they are mentally competent to stand trial.

The women, 28-year-old Zakieya Latrice Avery and 21-year-old Monifa Denise Sanford, have told investigators that they believed evil spirits moved successively between the bodies of the children, ages one and two, and that an exorcism was needed to drive the demons out, said Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy.

The women also reported seeing the eyes of each of the children blackening and after the intended exorcism took a shower, cleaned up the scene and "prepared the children to see God," McCarthy said. The children's two older siblings, a five-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy, were also found injured with stab wounds. Avery is the mother of all four children.

Part of 'demon assassins,' suspects claim

The girl remains in critical condition but the boy was close to being released from the hospital as of Tuesday afternoon. The two older children might have died had a neighbour not called the police emergency dispatcher, police said.

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