MA child-torture cases charged as 'voodoo ritual'

Cited record

Sources

WBUR (2018) ''We Are Being Targeted': Voodoo Believers Fear A Backlash After Crimes Against Children', WBUR (Boston), 12 February. Available at: wbur.org (Accessed: 14 July 2026).

Finally, a caution that belongs on this page. Two 2018 Massachusetts cases were charged as 'voodoo' crimes — 'Two sisters in East Bridgewater were arrested last month after they tied down and burned a 5-year-old girl, permanently disfiguring her, in a 'voodoo ritual' meant to rid her of a demon', and a Brockton mother stabbed two of her children in what she called a ritual. But a Haitian Vodou priestess in Mattapan pushed back on the label: ''We are being targeted,' said Evans, a Haitian Vodou priestess in Mattapan.' The distinction matters: 'voodoo' as a slur applied to any crime by a Haitian defendant is exactly the kind of press reflex this survey works to avoid — the point is documented conduct, not ethnicity.