Massachusetts Woman Says Voodoo Ritual Led Her to Kill Sons, 5 and 8

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A Massachusetts woman used a kitchen knife to stab two of her children to death and later told police it was part of a Voodoo ritual, authorities said Tuesday.

Latarsha Sanders, 43, told police she attacked her 8-year-old son, Edson “Marlon” Brito, with a kitchen knife as part of a ritual but failed, so she attacked her 5-year-old son, Lason Brito, assistant Plymouth District Attorney Jessica Kenny told a judge during Sanders’ arraignment on murder charges.

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She told police it had to do with “Voodoo stuff,” according to a police report of their interview with her.

The older boy was stabbed 50 times, and she admitted to the killings, Kenny said.

“She said she had stabbed him because she had ‘failed’ in the ritual with Marlon,” Kenny said, according to The Boston Herald . “She responded to police that she felt bad about what she had done.”

Sanders also told investigators she mopped up blood from the floor, left the kitchen knife in the sink, cleaned up both boys and placed them in separate beds, Kenny said.

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Voodoo refers to religious practices developed centuries ago by enslaved Africans in the Caribbean, primarily in Haiti, where the practices are sometimes spelled “vodou.”

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