News::Wiccan: If Suspect Was Wiccan 'Throw The Book At Him'
News::Wiccan: If Suspect Was Wiccan 'Throw The Book At Him':
Two days after their deaths, balloons and a teddy bear sit at the home of 10-year old Kendra Suing and 8-year old Alysha Suing. A common practice in the U.S. which signifies the love and sorrow people have for the victims and their families. But something not so commonplace is what allegedly took place behind the walls of this house, witchcraft.
Dr. Bruce Forbes, Morningside College Religion Professor, "Satanism and witchcraft, they kind of come together but there's no relation and in fact anyone I know involved in witchcraft at all thinks it's a joke."
Rev. Jeva Singh-Anand, Wiccan "A lot of satanists reject these practices... They reject the actual hurting of people."
The man charged in the girls' death, their step-father. Police say Lawrence Harris told them it was a spell gone wrong.
Forbes, "When I think of other crimes in the past that have been associated with witchcraft, it's really a mentally unstable person who then looks for some kind of religion that is unusual in the larger society and then they're drawn to those symbols but it's not the religion that made him do that, it's their own mental illness or personal problems that cause them to do that."
Jeva Singh-Anand is the head of the local Siouxland 1st Wiccan Congregation. A federally recognized religion which practices witchcraft.
Jeva Singh-Anand, "Being part of a spell that had gone wrong, it doesn't make sense, I don't know what the man's religion was, if it turns out he was a Wiccan, then I would say, as as Wiccan, throw the book at him."
Singh-Anand, "He's casting a spell and something goes wrong, he ends up killing those kids, I think that's just an excuse."
A judge and jury must decide that.
Funeral arrangements are pending for Kendra and Alysha at Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapter.