PENSACOLA, FL – We haven’t reported on a murder tied to witchcraft in years, but that’s exactly what police say was involved in the murders of a Florida family who were found beat with a hammer and with their throats slit.
Voncile Smith, 77, was found dead in her Pensacola home on Friday, along with her sons, 49-year-old John William and 47-year-old Richard Smith.
They all had been beaten to death with a claw hammer and their throats had been slit. Smith had also been shot in the neck that police believe was done to incapacitate him.
According to Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan, the way the family were killed and the way their bodies were positioned, leads them to believe that their deaths were a “ritualistic killing” tied to last week’s blue moon.
Authorities have questioned a person of interest but haven’t made an arrest or released the person’s identity. They have said there was no forced entry into the home or robbery, and that their person of interest is a white male who practices witchcraft.
“There are different factions of (witchcraft). While it doesn’t bother me to release that particular thing, I most assuredly do not want to defame or demean any particular practice,” Morgan said.
Morgan went on to say that it will take investigators days to go through the crime scene and that the case was complicated. “The elements of the case are odd at best,” he told reporters.
Neighbors say the family is very reclusive and that they rarely saw them and never spoke to them. Their bodies were discovered during a welfare check, but details on who called has not been revealed at this point.
The last story I remember reporting on that involved murder and witchcraft was way back in 2008. That’s when Lawrence Harris murdered his two step-daughters while casting a spell that, he said, went bad.
This article was written by Morbid for The Dreamin Demon - the Internet's self-appointed buzzkill.