WASHINGTON, Jan. 11, 2008
D.C. Woman: "Demons" Possessed Slain Girls
Mother Says Children Died In Their Sleep; Girls May Have Been Starved, Stabbed, Strangled
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This artist's courtroom sketch shows Banita Jacks during her appearance at the District of Columbia Superior Court in Washington on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008. Jacks, found in her home with the decomposing bodies of four girls was charged Thursday with murder after reportedly telling investigators that the children were possessed by demons and died in their sleep. (AP Photo/Dana Verkouteren)
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District of Columbia medical examiner's office personnel remove the first body from a house where the bodies of four dead youths, estimated to be between 5 and 18 years of age, were found in varying states of decomposition in southeast Washington, Wednesday Jan. 9, 2008. A woman found in her home with the bodies of four girls believed to be her children has been charged with murder, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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Interactive Children In Danger Warning signs, state-by-state child services information and a history of child welfare reforms.
City officials were scrambling to understand how four children could have been dead for at least two weeks without anyone knowing.
Mayor Adrian Fenty said Thursday that officials were working to determine what other contacts city agencies had with the family.
"We are going to investigate every single contact that this family has had with the government, with people who are paid to look out for the welfare of children, and we will come back with a full report," Fenty said.
Several relatives stopped by the house to visit or to deliver child support checks, but Jacks didn't answer the door. Jacks sometimes telephoned after the visits and reported that everything was under control, they said, according to the Washington Post.
"Sometimes she wouldn't answer the door," recalled Tywana Richardson, godmother to the two youngest girls, who said she tried to stay in touch with the family after Fogle's death. "No one would answer the door. That happened a lot. . . . When I kept going and she wasn't there, I figured she had upped and moved."
Nona Richardson, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Public Charter School Board, said Jacks' three younger daughters attended the Meridian Public Charter School in Washington consistently until March 2007.
When they stopped showing up, Richardson said the school immediately tried to contact the mother by mail and telephone. Officials finally went to the woman's home and the woman told a school official that she wanted to withdraw the children and home-school them. They were officially withdrawn in mid-March 2007.
A child at Jacks' Washington address also had attended Stuart-Hobson Elementary School but withdrew in 2006 as a fifth-grader, public school officials said.
The D.C. Child and Family Services agency tried last year to investigate a complaint about the family. But investigators could not make face-to-face contact with family members and believed they had moved to Maryland, agency spokeswoman Mindy Good said.
Norris West, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Human Resources, said D.C. officials in June asked social services officials in Charles County, Md., to open a case for the family. However, county officials were not able to locate the family, and it is unclear whether they had actually moved to Charles County, West said.
Outside the courthouse, a woman who said she spent the day with Jacks in a cellblock area, told reporters Jacks admitted to killing her children.
"She kept talking about her kids had demons in them," said Tamara Crump, who was locked up on a drug charge but let go after authorities declined to prosecute her. She said Jacks "smelled like death," an odor so strong that Crump and other prisoners asked for masks, according to the Washington Post.
"The woman is crazy," Crump said.
Fenty said Thursday that besides at least one contact with child welfare officials, the family had at least one brush with D.C. police.
According to court records, Jacks was charged in January 2007 with driving an unregistered vehicle. In February, she paid a $175 fine and the case was dismissed.
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Add a Comment See all 138 Comments
- Many use nutcase religiosity such as this sad case as an excuse to not believe in God. Do these same people turn away from electricity or plumbing in their home because of jackleg electricians or plumbers who fouled up their utilities? Of course not! they find someone who knows how to plumb or wire properly.
When we are all lined up in the great judgement, there will be no one to hide behind and point fingers saying that guy was an idiot and I do not believe in God because of how that idiot lived their stupid life. So someone living stupid is your reason for your choices?
And if it turns out there is no God after all and there is nothingness after life, what does it matter what anyone believes or how they lived, i.e. Hilter went to the same nothingness as the innocent children he murdered in the holocaust.
So there must be something to true Chrisianity. Don't let one demon possessed or mentally ill women make your choices for you. Unless you are using her mixed up tragic life as an excuse for the choices you have already made.
p.s. God does hate religion. He said so in the Bible. He wants us to live from the heart, not rituals and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. - Reply to this comment
- I found the postings disturbing becaue they were so biased against religion as a whole. To make such assumptions from just the vague information provided by the reporter. The commentaries reveal strong prejudices against Christianity which have been cultivated by society''s authors, professors or teachers who promote negative half truths about people who believe in God.
Christianity has been so distorted by charlatans and the mega church business enterprises which are so far from what the Messiah Jesus taught. He never advocated violence against anyone who did not follow his teachings. Just read the Scriptures for yourself particularly what he taught personally.
Many of those who were tried as witches were actually Christians who refused to worship the hierarchy and placed their trust in God instead. Read history for yourself during the dark ages when many "Christians" were persecuted for their faith.
If anyone was possessed by an evil spirit, it was this woman who murdered her children. In the Chrisian religion, Jesus set free many who were demon possessed, but nowhere did God instruct any disciple to murder a demon possessed person. Just look at the percentage of movies that are being produced today which present plots with demon possession which do not endorse any faith only fear. It is lamentable that there was no one close to this family to rescue the girls from a disturbed parent. - Reply to this comment
- Ye don''t get it. Pssters they want yer money.That is all. The church is a corp./business. People use to help each other. Not today. It is so sad. I went a church service and they made me the centre of attn and I was uncomfortable WITH that. I was no different other than legal blindness. My walk with Jesus is Him and me.
- Reply to this comment
- No, it is not becoming more commonplace, only the reporting of it is. You seem to have missed the part in the bible where Solomon wrote to his nephew that those who say that modern times are worse than former times are fools. Therefore, you have also rejected wisdom in the holy texts, which you only use to justify hatred for other people, while hiding behind the supposition that they don''''t follow your version.
Posted by brianbwb at 12:07 AM : Jan 12, 2008
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read proverbs and ecclesiastes and discover who is "foolish "
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What you list as the symptoms of being "controlled by sin" are simply your own discriminations, and come not from Satan, but from yourself, as those who practice your "vices" do so not because of Satan, but from their own volition.
Posted by brianbwb at 12:13 AM : Jan 12, 2008
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The bible says when you choose God to lead your life, you choose righteousness, however if one chooses to do evil ,you have chosen to serve satan, the father of lies. Whom do you serve?? - Reply to this comment
- A perfect storm of dysfuntion, all too common today.
Mental illness. Too much religion, not enough education, dead beat dads.
Really bad choices.
Tragedy.
Posted by yamuttya at 11:34 AM : Jan 11, 2008
Posted by yamuttya
Too much Religion? Why, because a crazy woman who murdered her children said they were possessed by demons? Any mention of her going to church. Any mention at all of God?
Dead beat dads? What about a woman who has *** with so many different men that she takes them all to court to determine paternity? - Reply to this comment
- A perfect storm of dysfuntion, all too common today.
Mental illness. Too much religion, not enough education, dead beat dads.
Really bad choices.
Tragedy.
Posted by yamuttya at 11:34 AM : Jan 11, 2008 - Reply to this comment
- Thing is that there are different types of mental illnesses and she must have been suffering from this for along time. The sad thing is , beside the fact that those poor children had to suffer such deaths, is that she didn''t have the family or friend ties to see what was going on and help her. I mean that''s what other people are for. People need people!!! As People need God! But we are too caught up in our own troubles that we just ignore the fact that we could help others and therefor help ourselves! As for the not being able to read the Bible, you don''t have to that''s why we have Church with pastors. Like I said before, People can help other People!
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- I LIVE WITH A MENTALLY ILL PERSON FOR ALL MOST 25 YEARS. He has never ever hurt me. I have a copy of the bible. I don''t base my life on as I can''t read it. It is above my reading level. Heaven has to be better this. We can go to space but we can''t help this.
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- This woman is obviously mentally ill, as far as her religion goes it is not stated what religion she believed in. A mental competency exam should be given to her. This is a sad case that should never occured.
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- This reminds me of the witch hunts in New Endland when they killed men,women and children saying they were witches. Fatatical christians will AND do kill. I CAN''T understand parents kill their children that are LIVING. Miss Jacks will sit in prisom. Does she know why..The children may they rest in peace.
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- "Well, whats insane? What does it look like in a bar? So that I can avoid it.."Posted by dougandslug
Ever see someone who drinks until they vomit? Theres a hint right there. Ever see those who, after they vomit, try to order another drink? An even stronger hint. A barfight? Yep, another one. It is all self abuse, which is just one form of insanity. Insanity can be temporary or permanent, ya takes yer choice, and pays the price. - Reply to this comment
- Posted by dougandslug
Your personal description of schizophrenia was interesting, have you ever considered that the "other voice" you hear is also yourself, simply involuntarily disconnected from your whole being, because of a guilt imposed during your childhood? That your teachers, parents, religious leaders, in forcing you to hold opposing ideas in your head (theirs and yours) brainwashed you into disassociating yourself with those thoughts that don''t fit what they were forcing upon you? - Reply to this comment
- Killing you''''re kids or anyone, is right and directly from non other than satan ,you''''re own chosen god.
Posted by jankebenz
Yet, I remember reading posts where you support the killing of innocent Iraqis, only because the Arabic name for the God of Abraham is Allah.
What you list as the symptoms of being "controlled by sin" are simply your own discriminations, and come not from Satan, but from yourself, as those who practice your "vices" do so not because of Satan, but from their own volition. - Reply to this comment
- Parents killing their own children is becoming evermore commonplace, and still you say we don''''t need God and reject the truth. The bible rightly labels you as "fools" .
Posted by jankebenz
No, it is not becoming more commonplace, only the reporting of it is. You seem to have missed the part in the bible where Solomon wrote to his nephew that those who say that modern times are worse than former times are fools. Therefore, you have also rejected wisdom in the holy texts, which you only use to justify hatred for other people, while hiding behind the supposition that they don''t follow your version. - Reply to this comment
- The twisted ramblings on religion on this site make it clear that this poor soul did not operate in a vacuum.
The state of American so-called " Christianity " today is an obvious trainwreck as proven by these silly and misguided comments.
Name calling, mystical nonsense, racist stupidity,on and on....
America , heal thyself. - Reply to this comment
- Donnie; I know you are Schizophrenic, Thats fine, but arguing with your other self is counter-productive.
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- Anyone who murders a child should be put down, insane or not. They cannot be rehabilitated. Andrea Yates should be the first. Why are people having *** with insane people anyway? If they are crazy enough to murder their own do you really want to establish a relationship with them? Vexing issue.
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- "And I am sorry no Christian could commit a murder!!!!"
Posted by Keithle1 at 09:34 PM : Jan 11, 2008
He didn''t say A Christian could/would not kill, he said a Christian could not murder, Please Google the difference. - Reply to this comment
- The term "Christian" is all too easily used by too many people. Christ himself said that even the demons believe, but we know they are definitly not christians. Jesus said they (real christians ) would be known by the fruits of the spirit ie love, kindness,joy, peace,self control,ect. Those who are controlled by sin would be known by the obvious, sexual immorality,impurity,fits of rage,malice ,hatred,selfishness,jealousy,drunkenness,ect, ect. Killing you''re kids or anyone, is right and directly from non other than satan ,you''re own chosen god.
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- WHAT! She murdered four people? Without a GUN? How is that possible? People don''t kill people, GUNS kill people! Just ask schoollord!
- Reply to this comment
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