Boy Beaten to Death Claimed Witchcraft

A member of the Word of Life Christian Church has told investigators that the teenage boy who was beaten to death by a group of fellow congregants including his own parents claimed before the beating that he had been practicing witchcraft. Daniel Irwin, 24, told investigators that the church’s pastor, Tiffanie Irwin, claimed at the end of church service on Sunday that someone among them was practicing witchcraft. Lucas Leonard, 19, spoke up and said he was the one, according to Irwin, and that he wanted church members to die and had thought of making a voodoo doll of a church leader. Leonard was beaten to death during a “counseling session” that began Sunday night and ended Monday morning.