Crime

Haiti Police: Four More Arrests after Death of Four Young Siblings

JACMEL, Haiti (defend.ht) - Police in the Sud-Est carried out the arrest of four suspects in the town of Jacmel Friday evening for their involvement in the death of four young children in the nearby town of Marbial Thursday night. According to one arrested, a lwa had asked for the children.

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Saturday 08.04.12 | Police Spokesman Jacques Petit
Reporter Katia Jean-Pierre
Anchor Lilliane Pierre-Paul for Radio Kiskeya

Friday 08.03.12 | Police Spokesman Jacques Petit
Reporter Katia Jean-Pierre for Radio Kiskeya

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Hougan (Vodou Priest) Wilfred Louverture, the brother in law of the mother of the children, Dieusula Saint-Surin, the wife of Louverture and sister of the mother of the children, an unnamed brother of Louverture and another unnamed woman were arrested, when found hiding in the home of Louverture's uncle in nearby Jacmel. Including the mother of the children, Sud-Est Police have arrested 5 adults in the, still, ongoing investigation.

Interrogators say the children's mother, Andre-Marc Chery, Hougan Louverture and Saint-Surin admitted to having orchestrated the act and called the other two individuals to assist them.

Spokesman for the police, Jacques Olnicent Petit says the mother is the original author of the crime which has not yet been determined to be murder or man-slaughter.

Petit says different motives were given as to why the children were beaten to death. One claim is that a lwa (or Loa, Vodou spirit) would give money to the family for the murder of the children. Another says the children were possessed by lwas and were exorcised - in this case, beat. In both cases, a number of different objects were used to beat the children.

The children, three girls and a boy named, Mirlande, 7, Tony, 4, Sophiana, 3, Florana, 1, were, in earlier reports, claimed to have been ill and took medicine produced by Hougan Wilfred Louverture on Thursday night. But police noticed the following morning when called to the home that two of the children had both their eyes gouged and all had contusions on their body and signs of trauma to their heads.

It is remains unclear by who or under what circumstances that law enforcement was notified.