Jun 19, 2009 12:26 pm US/Eastern
Woman Charged In Voodoo Ritual Burning Of Daughter
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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The Queens district attorney told CBS 2 HD that this house was the site of a horrific incident in which a mother and grandmother burned a 6-year-old girl in a Haitian voodoo ritual.
CBS
A woman from Queens is behind bars Friday morning, accused of burning her six-year-old daughter during an apparent voodoo ritual.
The bizarre ritual, called "Loa," allegedly took place in the basement of the woman's two-family Queens Village home.
29-year-old Marie Lauradin, a Haitian immigrant, stands accused of trying to drive evil spirits out of her six-year-old daughter by setting her on fire.
"It's alleged that the child was placed by the mother in a ring of fire, and an accelerant was poured on her body," Queens District Attorney Richard Brown says. "She ended up being burned over 25 percent of her body."
This voodoo horror allegedly took place last February, and the little girl spent close to two months in the hospital recovering from her injuries. It wasn't until she was in foster care and felt comfortable with her new foster family that she told them how she received her scars for life, both physically and emotionally.
"The mother was alleged to have told the medical staff that the child was burned as a result of a pot of boiling rice, on the stove, that accidentally fell upon her," Brown says.
The little girl's grandmother claimed she didn't witness the voodoo ritual, but told prosecutors she waited a day before taking the little girl to the hospital. Neighbors are horrified.
"They're in the basement, and I am in the basement, and I didn't hear anything," neighbor Katherine Martinez says. "This happened in February, and just to know the whole time, I don't know what they've been doing."
Lauradin has been barred from having any contact with her daughter. She's been charged with assault and endangering the welfare of a child, and faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.
The girl's grandmother would get seven years if convicted.
The mother is being held on $50,000 bail; the grandmother on $7,500.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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