- A couple have been charged with murdering a six-year-old
girl whose back was broken in what police said may have been an exorcism
gone wrong.
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- The husband and wife were arrested in Atlanta after being
spotted on the street naked in the freezing cold along with two other children.
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- Christopher Carey, 29, and Valerie Carey, 27, who had
been staying in a motel room in the Georgia city, were charged with murder,
the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported yesterday.
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- They initially were accused of cruelty to children, public
indecency, and obstruction of police and were taken to a psychiatric ward.
They were later moved to Fulton County Jail.
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- Police said the dead girl had been strangled and stabbed,
and her back was broken.
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- John Quigley, a police spokesman, said it seemed that
the couple were aware that "a child was in that room and something
had been done".
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- Based on what the adults said, investigators believed
"they were involved possibly in a ritual of some sort. It may have
had something to do with undemonising the child in some manner."
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- It is understood that pages ripped from a Bible were
found on the floor in the motel room.
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- Police learned of the death in the early hours of Monday
when the man and woman were seen walking naked down Piedmont Avenue with
two children, aged two and seven, Mr Quigley said.
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- The seven-year-old provided investigators with information
that led them to the Savannah Suites, an extended-stay motel, near the
Atlanta Civic Centre, where they found the girl's body.
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- The two adults had apparently been living there for some
time, and getting financial help, Mr Quigley said. Police are awaiting
the results of a post-mortem examination to determine how the child died.
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- Mr Quigley added: "The child had been brutalised.
The child's body was severely broken. I'm not aware of an instrument or
weapon at the moment."
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- He said they would use DNA testing to determine whether
the six-year-old was the Careys' daughter because Mr Carey had made statements
that raised questions about her identity.
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- Police were yesterday talking to the occupants of nearby
rooms at the motel. A receptionist at Savannah Suites said no-one was prepared
to comment.
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- Dominic Heard, director of social service for Crossroads
Ministries, said the family were new in town and needed shelter until Mr
Carey found work.
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- Phillip Thomason, a pastor at St Mark's United Methodist
Church, said the church had helped the family pay its rent since the summer.
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- He said: "They seemed normal. They weren't in the
drug crowd. They didn't have people in and out."
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- The children also appeared well cared for. "They
weren't kids you would think would be abused. They were happy kids."
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- He said Mr Carey was always "respectful and thankful",
and he had seen no evidence of alcohol or drug use.
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