Escambia County Deputies suspect witchcraft was a motivating factor in the savage murders of a mother and her two sons in Pensacola last week.
I’m often frustrated by news reports, whether on the local level or national and even international. Frequently there is little information actually transmitted, with entire articles amounting to little more than sensational, attention-grabbing headlines. Take this current story, for example. Now I understand that there may simply not BE any more established facts to impart; the police statement is awfully sparse. Still, it’s frustrating. The sheriff’s department has said more or less conclusively that “witchcraft” was the motivating factor in the murders of 77-year-old Voncile Smith and her sons Richard, 49, and John, 47, whose bodies were found in the Pensacola home they had shared for almost three decades. Why? They did say that the bodies were arranged in a “ritualistic” fashion, and that a safe in the house, containing several thousand dollars, had been left untouched. Maybe I just watch too much Investigation Discovery, but I crave more details.
The murderer is alluded to as a practitioner of Wicca, which is a nonviolent belief system. Is the killer then perhaps mentally unstable? Is it possible there was another motive for the crime, and then the ritualistic elements were incorporated after the fact, either as a second thought or even to obfuscate the real motive? So many questions left unanswered.