A father from Oklahoma is accused of brutally beating and murdering his 5-year-old daughter because he believed that the child was under the control of witchcraft.
Child abuse and murder
According to KTUL-TV, the federal prosecutors have charged the 29-year-old Adam Raymond Mason of Bristow, Oklahoma, with first-degree murder in connection with the death of his daughter.
The investigators stated that Mason punched, drowned, burned, and murdered the child. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, the child's body was found on August 26 after her mother asked for a welfare check.
The mother got concerned when Mason refused to let her in the house and speak to her daughter. The deputies discovered the girl's burned remains in a creek bed near Mason's residence in Bristow, a small community between Tulsa and Oklahoma City, according to Tulsa World reports.
Mason confessed to the crime and told the authorities that he believed his daughter was controlled by witchcraft, the U.S Attorney's Office said in a press release.
As police were searching for Mason after discovering the girl's body, nearby schools and a childcare program were immediately put on temporary lockdown.
U.S Attorney Trent Shores called the case heartbreaking. Shores said that the alleged victim was set to start kindergarten next week. He added that it is time for the criminal justice system to go to work.
Federal authorities are handling the case because Mason and his daughter are members of the Muscogee Nation, a Native American reservation, and that is where the murder happened. That means that the state of Oklahoma does not have jurisdiction.
In 2011, Mason was convicted of second-degree rape, according to Tulsa World. He was then later incarcerated in 2014 after failing to register as a sex offender.
Similar case
In June 2019, Travis Stackhouse was charged for killing his 5-year-old son over a cheesecake. The boy had bruises on both of his eyes, a cut on his lip and sternum. An autopsy revealed that he suffered blunt force trauma to the abdomen.
According to the boy's caretakers, he fell down the stairs, but the police did not believe the injuries were consistent with the story, as reported by ABC 7.
Stackhouse admitted to punching his son in the stomach and hitting him in the face because the child ate his Father's Day cake, he only had one piece, and he was upset others were eating it. Stackhouse has four other children.
Lori Ann Kuehn, Stackhouse's Defense Attorney said that whether he is responsible or not for this son's death, he is still a grieving father.
According to WISN reports, Stackhouse allegedly requested that his $100,00 bail be lowered so that he can attend the funeral of his son.
Stackhouse initially said that the child fell down the stairs, but another sibling told the police that he did not see his brother fall; instead, he said he observed his father punch his brother and hit his brother across the face with a closed fist.
The commissioner ultimately kept the defendant's bond at $100,000.
