A U.K. family of three is now facing charges for a string of alleged violent crimes they insist were supernaturally caused by an Ouija board, The Northern Echo reported.
Margaret Carroll and her daughter Katrina Livingstone were using an Ouija board at their Consett, County Durham, home last Friday night when it told them they were going to die, a neighbor who spoke to the daughter told the newspaper.
By Saturday morning, emergency responders were called to the home in response to a fire at the property.
The 60-year-old mother and 37-year-old daughter, reportedly found outside in the garden, were taken to a hospital where they remain in critical condition and were placed under arrest for arson.
"The property itself is gutted. The roof is gone. The cause is still under investigation. It is a suspicious fire," Damian Brennan of the County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service told The Northern Echo.
Details about the nature of the mother and daughter's condition are sketchy, but apparently they are being treated for issues not related to the fire.
In the meantime Carroll's husband, 51-year-old Paul Carroll, is currently awaiting sentencing after he pleaded guilty to killing and dismembering his pet dog.
Paul Carroll initially told police he believed the dog was killed by a spirit following a séance with the Ouija board last Christmas.
"The defendant said the dog had died while he and his wife were using a Ouija board to contact dead spirits," prosecutor Blair Martin, told the newspaper.
"He said a bad spirit had entered the dog and it died."
Carroll, who has mental health issues, later admitted to drowning his pet, chopping up the body and dumping the pieces in a drain located in the back of a pub. The carcass was discovered when the pub called a drainage company about blockage problems.
He is expected to be sentenced Feb. 24.
