"The only demonic presence this child had to worry about was her mother." Those chilling words were said by a Queens judge as he sentenced Marie Lauradin, a 29 year-old Queens resident, to 17 years in prison for setting her six-year-old daughter on fire in 2009.
In the time leading up to the trial, Lauradin had changed her story about lighting her daughter, Frantzcia Saintil, on fire multiple times. At first, she claimed that she had accidentally spilled boiling hot water on Saintil when she approached her from behind. Then, months later explained that she was rubbing alcohol on her daughter to calm her fever, when a candle fell and lit her body on fire.
Lauradin finally caved during the trial and admitted that she had stripped Saintil naked, doused her with accelerant, then lit her on fire, as part of a voodoo ritual known as "Loa." The blaze left Saintil with second and third-degree burns across 25 percent of her body, including her face. Lauradin also reportedly didn't seek medical attention for Saintil until an entire day had passed since the incident.
The Lauradin case once again casts a shadow over voodoo and those who practice it. This past February, a five alarm fire that killed one and injured others was started by a voodoo priest who had performed a ritual involving candles and sex.
