NEW YORK
The Daily Beast
KATE BRIQUELET
Tiffanie Irwin is accused in new court documents of sparking the savage beating that left one teen dead and his brother injured inside a New York church described as a ‘cult.’
The pastor of a reclusive upstate New York church incited her flock to brutally beat two teenage brothers—one to death—by claiming they practiced witchcraft, new court filings allege.
Tiffanie Irwin told members of the Word of Life Christian Church that Lucas and Christopher Leonard used voodoo dolls, sexually fantasized about her, and plotted to kill their own parents, according to documents first published by the Utica Observer-Dispatch.
Those accusations turned deadly the night of Oct. 11, 2015, when members of the Chadwicks church savagely pummeled Lucas Leonard, 19, and Christopher Leonard, 17—kicking, punching, and whipping them with extension cords over a stretch of 14 hours, after they refused to repent for their “sins,” authorities say.
Lucas Leonard died of his injuries Oct. 12 after relatives rushed him to a hospital. An autopsy revealed he suffered multiple contusions to the torso and extremities. His brother survived and is now under the care of the state.
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