A mental health evaluation has been requested for a 19-year-old man who apparently felt he was exorcising demons from his father before his murder in a Duxbury pond, according to CBS4.
After pleading not guilty to a murder charge in Plymouth District Court on Tuesday, Jack Callahan was ordered to remain in jail, without bail.
Scott Callahan, 57, was discovered dead in Island Creek Pond at Crooker Memorial Park on Monday.
Prosecutors stated during Jack Callahan’s hearing in Plymouth District Court that the defendant told them he went to Boston to find his father, who was in a bar.
Scott Callahan had a long history of drug abuse and was suffering from the effects of a traumatic brain injury, according to both sides.
According to prosecutors, Jack Callahan’s mother did not want her inebriated ex-husband in the family house that night, so the two were dropped off near Island Creek Pond at midnight by an Uber.
According to prosecutors, the defendant informed police that his father had struck him multiple times at the pond, prompting the younger Callahan to “baptize” his father.
‘He believed he was baptizing his father,’ Plymouth Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham said in court.
‘He was holding his father in the pond on his back like a baby and that he continually dunked his head under the water about four to eight times.
‘When his father started to cough and choke, he would lift his head up. And when the father started fighting, he would strike him and push his head back down into the water.’
Callahan continued doing this until his father was no longer struggling and floating, Buckingham noted in court.
Jack allegedly explained he had been exorcising a demon named ‘Dirty Dan’.
The judge ordered Callahan to be evaluated by a court clinician, and he will be detained in jail without bail until his next court appearance on August 12, according to the Daily Mail.
