The parents of a three-year-old boy have been charged with his murder after allegedly starving him to death and subjecting him to severe abuse when a fortune teller convinced them he was a demon.
Elias, born in Tyrol, Austria, died weighing only seven kilograms as a result of months of malnutrition and dehydration, an autopsy found.
His parents, Kevin, 25, and Nathalie M.,26 , have been arrested and are accused of having ‘psychologically and physically abused their child in the most gruesome way’.
A psychological evaluation has determined that the mother and father exhibited a personality disorder with ‘sadistic traits’, reported German outlet Bild.
Nathalie was allegedly persuaded by a fortune teller that a demon resided within Elias and it was responsible for the family’s distressing financial situation.
The demon, she was told, had to be weakened and destroyed.
‘The public prosecutor’s office assumes that the parents were creating an outlet for their pent-up emotions and acting out their sadistic tendencies,’ Chief Public Prosecutor Hansjörg Mayr told Tiroler Tageszeitung newspaper.
In addition to allegedly starving Elias, the parents are accused of tying him up and blindfolding him, beating him with a wooden spoon, and subjecting him to periods of isolation.
Elias, born in Tyrol, Austria, died weighing only seven kilograms as a result of months of malnutrition and dehydration, an autopsy found
Elias died on Sunday May 19 last year, and his father apparently called the police a day later
The parents are understood to have continued feeding Elias’ three sisters – one of whom is his twin – throughout the period of alleged negligence, reported oe24.
‘They isolated the boy from the rest of the family and locked him away, completely dehumanising, humiliating, and terrifying him,’ prosecutor Mayr alleged.
‘They beat him with a wooden spoon, bound his hands and feet with cable ties, and at times also blindfolded him.’
He died on Sunday May 19 last year, and his father apparently called the police a day later.
His mother claimed the child had been unwell and had no appetite in recent weeks, and a doctor’s appointment had been ‘scheduled soon’.
On the Friday before his death, prosecutors claimed that the family went out to celebrate the eldest daughter’s birthday at McDonald’s, without Elias attending.
Over the weekend, they also apparently attended a medieval festival in Kufstein without him.
The parents were remanded in custody, over ‘strong suspicion of murder by torture and omission,’ the Innsbruck Regional Court said.
They face a life sentence over allegedly ‘failing to provide the three-year-old boy with adequate food and fluids for a period of at least several weeks,’ Mayr said.
They are also accused of not ‘contacting a doctor despite the obvious deterioration of his health and his apparent weight loss, so that the child died as a result of his massive malnutrition’.
The family moved into the apartment in Ebbs, Kufstein in September 2021 – three years before the death of Elias.
Elias’s grandmother, 51, defended her son and daughter-in-law, telling Bild: ‘They’re not murderers.’
‘We didn’t see this coming,’ she said. ‘I raised my children well, there were never any problems.’
‘Elias was often with me; he was sickly,’ she added. ‘But what could I do? His parents are adults.’