Back in February, 43-year-old Latarsha Sanders of Brockton, Massachusetts admitted to stabbing her two boys to death with a kitchen knife in a bizarre “voodoo ritual.” She told investigators that the ritual “failed” with the elder son, Marlon, aged 8, and so she felt as though she had to stab the younger Lason, aged 5, as well.
Now, new evidence has emerged that shows Sanders may have had some financial motivation to commit the heinous crime.
During her arraignment earlier this week Assistant District Attorney Jessica Kenny told the judge Sanders wrote in her journal months prior to the murder of her sons about “setting up GoFundMe campaigns for members of her family, with the money going to ‘whoever has the best story.'” In addition, she had set up a PO Box to receive “fan mail.”
“The indication from the notebook is that she anticipated money coming in and set up the P.O. box to receive fan mail,” Kenny said. “That may have been her mindset.”
The court also heard that Sanders has been in contact with family members since her arrest, urging them to do media interviews. Apparently she is disappointed that they’ve mostly stayed out of the public eye as they mourn the loss of these two precious boys.
So far, it’s unclear what exactly Sanders meant by “voodoo stuff” when she confessed to stabbing her boys more than 100 times. Her family told investigators that in the years leading up to the boys’ murder, she’d been watching a lot of fringe videos online surrounding the “Illuminati.” One theme present in the crazier of these videos is ritual child sacrifice. Family members had become increasingly concerned with her obsession. Sanders’ medical history does not show any diagnosis of mental illness, however a reasonable person might argue that one cannot be entirely stable if they sincerely believe killing children will appease the fictional world cabal of the darkest recesses of the Internet.
“We don’t have a lot of clarity to a lot of the things she was saying at this point,” said Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz in February.
Sanders has pleaded not guilty and is currently being held without bail.
