Girl in Coma After Being Set on Fire in Satanic Ritual

By Gabrielle Devenish, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, October 25, 2011

An 18-year-old South African girl is in a coma after she and a friend were set on fire in a satanic ritual, local media reported Monday.

Kirsty Theologo is scheduled to have surgery Tuesday after 75 percent of her body was burned from the waist up, her sister, Samantha Theologo, told the local Daily News. Doctors are worried about Kirsty Theologo’s recovery, Samantha said, because her lungs and throat were damaged.

Kirsty Theologo and her 16-year-old friend went with a group of five boys and three girls to a hill known as a popular teenage hangout on Friday night, according to Samantha. Local teenagers say the hill is a well-known place for teens to hang out and drink on the weekends, the local publication reported.

The family of the other victim – Kirsty’s friend, who is recovering in a private hospital – told the Theologo family the boys had decided that the two would be sacrificed in some sort of satanic ritual, according to the Daily News.

Samantha Theologo said the boys poured gasoline over Kirsty and set her on fire. When the 16-year-old friend tried to put out the flames by rolling Kirsty in the sand, she too was burned.

The group then scattered and ran away.

“In the state she was in, my sister made sure they walked to safety,” Samantha Theologo told the daily. “She walked all the way to Rosettenville – about 2km away.”

“I wasn’t home, but my mom told me she found my sister in the bathroom washing her face. My mom said it was horrific,” she said, calling the situation “a nightmare.”

A medical source told the Star that the teenagers were driven to South Rand Hospital by their pastor, then transferred to other hospitals. The source said a third girl told the hospital that the boys cut her hand and held it over a Bible so that the blood could soak it, while Kirsty Theologo was burnt.

Provincial police spokeswoman Captain Pinky Tsingane said the girls were tied up and there was speculation the attack was a satanic ritual, but they still needed to investigate, according to the Daily News.

A case of attempted murder was opened.

By late Monday, two boys, aged 19 and 21, had handed themselves in at the Booysens police station, Tsingane said.