Parents of 4-year-old Missouri girl allegedly murdered by neighbors to remove a ‘demon’ have pleaded not guilty to allegations in the case
COLE CAMP, Mo. – The parents of a 4-year-old Missouri girl, reportedly murdered by neighbors to remove a “demon,” pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges related to the case.
Mary S. Mast, 29, and James A. Mast, 28, both from Lincoln, Missouri, were charged Thursday with endangering felony children resulting in death and being jailed without a bond. They don’t have lawyers yet.
During their arraignment on Monday, Associate Judge Mark Brandon Pilley also denied the couple’s request to attend the girl’s funeral, according to online court records. A hearing on the bonds was scheduled for January 5.
The couple’s other children, a 2-year-old son and a baby, were taken into protective custody, Benton County Sheriff Eric Knox said in a press release.
The girl was found dead in the family home on December 20. Knox said she was badly beaten and submerged in a freezing cold pond as part of what appeared to be a “ religious episode. ”
Neighbors across the street Ethan Mast, 35, and Kourtney Aumen, 21, were charged with second-degree murder and other crimes last week. Both are stuck without a band. Ethan Mast is not believed to be related to James and Mary Mast, Knox said.
Both families attend the same church, but Knox said the actions involving the girl are not allowed by the church, which he declined to name.
“The investigation conducted so far indicates that this is an isolated incident and NOT the actions of a cult,” Knox wrote in a press release on the department’s Facebook page.
A probable cause statement from Benton County Sgt. Chris Wilson said the girl was already dead and had “severe purple bruises” all over her body, along with torn blisters, when he was called to the house.
Knox said the girl’s parents had also been hit with the 2-year-old. The child was unharmed.
James Mast told investigators that he and his wife had observed the beating of their daughter, but were told they would be beaten or shot if they tried to intervene.
Still, Wilson asked James Mast ‘how he could get people to do this to his family and he said they were told (his wife) had a’ demon ‘in her and that her children would end up just like her if not taken care of became. Wilson wrote in the likely cause statement.
Ethan Mast told investigators that on Dec. 19, he and Aumen used a leather belt to hit the girl, the statement said. She was then taken to a pond behind the house where she was “submerged” in the water on a day when temperatures were high in the 1940s.
Ethan Mast said everyone returned to the victims’ homes afterward. It was not clear when the child died.
Benton County, with a population of about 19,000, is located 100 miles southeast of Kansas City, Missouri.