Prosecutor: Teenager allegedly drowns intoxicated father in attempt to exorcise his demons

A Massachusetts teenager allegedly killed his father in a pond and told police he was baptizing the victim in order to exorcise demonic spirits, including one he called “Dirty Dan,” prosecutors said.\

Jack Callahan, 19, was arraigned and charged with murder in Plymouth District Court on June 29.

According to prosecutor Shanan Buckingham, at around 2 a.m. the night before, Callahan and 57-year-old Scott Callahan were in an Uber on their way to Duxbury from Boston, where the son allegedly had gone to pick the victim up from a bar because he was concerned about him.

“The defendant in the Uber used the Uber driver’s phone to make a phone call to his mother, where his mother was overheard saying that he could not bring the victim to their house,” Buckingham said in court, WHDH reported. “It was believed at the time from witnesses that the victim appeared to be intoxicated.”

According to Buckingham, the defendant then told the Uber driver to drop him and his father off near Island Creek Pond in Duxbury.

“He went on to state — in this incident at the pond — that he believed he was baptizing his father. He described that he was holding his father in the pond, on his back, like a baby,” Buckingham said. “He continually dunked the father’s head in the water, about four to eight times…When the father started to fight and strike him, he pushed the head back down into the water. He did so until his father was no longer struggling.”

The suspect’s mother, who WHDH reported was divorced from the victim, phoned for help after her son returned home wearing wet clothing.

According to the news station, Buckingham claimed in court the father had issues battling substance abuse and he had suffered a brain injury that left him with “questionable” executive functions.

Witnesses allegedly claimed to investigators the victim’s son had ongoing mental health issues, which had “recently surfaced," the prosecutor also noted.

He is being held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing.