Family Tragedy | 03/30/2009 12:25 pm
Kerby Revelus Beheads 5-Year-Old Sister Bianca
Saraphina Revelus, age 9
Two sisters are dead while a third sister recovers from several knife wounds after their 23-year-old brother — who suffered from depression — allegedly went on a killing rampage. The acts were so gruesome that investigators who witnessed Kerby Revelus fatally stab his 17-year-old sister, violently stab his nine-year-old sister (pictured above) and behead his five-year-old sister, have taken a leave of absence.
Boston police officials walked into the Revelus’s home to investigate a domestic disturbance complaint. The scene:
They kicked in an upstairs door, only to watch Revelus, armed with a kitchen knife, grab his five-year-old sister, Bianca, and sever her head. Then he moved to the bedroom and turned the knife on nine-year-old Saraphina and began stabbing her. A third sister, 17-year-old Samantha, already had been stabbed to death in the same room.
The police finally shot Revelus dead and investigators are trying to determine what fueled him.
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45 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment
Unfortunately there have always been horrible things like this - and they do get reported but I think after the initial shock and outrage, the public would rather put such thoughts away. It’s too creepy to dwell on it for long.
Lizzie Borden, 1892; Wineville Chicken Coop murders, 1928 (inspiration for "The Changeling"); Poe Elementary School Attack, 1959; Mary Bell, 1968; DeFeo murders, 1974 (inspiration for "The Amityville Horror"); Theresa Cross, 1984; Menendez brothers, 1989; just to name a few awful cases… and then you have endless examples of parents murdering their kids…the more you look around, the more you find records of horrific acts through the ages.
So horrible, and so true. Before technology let us know about crimes like this in places so far away, it probably just seemed like they happened every once in a while, randomly, but now we get instant reports when they happen even in the middle of nowhere (not that Boston is that, obviously) or on the other side of the world, like that school shooting in Germany that happened right around the same time as the shooting in Alabama.
It DOES seem like there has been an odd cluster of shootings lately, though. Alabama, the one in Germany, then NC.
Those poor girls. The poor investigators. I can’t imagine trying to get those images out of their heads… I’m not sure I ever could. And the guilt they probably feel, whether they could have done anything or not. I feel awful for them.
I’m horrified beyond words. Was there any word on the whereabouts of the parents?
Well, even if the parents were not there, leaving the younger ones in the care of a responsible 17 year old is reasonable. I saw nothing that indicates that the sister was anything other than a responsible person; she was calling 911 to get help for the others while she realized she was dying.
It is very sad, but some of what I have read elsewhere is that they believe he was schizophrenic and this is a result of his mental illness. Untreated schizophrenia does sometimes result in violent behavior, and it can happen without much warning.
It is amazing that the police were able to respond so quickly. It speaks volumes about the value of having foot patrols in neighborhoods.