Teenage girl dies after she’s burned alive by friends in ‘satanic ritual’

An 18-year-old South African woman was in a coma Monday after being doused in petrol and burned alive by friends in a Johannesburg park, in what police suspect was a satanic ritual. According to the police the girl set ablaze has died a week later.

Kirsty Theologo suffered burns over three quarters of her body, damaging her lungs and throat, when she was set alight in a park in southern Johannesburg, her sister Samantha told The Star newspaper.

A 16-year-old girl tried to put out the flames by rolling Theologo in the sand, burning herself in the process, the paper said. She was also hospitalised.

Samantha Theologo claimed the group ran away, telling South African media that her sister and the other girl had to walk two kilometres for help.

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

The Star cited a medical source as saying the girls were driven to hospital by their pastor.

While Kirsty was burning, one boy cut a third girl’s hand and held it over a Bible so that the blood could soak it, according to one of the girls who was in the group, the paper said.

Provincial police spokeswoman Captain Pinky Tsingane said the girls had been tied up and there was speculation the attack was a satanic ritual. Four black men aged 18-21 who took part in the incident turned themselves in on Sunday, the paper added.

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