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Who is Jack Callahan? Massachusetts boy, 19, drowns alcoholic dad while 'exorcising demon'

Massachusetts teen Jack Callahan drowned his alcoholic father while baptizing him and attempting to exorcise his demon called 'Dirty Dan'

PLYMOUTH, MASSACHUSETTS: According to a court hearing, a teen drowned his alcoholic father while attempting to exorcise his demons through a late-night baptism in a Massachusetts pond, reports said on Tuesday, June 29. After pleading not guilty to a murder allegation in Plymouth District Court on Tuesday, Jack Callahan was jailed without bail.

Massachusetts has been a crime hotspot recently. Earlier this month, a 49-year-old man was found guilty of killing his elderly mother, 80, and then leaving her organs in a macabre display on the welcome mat near the front door of their home in Lynn. Earlier this month, a Dedham boy, 17, drowned in an ex-cop's pool at a graduation party.

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In other incidents of murder in Massachusetts, a 16-year-old Black girl was found murdered after an altercation in early May, and race may have reportedly played a part in her untimely death. Last year in May, a Massachusetts teen was convicted of the gruesome killing, mutilation, and beheading of his classmate.

Who is Jack Callahan?

Jack Callahan is a 19-year-old from the seaside town of Duxbury, Plymouth, according to The Daily Mail. According to a statement from Plymouth District Attorney Tim Cruz, Callahan was accused of murdering his father, Scott Callahan, in a Duxbury pond and said that he was baptizing him in the water because he saw "demons" in his father's eyes, believing he was exorcising a demon named 'Dirty Dan'.

"I left him there to decide, you can come to heaven with me or hell," he said, according to the news outlet. "I think he chose hell." Describing Callahan as a "very nice young man," Kevin Reddington, Callahan's attorney, urged the judge on Tuesday to commit the teen to Bridgewater State Hospital for a mental health evaluation, claiming that he is a threat to himself. "He's a very nice young man," Reddington said, "He comes from a wonderful family… My client had a concern for his father, knowing that he would be drinking and knowing that he shouldn't be drinking. He was going to try to take him back where he should be."

What did Jack Callahan do?

According to authorities, the incident took place when Callahan went to pick up his father from an alcohol treatment program in order to take him to a club in Boston. His 57-year-old father, who has a traumatic brain injury that affects his decision-making ability, was inebriated by the time Callahan arrived to pick him up. They originally planned to take an Uber home to Duxbery after getting a cab at the pub, but Callahan's mother reportedly told him she didn't want Scott at her house. As a result, they got down near Island Creek Pond in Crocker Park. An altercation erupted between the two when Scott hit Callahan.

"He's missing,” Callahan answered when initially asked about his father's location, adding that he had passed out after he hit. "I don’t know what happened. I blacked out." According to the authorities, when officers arrived at Callahan's home on Sampson Street, they found him "distraught and hyperventilating".

"He described that he was holding his father in the pond on his back like a baby, that he continually dunked his father’s head in the water about four-to-eight times, that when the father started to cough and choke, he would lift his head up and then 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 and floating,” Buckingham said in court, according to CBS.

Scott was found submerged in the pond and was transported to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth, where he was pronounced dead. The chief medical examiner's office is still investigating the cause and manner of death, although the initial report stated that Scott had wet lungs, petechiae in his eyes and abrasion on his skull. Callahan was ordered to be detained in jail without bail, but the judge also ordered that he be evaluated by a court clinician. Callahan is scheduled to appear in court on August 12.