Normally NewsCenter 16 does not report suicides, however, police and school officials are urging parents to talk to their children surrounding the case.

Suicide note pointed to Wicca beliefs
Sources close to the case say early Saturday morning, Sarah Casey and Debra Jean Kawaguchi, both just 13-years-old, walked onto the tracks as a train approached.

According to those close to the case, the girls allegedly left a note saying they killed themselves because they believed they would be reincarnated. Police believe both girls were involved in the practice of Wicca.

Wicca is an earth-centered religion sometimes known as witchcraft. Police believe the girls may have been helped by the Internet.

Wiccan high priestess sheds light on beliefs
Anne Chesnutt is a Wiccan high priestess.

 

Chesnutt practices witchcraft, but she's shocked at the teens' suicides. 

"It bothers me tremendously. I’m sure they got a great deal of misinformation."

Namely, Wicca supporting suicide. "One of our greatest laws is whatever you do, comes back to you three times over. So if you go out and hurt somebody, you're going to be in a world of hurt yourself." 

Chestnutt won't teach teens Wicca because it's so complex but she realizes curiosity about the occult can lead teens astray.

"A lot of teens are involved unfortunately, because they have no guidance, they get stuff off the Internet which may or may not be right. There's just so much garbage out there and so much that's off the track."

Talk to your children
Steve Sailor, the assistant superintendent for Knox Schools, says, Maybe this is a wakeup call for a lot of parents to understand and be aware of what kids are involved in."

School officials are providing counselors for students. 

Police are continuing their investigation and hoping to talk to other students to determine how many other students might practice Wicca and expect this is only the beginning of discussion of this topic in their community.

Red flag for parents
Child psychiatrists say the suicide of these two teenagers should send up a red flag for parents. Whether the suicides of Debra Jean Kawaguchi and Sarah Casey was prompted by associations with Wicca, by depression, or a combination of both, mental health professionals say families should talk about these issues together.

Doctors say that at 13 years of age, the mind isn't fully developed and children searching for an identity don't often realize the consequences of their actions.

Dr. Norris Newton with the Madison Center says a combination of depression and dabbling in new religions can be dangerous if the teens aren't talking to their parents. 

"At 13 they should, the family should, be dealing with religious concepts together. I think the 13-year-old mind is not sophisticated enough to appreciate the nuances of not just Wicca, but any sort of religious tenet." 

With the enormous amount of information about groups and religions, like Wicca, on the Internet, psychiatrists advise parents to watch that activity closely and talk with teens about their interests, and state of mind.

 

Some of you may know Patty. Patty is an empath and a psychic. Once in a while, she will have details mixed up with other events, but Patty has an amazing track record when it comes to connecting with dead persons and getting basic information, such as death causes. Patty went and read this news story, and this is what she got:

Girls were best friends. 13-year-old female hormones raging. Book worms. No good connect with social peer groups. A football game and no invitation to the dance which followed. Life was not good. Trying things from books and movies and Websites which were more fun than life. Not studying Wicca or any other religion. Parents (and other responsible adults) shrugging them off with, "This will pass." A "PlayStation" vision of reality where you can exit a game which is not going well -- and restart a new game and try to do it better (reincarnation). So messed up emotionally and image-wise that they were not phased by the messiness of using a train as their "Quit" button. And that brings us back to parents (and other responsible adults) shrugging them off with, "This will pass."

They were right; it did pass.

One wonders, what were the lessons those two girls came here to learn? Will they be disappointed in their "Restart" options? Is there any way that we could have reached those two girls and taught them that their situation was only temporary, and, as Patty says, "suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem?"