THE ACCIDENTAL EXORCIST

THE ACCIDENTAL EXORCIST Part 2

Much to the dismay of the public, the court found Cheryl Morgan not guilty by reason of insanity.

Even though the D.A. dismissed Abby and her reports which concluded that the defendant was in fact criminally insane at the time she committed the murders, the defense under Jodi Bauer, found another expert witness to testify to the same effect. None of the crimes were premeditated, nor was there enough evidence to show intent, so she should therefore not be held responsible for the killings.

Bauer knew how strong a case they had and didn't have much difficulty convincing Ted Morgan, the defendant's husband and father of the victims, to persuade Cheryl to reject the D.A.'s late offer for a plea bargain.

Unlike Rusty Yates, former husband of Andrea Yates, the Texas mother who drowned her five children, Ted Morgan remained married to his wife, though Cheryl had been committed to the Spring Valley Institute out in El Centro.

For the next two years, Abby kept in touch with him for updates because she had developed a deep-seated fascination for Cheryl's condition. She also communicated with Cheryl's doctors over this period of time. Apparently, given the proper therapy and medication-which she never had prior to the tragedy-she was doing remarkably well. Her doctor would soon clear her for release and reintegration into society.

Ever since the court declared Cheryl not guilty and sent her to Spring Valley, Abby had become somewhat obsessed with the strange manifestations of her mental illness.

In other case studies resembling Cheryl's, Abby found several commonalities: acute personality shifts, vocal modulation, and emotional manipulation of people around the subject-some leading to self-inflicted fatalities.

Among those similarities, one peculiar factor showed up in the files of more than two of the fifteen she'd examined: Questionable paranormal theories. At first she thought of Sergeant Grimes and her ridiculous voodoo conjectures. But over time, alone in her La Jolla apartment, staring out into the surging moonlit waves, she wondered, Are you truly open-minded, Abby?

To prove to herself she was, the very next day she delved into the N.O.S. (Not otherwise specified) subfolders of the following subjects: Marc Lucian, Josephine Damon, and Marley Fitch, each of whose N.O.S. subfolders contained over five pages of documented activity prior to their suicides. None of them had turned violent towards others as Cheryl had, but they did exhibit the same symptoms along with some unexplained phenomenon. Oddly enough, each of these ancillary reports had been filed by members of the clergy, Catholic, Pentecostal, and Southern Baptist.

Ms. Damon had repeatedly cut her wrists, but despite the bleeding which should have killed her each time, she survived. Mr. Lucian was reported to have put a Jesuit priest in the E.R. because he had somehow caused glass picture frames and vases to fly around the room and hurtle at Father McGhee's head. Five stitches were required.

But the strangest of all was Ms. Fitch. She exhibited vocal modulation (in chorus) and radical shifts in personalities. Two of her home care attendants committed suicide within the year before she took her own life.

Abby had not been able to reach any of the clergymen who had worked with these subjects, but did notice the word "exorcism" noted on two of the N.O.S. reports-Lucian's and Fitch's.

It was then that she closed the files.

Exorcism indeed.

She hadn't been to church since she left for college, but even then, this was something she never quite understood. Though she knew many Bible stories, and even memorized many of the scriptures as a child, the stories of demons were always too frightening for her. She always avoided them. Always.

Nevertheless, in the interest of complete openness to possibilities, she decided to email several of her colleagues and peers about the idea of a spiritual component in these cases.

Now, given that each of them had at least one or two PhD's each, the tone of their responses surprised her.

Dr. Keith Madden: Are you out of your frikkin' mind? (pardon the expression).

Dr. Yelena Svetlanova: If you think the answer lies in devils and occultism, you should turn in your degree and stop by the local Shaman-Mart. I hear they're having a half-price sale on crystals, rattles, and drums.

Kenneth Thomas, PhD: Psychologist, heal thyself!

Only one person replied with a modicum of decency. Freidrich Koehler, professor at UCSD, renowned for his studies on unclassified psychological phenomena. Besides being the most respected authority in his field, he had been her doctoral advisor and mentor.

He simply wrote back: Come see me tomorrow, 8:00AM, BYOC (Bring your own coffee.)