Banker’s son, 22, ‘drowns alcoholic dad in baptism-style EXORCISM after picking him up from bar and leaving him in pond – then tells cops: “I left him to decide heaven or hell. He chose hell”
An alcoholic father drowned during an attempted ‘exorcism’ after his son decided to confront the ‘demon’ he saw in his father’s eyes, a Massachusetts court has heard.
Jack Callahan, 22, is on trial for the murder of his father Scott, 57, who was found floating in a pond outside Duxbury by police in June 2021.
The then 19-year-old told police that his father, a banker, was possessed by a demon named “Dirty Dan,” whom he believed could be destroyed through baptism.
Callahan was driving his father home from a bar in Boston when his mother, Wendy, called to say she didn’t want her ex-husband in their house, and the young man asked their cab driver to pull over next to the pond.
He grabbed his father, repeatedly put his head under water and told police: ‘I left him there to decide: you can come with me to heaven or to hell. I think he chose hell.”
Jack Callahan, 22, is pictured to the left of his father Scott next to his mother Wendy and his two brothers Will and Charlie in 2016. The parents were separated when Jack allegedly killed his father in June 2021.
Jack Callahan, 22, is on trial for the murder of his father Scott during an ‘exorcism’
Police found Scott Callahan (pictured with an unnamed woman) dead in a pond outside Duxbury, Massachusetts in July 2021
Jack Callahan told police he was driving his father home from a bar when they stopped next to Island Creek Pond, where his father began assaulting him.
Scott Callahan’s obituary said he was a senior vice president of Texas Capital Bank and had an “extensive career in finance.”
He had been treated for alcoholism at a center in Hopkinton before checking out and going to the bar in Boston.
The teen called an Uber to take him back to the $1.5 million home in Duxbury and said his father began assaulting him when he asked the driver to stop around midnight.
“He indicated that the victim punched him in the face,” Plymouth Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham said during Callahan’s 2021 arraignment.
“He further stated that in this incident at the pond he believed he was baptizing his father.
“He described holding his father on his back in the pond like a baby, continuously dipping the father’s head into the water about four to eight times, and when the father began to cough and choke, he his head lifted up.
“And when the father started fighting and hitting him, he pushed his head back into the water.
“He did that until his father stopped struggling and hovered.”
Jack Callahan, 21, cried as he entered not guilty plea for the first time in Plymouth District Court in 2021
According to Buckingham, Callahan held his father in the pond on his back like a baby, continuously dipping his head into the water about four to eight times.
Authorities said Callahan went to a bar in Boston on Sunday night to pick up his father, Scott Callahan, 57, who was not allowed to drink
Scott Callahan’s obituary stated that he was the Senior Vice President of Texas Capital Bank and had an “extensive career in finance.”
The family lived in this $1.5 million, five-bedroom house outside Duxbury
Wendy Callahan with her children Jack, Will and Charlie a year before Scott’s death
Wendy Callahan with sons Jack and Will at a birthday dinner in 2019
Scott Callahan was treated for alcoholism at a center in Hopkinton before checking himself out and heading to a bar in Boston on his last night.
Jack Callahan told police they stopped at the pond after Wendy Callahan told him she didn’t want her ex-husband in the house
Officers attempted to resuscitate a Colorado State University graduate before he was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth, where he was pronounced dead
The teen’s mother finally saw him come home around 2 a.m. in soaking wet clothes, when she called police to tell them he had a mental illness and that her ex-husband was missing.
“The mother indicated that the suspect had not previously exhibited this behavior and that he had no history of mental illness,” Buckingham said.
Police called an ambulance after finding Callahan “agitated and distraught,” hyperventilating and passed out.
He told them that his father had beaten him and that he did not know where he was: ‘He is missing. I do not know what happened. I blacked out.’
He eventually sent police to Crooker Memorial Park, where officers found Scott in Island Creek Pond.
Officers attempted to resuscitate a Colorado State University graduate before he was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth, where he was pronounced dead.
The teen was arrested the next day and cried in court as he pleaded not guilty during the first hearing in 2021.
Callahan’s attorney Kevin Reddington asked the judge to send the teen to Bridgewater State Hospital for a mental health evaluation, warning that he was a danger to himself.
“He’s a very nice young man,” Reddington said, “he comes from a great family.
Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan is hearing the case, which is expected to last 10 days
When the trial started on Friday, the public gallery was packed
‘My client was worried about his father because he knew he would drink and he shouldn’t.
“He was going to try to get him back where he should be.”
His mother told the court he had been living with a brother in Colorado and had to give up his logging job after injuring his back before returning to Duxbury to live with his mother.
Callahan has pleaded not guilty to murder and the trial is expected to last 10 days.