A Goodyear, Arizona, man was arrested on Saturday after investigators said he told them his daughter's T-shirt "had to do with the devil" and he sacrificed the clothing, and the family's poodle, to atone for the act.
Patrick Zane Thompson, 42, became upset when his 17-year-old daughter came home on Saturday with a T-shirt that he felt was related to the devil, KPHO reports. Thompson reportedly made his daughter take off the shirt and burned it in a large barbecue traveling smoker that he had in their side yard for his food truck.
Investigators said Thompson told his family that they needed a male sacrifice for the next step and it had to be either himself, his 6-year-old son or the family's poodle. Thompson's family tried to escape the house, but he grabbed the poodle and broke its neck before "strangling it until it could not breathe," police said. He reportedly told officers he had to put the dog in "a lake of fire" and placed it in the smoker.
Thompson was found by authorities lying in the front yard saying that he had to "do it for God" and the "devil made him do it." KPHO reports he allegedly told officers he smoked marijuana earlier in the day and began having an "episode" where he saw a vision of a bad thing happening to his family and that "the Lord was going to kill him for what he had done."
