Could a Bible verse motivate a mom to murder?
Atlanta (HLN) On Sunday, Kimberly Lucas went to church.
The sermon was about Genesis 22 where God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, but at the last minute, God stops him from doing so.
The next day, police say Lucas drugged her 10-year-old son, attempting to kill him.
She then filled the bathtub full of water, scooped up her 2-year old daughter and drowned her, according to a probable cause affidavit.
After the murder, police say Lucas swallowed a pill and passed out in bed next to the young boy.
He eventually woke up and began searching for his sister. The bathroom door was locked, so he grabbed a knife and pried it open. He found his sister, Elliana Lucas-Jameson, submerged in the bathwater, pulled her out and immediately began CPR. He then called 9-1-1.
But Elliana could not be saved.
Jupiter Police Chief Frank Kitzerow choked back tears calling the boy the “bravest person I ever met.”
The 10-year-old told investigators that Lucas gave him a pill in a cup of coffee. She told him that it would make him grow faster.
But according to court documents, that drug was actually benzodiazepine which is used to treat anxiety. The boy complained of fatigue and dizziness. He was taken to a local hospital, treated and released.
This tragedy does have a back story.
The children actually called Lucas “other mom” because she was the domestic partner of their biological mother for 21 years.
That relationship ended earlier this year but Lucas was helping to care for the children, according to Lucas’ attorney, Marc Shiner.
Shiner also told WPEC that Lucas is “disabled right now, collecting workman’s compensation. She had a severe head injury that she suffered before this incident.”
Court documents released today show that Lucas left behind a note to her ex-partner which referenced Genesis 22 and said in part: “WHEN YOU ARE LAYING IN BED AT NIGHT REMEMBER YOU F****** DID THIS TO YOURSELF! Lea’s (the pastor) sermon really, really touched me yesterday, but God never told me to stop!”
The pastor at Metropolitan Community Church in Palm Beach Gardens, Lea Brown, told WPTV, “The message of that sermon was the message of every sermon we have here, which is about the redemption and the healing that we can find in God’s love even in the face of things we don’t understand. And that’s what the message was and whatever happened in her mind, only God knows.”
Now it’s up to the courts.
A judge today denied bail and ruled that Lucas is to have no contact with her ex-partner.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Lucas faces life in prison without parole and the possibility of the death sentence.
Written and Produced by: Ben Bamsey for HLN’s “Now: On the Case.”
