Massachusetts teen drowned dad during 'baptism' to exorcise him of alcoholic demon he called 'Dirty Dan', cops say

A TEENAGER drowned his father while attempting to "baptize" him in a pond to rid him of an alcoholic demon he called "Dirty Dan", prosecutors say.

Jack Callahan, 19, was taken into custody in Duxbury, Massachusetts on Monday just hours after his mother called police to report his father, Scott Callahan, 57, missing at 2am.

Police said Callahan had gone to a bar in Boston to collect his father who wasn't supposed to be drinking.

An Uber picked the pair up and dropped them off at Island Creek Pond in Crocker Memorial Park, near his home.

However, the younger Callahan would return home alone and soaking wet.

He told his mother, Wendy Callahan, that he didn't know where his dad had gone.

Wendy told police the boy as "acting erratically" and in a manner she'd never seen before.

The teen eventually directed investigators to Crocker Memorial Park where Scott Callahan was found at the bottom of the pond, near two floating suitcases.

He was rushed to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Plymouth where he was later pronounced dead.

Police said the victim had water in his lungs and an abrasion to the back of his head.

Callahan initially claimed to police, "I don’t know what happened, I blacked out," investigators say.

An officer took the teen outside for some air. He then allegedly said that his father had been hitting him, he blacked out, and “when I came to I was walking into the house soaked", the Boston Globe reported.

The teen was reportedly hyperventilating as he spoke to police and even passed out a couple of times, prompting them to call an ambulance.

Speaking to officers later on Monday, Callahan then reportedly informed police he'd stopped at the park to smoke a cigarette with his dad.

While sat at the pond, Callahan told cops an altercation broke out between him and his father, who started "punching him in the face."

At some point in the scuffle, Callahan started dunking his father's head repeatedly beneath the surface of the water, according to police.

Plymouth Assistant District Attorney Shanan Buckingham told a courtroom on Tuesday that Callahan "believed he was baptizing his father.

"He described that he was holding his father in the pond on his back like a baby, that he continually dunked the father’s head in the water about four to eight times," Buckingham said.

"When the father started to cough and choke, he would lift his head up, and then when the father started to fight and strike him, he would push the head back into the water.

"He did so until his father was no longer struggling and floating," the prosecutor added.

Callahan reportedly told officers that it was at this point that he spoke to his lifeless victim, stating: "I left him there to decide, you can come to heaven with me or to hell.

"I think he chose hell," he said, according to police.

He also allegedly added that he believed his father’s body was being possessed by a spirit he referred to as “Dirty Dan” and he was trying to baptize him in an effort to exorcise the demons.

Callahan’s defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, described the facts in the case as "bizarre to say the least.”

He also added that his client began banging his head on the floor at one point during the police interview, with officers having to place a boot underneath as a buffer.

Reddington said a psychologist had spoken with his client and determined he was a danger to himself.

He also asked the judge to order a competency evaluation of the 19-year-old at Bridgewater State Hospital.

“He’s a very nice young man,” the defense attorney said, adding that Callahan has no prior criminal record.

“He comes from a wonderful family … My client had a concern for his father, knowing that he would be drinking and knowing that he shouldn’t be drinking. He was going to try to take him back where he should be.”

However, the judge denied the motion and ordered that Callahan be held with bail on a murder charge. A court clinician will evaluate him instead.

Callahan had until recently been living with his brother in Colorado, where he was working in the logging industry.

But after suffering an injury to his back he was forced to move back to his mother's home Duxbury while he sought medical treatment.

Buckingham said Tuesday that a witness informed them Callahan may have been dealing with "some substance abuse issues and ongoing mental health issues that had recently surfaced.”

Scott Callahan, meanwhile, had a history of substance abuse as well as a traumatic brain injury and other health issues “that made his executive functions questionable," prosecutors said.

Jack Callahan will reappear before the judge on August 12.

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