—– Man Who Stabbed Family Says He Was Possessed By The Devil (ABC15.com; June 2)

GLENDALE, Arizona: The man who confessed to killing his daughter and wife, and stabbing his young son multiple times, said the “devil and God” made him do it, according to court documents.

Glendale Police Sgt. Jim Cunningham said Michael Miller, 29, has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder.

Court documents say Miller is bipolar and schizophrenic. Family members say he tried to kill himself at least once.

Police said at about 5 a.m. Saturday, Miller stabbed his wife, Adriana, 28, his 10-year-old daughter, Valeria and 4-year-old son, Brian at their home near Camelback Road and 77th Avenue.

Adriana and Valeria died. The couple’s 4-year-old son remained hospitalized in serious condition Monday. Family members say Adriana’s parents plan to take care of the boy when he is released from the hospital.

According to court documents, Miller said he punched Brian in the face and stabbed him the most “because he loved him the most.”

Miller apparently called police and waited for them to arrive at the scene after committing the crime. When investigators interviewed him later, he said he had been possessed.

A makeshift memorial outside the home where the murders occurred continued to grow Monday.

Valeria’s friends dropped off flowers, candles, letters and stuffed animals at the vigil.

“I feel kind of empty now,” said 12-year-old Karen Chavira. “She was one of our best friends, and it was sad that her own dad did that. He looked so innocent.”

Adriana Miller’s cousin Cristina Alvarez, said many of their family members are in Mexico, and that they can’t afford funeral expenses for Adriana and Valeria.

“We can’t believe it,” said Alvarez. “We can’t think why he would do something like that. He loved the kids.”…

After the brutal murders, Alvarez said she could still find it in her heart to forgive Miller….

—– Suspect: Lucifer, God Told Me To Kill Family (Kevin Tripp/KTAR.com; June 1)

GLENDALE, Arizona: Police released more disturbing new details about a murder in Glendale….

In new court documents, police said Michael Brian Miller admitted that he killed his wife with a kitchen butcher knife because “she was arguing with him over not sleeping.”

He then said he grabbed his daughter by the hair and stabbed her multiple times.

Miller’s 4-year-old son remains in critical condition. He told police he stabbed his son the most because he loved him the most.

He told police God and Lucifer told him to do it and that he was “consumed by Satan.” Miller also said God was the father, Jesus was the son and he called Lucifer “the Holy Spirit.”

Bond has been set for $1,000,000.

Add Michael Miller’s name to the ever-lengthening list of murderous theist parents that now includes Marie Moore, Joseph Henry Hagerman, Valeria Maxon, Katrina Spriggs, Nelly Vasquez-Salazar, “Cristos Valenti”, Robert Blair, Avi Kostner, Elizabeth Duman, Samara Laverne Spann, Teresa Gilman, Rebekah Amaya, Christina Miracle, Andre L. Thomas, Brenda Drayton, Lashuan Harris, Liset Hernandez, Magdalena Lopez, Paula Eleazar Mendez, Tonya Vasilev, Dena Schlosser, Deanna Laney, Susan Smith, Mark Barton, William Gartlan, Karen Duncan, Hemu Vasrambhai, Michelle Huisman, Barbara Downey, and Bridget Stovall as well as the infamous Andrea Yates….

If I’m counting right, that adds up to 32 well-documented cases of theists who have killed at least one of their own children for self-proclaimed religious reasons.

And I *still* haven’t found a single case in which a sane or insane atheist has killed his or her own child (or any other child) in the name of Bertrand Russell or Isaac Asimov or Carl Sagan or James Randi or Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris or Christopher Hitchens or for any explicitly atheistic reason (such as “Life is cruel and meaningless without gOd! Best to put my children to sleep forever than for them to have to endure this painful world”)….