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Last updated 09:39 28/10/2009
A demon worshipper killed four members of his family before killing himself, on remote Misima Island in Papua New Guinea's Milne Bay province.
Milne Bay police described the gruesome murder-suicide on October 10 as a "massacre" on Misima, an island 200km east of the mainland.
Provincial police commander Senior Inspector Lincoln Gerari told PNG's The National newspaper that the killer was said to be a demon worshipper who believed in a black Jesus and worshipped on mountaintops before dawn
Insp Gerari said 37-year-old Rodney Sinod, from Eaus village, had on numerous occasions told his family that he was going to kill them so the world would be free.
Police reports indicated that on the fateful Saturday morning, after his usual worship on a mountain, Sinod returned to the family home and, without warning, attacked his father with an axe. The victim, who was feeding chickens outside, died instantly.
Sinod then ran past his shocked mother into the house where his niece and nephew, aged two and five years, were playing and killed them with the axe, before mowing down his sister-in-law.
Sinod later turned on his 17-year-old niece, who had just finished grade 10 at Misima High School a day earlier and had come home to spend the holidays with her family.
Insp Gerari said Sinod chopped off part of the teenagers lower left hand with the axe and struck her on the head. The girl survived the attack and is recovering from her wounds at the Misima district hospital.
Sinod then ran to a mountain where he stabbed himself in the chest with a knife.
Insp Gerari said demon worshippers posed a serious threat to communities on the island, and urged provincial authorities to act promptly to eradicate the practice.
He said at least six villages were engaged in such activities and reported that even a police officer had established a church on the island with similar beliefs.
Bizarre cults spring up frequently in PNG. The Post Courier newspaper reported last month that police in Morobe province were hunting a cult leader who was coercing followers to take part in public sex with promises of a bumper banana harvest.
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