Post by Graveyardbride on Jun 17, 2020 12:10:53 GMT -5
Son Strangles Mother, Accuses Her of Practicing Witchcraft
On the evening of Monday, January 20, Nafis N. Mena (above), 29, strangled Celeste Lowie, his 57-year-old mother, at their home in Anderson, South Carolina. Emergency medical technicians found Lowie in cardiac arrest and transported her to the emergency room, where she was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. Anderson County deputies said Mena strangled his mother with his bare hands during a domestic dispute at their home on Towhee Trail.
Mena later claimed he did not intend to kill his mother, but that for the past several years, she had been practicing witchcraft and placing spells on him that were “singeing” his internal organs, and at one point, one of her spells kept him from sleeping for 14 days. At times, he continued, he was unable to control his emotions and even while sleeping, would hear his uncle and mother’s voices in his head. On the night of his mother’s death, Mena told authorities he was acting in self defense. “There was a knife involved,” he said. “She came at me with a knife and I tried to get the knife away. I eventually did get the knife away as I had her in a choke-hold. She slipped out of it and there was nowhere I could run, so out of instinct I dive onto her back and put her back in the choke-hold.”
Celeste Lowie, a native of Amityville, New York, was employed as a salesperson at Hampton Furniture, where she had worked for the past 15 years. According to Ashley Hampton Collins, Ms. Lowie was devoted to her family, but there had problems and frustrations with her younger son, Nafis Mena, who had been involved in several drug offenses.
A family acquaintance was less generous in his assessment of Mena: “He’s a no-account piece of crap,” the man proclaimed, “always in trouble with the law. ... His mother should have given him the boot a long time ago.”
In addition to drug- and alcohol-related charges, Mena’s criminal history includes convictions for forgery and receiving stolen property.
Celeste Lowie’s obituary indicates she has a single son, Keith F. Terrell. Nafis Mena’s name is omitted, an indication he has been disowned by family members.
Mena’s case and others have been unavoidably delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and he remains held without bond at the Anderson County Detention Center.
Sources: The State of South Carolina v. Nafis Nicholas Mena; Mike Ellis, The Anderson Independent-Mail, January 24, 2020; Allen Devlin, WYFF, January 22, 2020; Tim Renaud, January 21, 2020; and The Associated Press.
