I really enjoy hearing how this diversity of cultures will make me a more well rounded and tolerant person. This little story reaffrims everything I say about 'diversity'.
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Tells 911 he killed mother-in-law over voodoo dust
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By TANANGACHI MFUNI, ALISON GENDAR and MICHAEL WHITE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Thursday, September 13th 2007, 4:00 AM
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Marie Luzincourt, whose mother was brutally slain, allegedly by Luzincourt's boyfriend, leaves her home in Brooklyn yesterday.
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A sprinkle of "voodoo dust" sent a Brooklyn man into a homicidal rage - leading him to beat his girlfriend's mother to death with a pipe, authorities said yesterday.
"I just killed my mother-in-law," the suspect, Joseph Cazeau, 48, told cops Monday night after calling 911, according to a police source.
"She was trying to hex me," Cazeau claimed, a source said.
Cazeau was arguing with 61-year-old Marie Tertel at 9:30 p.m. in the Crown Heights home they shared when she threatened to use "voodoo dust" on him, a police source said.
Before she could hex him, he grabbed a pipe and repeatedly bashed her face and head, the source said.
Investigators found Tertel lying facedown in the St. Johns Place house. She died at the scene.
Loved ones denied that Tertel was a voodoo priestess, calling her a religious woman who attended a Christian church.
The Crown Heights house is owned by the victim's daughter Marie Luzincourt, who was not home at the time of the killing.
"We have family trouble," Luzincourt said yesterday.
A recent argument between Tertel and her daughter's boyfriend had sent Tertel searching for a new place to live, a friend said.
"She was unhappy because there was a conflict between the family," said Erik Phillpotts, who works at a Haitian restaurant where Tertel worked as a cook.
Phillpotts said Tertel never spoke of family issues, until she was forced to find a new apartment. "This is when we knew something was wrong," Phillpotts said.
Cops had been called to the house at least once before, on Aug. 28 when there was a shouting match between Cazeau and Tertel, a police source said. No arrests were made.
The victim's son Marc Tertel said Cazeau had been dating Luzincourt for years, and the two had three children together.
"He's very difficult to get along with," Marc Tertel said of Cazeau, adding that the boyfriend did not pay rent or contribute financially to the household. "He's very violent sometimes."
Tertel said his sister went to court recently to get an order of protection against her boyfriend. But authorities could not confirm yesterday that she had asked for or obtained an order of protection.
Cazeau was waiting to be arraigned last night on murder charges.
With Tamer El-Ghobashy, Ernie Naspretto and Xana O'Neill
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