Ohio Churches Defaced With Satanic Symbols

WELLSVILLE (KDKA) - Someone has been busy in the small village of Wellsville, Ohio.

Their target: several churches of various denominations. It has residents like Sherrill Jackson asking why.

"Who in this town with everyone knowing everybody would possibly do something like that," she asked.

The police chief in this village of nearly 35,000 may have the answer to that question.

"We got a few leads that they are kids between the ages of 14 to 16 who had some spray paint. We interviewed a couple of them already, will talk to a few more. We are pretty sure we have the one," said Chief Ed Wilson.

The vandalism occurred about two weeks ago and the church properties have been cleaned.

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The Virgin Mary sitting in front of Immaculate Conception Church on Main Street had an upside down cross sprayed on it and the face of the statue also painted black. The statue is now covered with a blue tarp.

A few blocks away at Covenant Presbyterian Church, the word Satan was painted in black on one of the doors.

John Roach who lives up the street says defacing a church makes him angry.

"It's horrible, people just need to live and let live and if you're not into church or religion just leave it alone, walk away," he said.

An empty lot is where Wellsville United Methodist Church will build its new sanctuary. Vandals sprayed painted their sign. Sherrill Jackson is the church organist.

"Our youth group came down and spent about three hours cleaning the sign. We had three upside down crosses and a pentagram on it," she said.

Police won't go into detail as to how they found suspects, simply saying it was good old fashioned detective work. The chief says he will make an arrest soon.