The Devil Inside

South Hartford 911. What is your emergency?

This is Lieutenant Dreyfus,

badge number 3525, at 174 Willow Lane.

Now entering what appears to be the living room.

Living conditions are best described as

being in a state of disarray. Watch your step.

Kitchen also in a state of disarray.

Approaching the stairwell where first victim was found.

on the floor.

Victim number one is facing north.

Male, approximately 160 pounds.

Sustained injury to the left temple.

Now entering the basement

where victims number two and three were found.

Entered the basement of the house.

We find victim number two.

Female, approximately 120 pounds.

Facing west.

In the victim's right hand, we have religious paraphernalia,

apparently is clutching.

Heading south

we find another instrument on the floor.

We find victim number three.

Male, approximately 210 pounds.

We have trauma to the head.

Apparent strangulation with rope,

which is broken or torn away.

We have blood splattering against the door.

In the center of the room, we have a chair.

The right armrest of the chair is broken

with apparent claw marks from a struggle.

Various straps used for restraint.

WJBP, Channel 11.

A quiet South Hartford community

was leveled by tragedy as three clergy members were found dead.

At about 11:47 p.m. on Sunday evening, the 20th,

we received an emergency call on our 911 line.

At least three bodies were taken out of this house,

two local priests and a nun.

We checked the location for any other victims and have not found any.

Apparently, Maria Rossi was hosting

a church group meeting at her home.

Our homicide detectives and our lab people

are conducting their investigation.

Mrs. Rossi was found by police in a crawl space.

We can't speculate as to what

the cause or the motive may have been.

They are not ruling out any possibilities.

However, at this time, we don't want to speculate

on what may or may not have been the cause.

My name is Isabella Rossi

and that was my mother.

The thing you have to understand about my mother

is that she just had a huge heart.

And there we are. That was actually on my...

Can you see that?

That was my first birthday party.

And I don't think it was until I was

about six years old that I actually started to notice, you know,

something was different, her moods were changing.

Then, she went away for a little bit

and when she came back they said she was better.

But she wasn't.

We couldn't understand what was happening.

No one had answers.

So why are you doing this film?

Because I really need to

understand what happened.

What Maria Rossi did, and her subsequent life,

was incredibly tragic and clouded.

And caught in the middle of it is a daughter who is just now learning

the circumstances of that tragedy.

Isabella, look at the camera, honey.

If someone had asked me

how is it possible for Mrs. Rossi to have done what she did,

I would have gone through the list of things that cause human aggression.

Something like major depression, or schizophrenia,

or dissociative identity disorder.

It's my understanding

that her current psychiatric diagnosis has been D.I.D.

But this is her seventh different diagnosis since 1987.

You start wondering, is it in my genes?

You know, am I going to flip out one day?

Just a matter of time?

Two years after she brutally murdered three people in her home,

a South Hartford jury

found Maria Rossi not guilty by reason of insanity.

Rossi was committed to the South Hartford State Asylum.

And then in September of that year,

my mother was transferred

to the Centrino Mental Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Rome, Italy.

I never really questioned why Italy.

When did your father tell you what really happened?

May 23, 2009. I was 25 years old.

He just said it. He said,

"Mom attacked those people during an exorcism."

An exorcism performed on her.

It's the job of science to try to sort out

what is a reasonable, plausible explanation.

But science can't explain everything,

such as a person

levitating two feet off the ground during an exorcism.

I asked my dad if he thought she was possessed.

He said he didn't know.

That she was gone. It didn't matter.

Not anymore.

He died three days later.

I called the church where the priests had come from.

And they wouldn't talk about it.

They said they don't have an ordained exorcist and never did.

So we're on our way to see the Vatican School for Exorcism.

And to see my mother.

Are you nervous?

Yeah, I'm nervous. Twenty years is a long time, you know?

So, later, I was contacted by the Diocese of Rome.

They told me they never authorized my mother's exorcism.

That's when I knew I had to go to Italy.

I wonder how seriously they take the exorcism school, you know.

I hope it's not a joke.

Oh, wow.

There it is, St. Peter's Square.

Something like that.

This school has drawn a lot

of interest from all over the world.

Maybe it can help me understand

my mother's situation a little better.

From post-traumatic

shock to serious injury, death even.

And not just for the victim.

Also for the family members, for anyone in the vicinity,

especially the priest.

Sometimes a person

can be tormented by more than one demon

in what we call multiple demonic possession.

These cases are extremely volatile and dangerous,

and they sometimes lead to transference,

which means the demon jumps from one person

to another.

The purpose of the class is to educate priests

and, of course, laypeople,

about the Devil's presence in their lives, in modern society.

For example, in Italy alone

there are over 800 satanic cults. We had a problem.

We needed more exorcists.

If it is possession, then first and foremost

we must rule out mental illness.

Schizophrenia. Bipolar disorder.

The course is designed to explore all these conditions.

[MRS. SORLINI SPEAKING IN ITALIAN]

Momma.

[MRS. SORLINI SPEAKING IN ITALIAN]

Okay, anyone, any thoughts on that?

I believe the subject was clearly possessed.

The subject spoke in multiple languages.

Come on. Speaking in tongues? Maybe.

Incoherent babbling from a mentally-disturbed person, certainly.

I'm sorry, Father.

And the subject displayed abnormal strength

when confronted with holy water, and while heavily sedated.

The delusional mind of a paranoid schizophrenic

may actually react to holy water as if it were,

I don't know, acid, urine.

I'm sorry, I'm gonna have to disagree.

The girl fractured her own femur.

Her strength might have been abnormal, but not impossible.

It's very well known that

some epileptics do break their bones during a seizure. It's a fact.

As I said, we must be sure to rule out mental illness.

In the end, this case could not be proved as possession.

The diversity of the class was comforting.

It wasn't just priests or nuns, but regular people,

people who are facing the same things I'm facing.

People like me, looking to help someone.

So why are you here?

All this knowledge, you all agree on this,

all this knowledge is invaluable for us, no?

David, what would you say drew you to this school?

In particular, to exorcism?

The combination of science and religion.

I think, based on my background in medicine,

it gave me a greater sense of purpose.

We all talk so definitively about God and about the Devil

but we can all agree that there's no real facts, right? No proofs?

God has never helped me. What about you?

Sure. Yeah.

So when do you actually witness an exorcism in class?

This class is all theory.

This is a school of exorcism, is it not?

It's not reality.

Look at the tape we watched today.

That girl fit every criteria for possession except she wasn't.

It's a mental disorder.

No. When you witness someone possessed,

you'll know the difference.

You say that like you have.

Have you witnessed a real exorcism, Father?

Yeah. Right after he saw the Easter Bunny.

I may have. Can I ask you something, Isabella?

Sure. I'm curious.

Why are you doing this documentary?