Editing Laurie Tackett (section)

==Background==
Laurie Tackett was born in Madison, Indiana, on October 5<sup>th</sup>, 1974. Her mother was a fundamentalist Pentecostal and her father was a factory employee with two convicted charges in the 1960s. Like the other three girls, Tackett was sexually attracted to women, being a lesbian. Tackett claimed that she was sexually molested twice at ages 5 and 12. In May 1989, her mother discovered that Tackett was wearing jeans at school and attempted to strangle her to death. Social workers began making visits to check to see if [[Child Abuse|child abuse]] was occurring after the incident. Tackett's mother went to [[Hope Rippey]]'s house after learning that Rippey's father had purchased a Ouija board for the girls. She demanded that the board be burnt and that the Rippey house be exorcised.

Tackett became rebellious after her fifteenth birthday and also became interested in variants of the occult such as demons, divination, vampirism, spell-casting, and seances. She would often pretend to be possessed by different evil entities including one Tackett called "Deanna the Vampire". Tackett began to self-mutilate after dating a girl who also self-harmed. Tackett's parents discovered that Tackett would self-harm and admitted her to a hospital on March 19<sup>th</sup>, 1991. She was prescribed anti-depressant medication and was discharged from the hospital. Two days later, with her girlfriend and [[Toni Lawrence]], Tackett cut her wrists deeply and was once again admitted to the hospital. After treatment of her wounds, she was admitted to the hospital's psychiatric ward. Tackett was then diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and claimed to have had hallucinations since childhood. She was discharged from the hospital on April 12<sup>th</sup> and dropped out of high school in September 1991.

Tackett stayed in Louisville, Indiana in October 1991 to live with various friends. She met Melinda Loveless during this time in late November. In December, Tackett moved back to Madison on the promise that her father would buy her a car. By December, her and Loveless had became close friends.