Morgan Freeman's step-granddaughter is stabbed to death 'in exorcism'

Thirty-three-year-old actress was murdered 'by her boyfriend on Manhattan sidewalk as he screamed, "get out devils!"' on Sunday morning in an apparent 'exorcism.'  

Witness Brydon Tarafa, 28, told Dailymail.com that he was in his apartment when he heard 'Jesus Christ is born'. 

'I heard the man yelling 'Jesus Christ is born', like yelling, screaming maniacally,' Tarafa said. 'And I heard a woman scream shortly before that.'

When police arrived they found E'Dena Hines, 33, unresponsive with stab wounds to her torso outside an apartment building close to her home in the Washington Heights area of New York City just before 3am.

'Get out, devils! I cast you out, devils! In the name of Jesus Christ, I cast you out!,' the boyfriend screamed, said George Hudacko, 65, who witnessed the attack from his window in Washington Heights and called 911 

According to reports, police discovered her 'live-in boyfriend' was standing over her body screaming and the knife was recovered at the scene. 

Authorities later took him to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital for psychiatric evaluation. 

'Morgan Freeman posted to his Twitter account on Sunday thanking everyone for their outpouring of love and support following Hines' death '.

Witnesses told The New York Post that the man continued to stab Hines' lifeless body until police arrested him. 

'The girl was making a lot of noise, screaming,' Hudacko told the New York Post of Hines.

Tarafa said he didn’t think much of the screaming at first because there’s a church across the street and ‘sometimes there's people yelling and kids running around’.

He soon realized that it was too late for kids to be outside playing, so he ran to his window to see what was happening.

‘I go to my window and I see some people standing in the street watching something. And right then two police cars come in and I notice there's someone over here right in front of my doorway, and the guy gets off of the girl, and the police go and put him in handcuffs,’ he said.

Tarafa, who lived in the building above where the incident occurred, said that he had ‘never seen that kind of violence happen so close to home’ and that it was ‘very scary’, and that he’s ‘definitely reconsidering’ his safety in the neighborhood.

He didn’t know Hines, but said that he wished he could have done something to save her life.

‘Maybe if I had gone to the window sooner and thought it was more of an emergency situation sooner, then maybe I could have called and the police could have gotten here faster,’ Tarafa said.

Hines is the granddaughter of Freeman's first wife Jeanette Adair Bradshaw. She is sometimes referred as Freeman's goddaughter in addition to his step-granddaughter.

E'Dena Hines was pronounced dead at Harlem Hospital shortly after the stabbing.

Police have not yet said if the man is facing any charges nor do they know what made him ‘snap’.

Morgan Freeman reflected on Hines's talent and said she would be deeply missed by those who knew and loved her.

'The world will never know her artistry in talent, and how much she had to offer,' he said in a statement to Dailymail.com

According to Hines' personal website she was an actor and writer living in New York City where she studied at New York University's Graduate Acting Program.

In addition to being an aspiring actress in New York, she also taught under-exposed youth in her native Memphis, Tennessee, where she moved after she failed to land gigs and felt 'unfulfilled’.

She called New York home again last April after being cast in a small indie film called Landing Up which began shooting in June. She spoke of her excitement about the career changing role on her blog. 

'My dream has come true and its just beginning. Life can make you want to give up or walk away; sometimes it gives you the strength to appreciate when you do get your happy ending,' she wrote in a blog post on July 7.

According to her IMDB she also played the receptionist in a Morgan Freeman film called Five Flights Up, a yoga student in the TV series A Minority Report, and a maid in the film Moll of Flanders also starring Morgan Freeman.

An investigation into Hines' death is ongoing.

In 2012, Freeman was forced to dispel rumors that he planned on marrying the actress and that they were in a romantic relationship for ten years prior.

'The recent reports of any pending marriage or romantic relationship of me to anyone are defamatory fabrications from the tabloid media designed to sell papers.

'What is even more alarming is that these fabrications are now being picked up by the legitimate press as well,' the actor said in 2012. 

The father-of-four's stance was backed up by Hines, who issued a statement of her own after the rumors surfaced.

She said: 'These stories about me and my grandfather are not only untrue, they are also hurtful to me and my family.'

Morgan was married to Jeanette Adair Bradshaw from 1967 until 1979.

He then married costume designer Myrna Colley-Lee on June 16, 1984, and it was in 2009 during their messy divorce that the allegations emerged.

If the rumors had been true the relationship would have shared eerie similarities to the one between Woody Allen and his now wife Soon-Yi Previn.

She was the adopted daughter of the director's long-time partner Mia Farrow, who he was with from 1980, until she learned they had became lovers in 1992.

It led to a storm of publicity about their relationship, though they later got married in 1997.

Oh! Such a Beautiful woman with a promising future. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family.