HONOLULU -- There is a bizarre new explanation for one of Hawaii's most horrible murders. Micah White, of Kailua, who stabbed and burned his mother and aunt, told psychiatrists that he thought they were vampires.

Sharon and Kerrie White were stabbed, dowsed with gasoline and set on fire last April in their Kainui Road home.

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"The mother and the aunt were laying on the ground. Her throat was stabbed and she was bleeding and they were on fire," witness Alyssa Erickson said in April.

Before dying, the victims identified Micah White. His father and police suspected drugs. His mother's call for help described Micah as "tweaking," but a court appointed psychiatrist said White denies using drugs and told her he believed vampires were out to get him.

His doctor wrote, "it appears the world of vampires closed in on him and that he began to see his aunt, and then his mother, assume the appearance of the vampires. And these vampires were snarling at him and the air was populated by their screams and voices."

White told the doctor that his weapons were a rock and a sharpened drumstick. Although the doctor didn't say so, if White is telling the truth, the sharpened stick may represent the type of wooden stake said to be used by mythological vampire slayers.

Prosecutors may be skeptical of White's story. The fire may have destroyed the weapon and other clear physical evidence.

White has little history of mental illness. He has no symptoms now. The doctor said he was "probably" severely impaired just on the day of the murder. More doctors will examine White.

Judge Virginia Crandall will probably be asked to decide if White is responsible for the killings. If White used drugs, delusions due to drug use would not be a legal defense.