"It had absolutely, positively no relation to religion," DCYF chief of staff Joanne Lehrer said yesterday.
Spurr was told by DCYF that her children were removed because the case worker had found them unattended and in unsanitary conditions in Spurr's home.
The case worker "reported that the children were eating food off the floor, which she observed as being filthy," according to a DCYF letter to Spurr.
Sitting in the living room of her modest first-floor apartment, pictures of children hanging overhead and on decorating tables, there is nothing that points to Spurr's involvement in Our Lady of the Roses Wiccan Church.
Two bedrooms the children shared overflow with stuffed animals and children's books. A hamster scrambles through wood chips in a glass tank and fish dart back and forth in two well-kept tanks.
There are no mystical figurines or black magic books. Spurr, a 27-year-old single mother raising a 4-year-old son, wore a pink tunic top over a white turtleneck and leggings. A pewter necklace depicting a rose and pentagon, the symbol of witchcraft, hung around her neck.
"It was so unreal," Spurr said of the DCYF visit.
Spurr said she had gone upstairs to ask her neighbor to watch one of the children while she drove the other three to day care.
She ran downstairs to find the case worker in her kitchen, having let herself in after receiving no answer when she knocked on a partially opened door.
Spurr said the case worker scolded her for leaving the children alone and about the condition of the house. As she was about to leave, the case worker asked, "Why didn't you tell me you're a witch?" Spurr said.
Spurr said she later was told case workers had been asking acquaintances whether she was a good or bad witch. Dow Jones
Stocks followed bonds cautiously higher yesterday, but they were hampered by continued volatility in the dollar. The Dow Jones industrial average ended 4.16 higher at 3,983.39. Weather
Today: Sunny, high in the upper 30s.
Tonight: Clear, low 20 to 25.
Tomorrow: Fair, high in the mid 40s.