Neighbors Allege Triple Murder Victims Were Sacrificed to Santa Muerte

A grisly triple murder in which the victims were found hacked to death with machetes in a shack with two large Santa Muerte altars has the Mexican press speculating that this another case of human sacrifice to the skeletal folk saint. Many of the details are sketchy at this point, but what is known is that two men and one woman were found butchered in pools of blood in one of the the poorest barrios of Coatzacoalcos, a gritty industrial city in the lush state of Veracruz. Law enforcement agents from municipal, state and federal agencies swarmed on the humble dwelling and removed the bodies within hours.

Since police refused to talk to the press, reporters on the scene interviwed neighbors, some of whom alleged the victims were a family of “express-kidnappers” who preyed on Central American migrants passing through town. That the notorious train “the beast” rolls down tracks just yards away from the shack lends some plausibility to the allegation. Other neighbors claimed the victims were narcos who had been killed and sacrificed to Santa Muere in a payback operation. At this time it’s unknown if the victims actually lived in dwelling in which they were found dead, and whether they were killed there or at another location.

There have been quite a few alleged cases of human sacrifice to Saint Death over the years, but few have been thoroughly investigated and proved.This chilling case from 2012 remains the best documented and most obvious one from Mexico and Guatemala, where almost all have occurred, click here for story.The great majority of Santa Muerte devotees view human sacrifice as an abomination of their faith, but a tiny minority of mostly hardened criminals believe the skeleton saint, like her putative Aztec ancestors, demands blood sacrifice.

Additional information, including graphic images can be found here and here.