‘Sacrifice’ victims found

Press, 13 April 1989, Page 8

‘Sacrifice’ victims found

NZPA-AP Brownsville, Texas Authorities who found 12 male bodies in. graves at a ranch in Mexico say that the victims were sacrificed by a satanic cult of drug smugglers. ..“It was horrible,” the Cameron County Sheriff, Alex Perez, told a news conference. "It was like a human slaughterhouse.” Mexican Federal Judicial Police arrested four people, said Sheriff Lieutenant George Gavito. He said the suspects were United States and Mexican citizens, but did not identify them further. Mr Gavito said the dead found by the federal police included a University of Texas student, Mark Kilroy, aged 21, who vanished during his spring break last month while in the Mexican city of Mata-

moros, across the border from Brownsville. Mr Kilroy apparently was chosen at random by drug smugglers who hoped human sacrifices would protect them from harm, Lieutenant Gavito said. He was taken after the cult members "were told to pick one Anglo male that particular night,” the lieutenant said. The cult had been involved in human sacrifices for about nine months, he said, and prayed to the devil “so the police would not arrest them, so bullets would not kill them and so they could make more money.” Authorities found candles and kettles full of body parts and animal bones, said Oran Neck, the chief UnitedjlStates Customs agent in Browns-

ville. A small colour snapshot displayed at the news conference showed a cauldron containing a dark, red liquid and what appeared to be bones. Another picture showed 12 body bags. Authorities would not identify the other victims, but said all were males. One grave held three bodies and another contained two, said Mr Neck. Some victims were shot in the head. Others appeared to have been slain with machetes or sledgehammers, the agent said. The bodies were found in a field about 30km west of Matamoros, Lieutenant Gavito said. "I’ve been an investigator 15 years and it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen,” he said.