A Mexican woman believed to be a witch with ties to cartels has been killed after attempting to snatch an 18-month-old baby from its parents’ arms with the stated intention of killing it as a sacrifice to the cartels’ patron saint.
Before Maria Guadalupe RM, 33, tried to kidnap the boy, she had let her nephew, also the boy’s father, know that she believed a dead relative had been reincarnated as her son, the local newspaper reported. Digital North.
On Sunday, she broke into her relatives’ home in Ciudad Juarez while her nephew was sleeping with his wife and son and tried to take the child away by force.
Pictured: Maria Guadalupe RM, 33, a woman who was beaten to death by a father who was trying to stop the alleged witch from kidnapping his son in Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas.
The nephew, identified as Carlos Gabriel CR, 23, counterattacked with a baseball bat and killed her.
Two unidentified men, who are still at large, were also at the house to assist in the kidnapping of her son, but were scared off by neighbours who alerted police about what was happening.
Maria Guadalupe had previously asked her nephew to hand over her son and stated that she intended to offer the child as a sacrifice to Santa Muerte, the patron saint of Mexican cartels.
Guadalupe was known to be a witch and practiced Satanic worship at her home in Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, according to Mexican media.
He also had ties to the notorious Los Mexicles street gang, the armed thugs of the Sinaloa drug cartel formerly run by drug lord El Chapo Guzman, who is jailed in the United States, Mexican authorities confirmed.
They add that María Guadalupe sold drugs and participated in rituals and sacrifices to Santa Muerte on behalf of the gangs.
Cartel members in both Mexico and the United States are known to worship statues of caped, skeletal women holding a globe and sickle in their hands.
At the Fort Worth hideout, apples, flowers, a bottle of tequila and cigarettes had been left as offerings to Santa Muerte.
This statue of Santa Muerte was confiscated by the DEA in 2011 from two women who were transporting more than 700 grams of methamphetamine between Arizona and Minnesota. It was painted gold to represent economic power, success and prosperity.
Criminal organisations believe their saint, who has been denounced by the Catholic Church, will offer them protection from violent rivals and keep them safe as they smuggle drugs and people across the border.
There are more and more stash houses in the United States where people and drugs are stored as they are transported into the country; police are finding altars to Santa Muerte, such as a recent discovery in Fort Worth, Texas.
In Juarez, a roadside shrine to Santa Muerte mysteriously appeared near the border in March, on a highway where 21 bodies have been dumped this year alone.
It is unclear whether the boy who was nearly kidnapped was injured, however, his father turned himself in to authorities this week.
He was released after 48 hours without charge, as authorities found he acted in self-defense.
The house in Juarez, Mexico, where the attempted kidnapping of the 18-month-old boy took place on Sunday
The alleged witch died in her nephew’s house after he hit her with a baseball bat
Her “witch” aunt was also suspected in another death, after a skeleton was found in her home in May.
The remains of a 22-year-old man were found on his property near a cement slab with an image of Santa Muerte on top.
At the witch’s house, a local television news crew found what appear to be the skeletal remains of a dog.