Police find remains of 5 people, stolen from cemetery, inside priest’s home

He has been charged with five counts of disinterment of bodies, accessory before the fact and conspiracy to commit a crime.

A Hartford man who claims he was using the remains of five bodies, stolen from a Worcester, Mass., cemetery, for religious purposes will be arraigned in court Monday, police said.

“The age of the deceased, as well as how long they have been deceased, is relevant in how they use those remains in their medicinal value” in Santeria, a Hartford police deputy tells NBC Los Angeles.

A man described by police as a Santeria priest caught with human remains in his CT home agreed on Monday to go to MA to face accusations that he stole the five skeletons from a mausoleum.

Police arrested Medina on Friday after the remains were found in his Hartford apartment. He was cooperative and showed the authorities where to find the remains in his home. At least one of the remains was still clothed. Police then found remains of three adults and two children.

Santeria (“The Way of the Saints”) developed in Cuba among slaves and spread throughout Latin America and the United States.

Arroyo tells News8 the Afro-Caribbean religion which fuses West African beliefs and traditions with elements of Catholicism aim to form a connection to the forces and energies of the earth.

Certain Santeria ceremonies do involve animals which are eaten afterwards and she points out many people raise and eat chickens everyday. Police said they got an anonymous tip about Medina and over the weekend, a woman noticed a mausoleum at the cemetery looked like it had been broken into. The heavy chain that secured the gate to the mausoleum had been cut, police said. Worcester Police officers were alerted about the break-in on October 9, but they believe it happened a while back.