Two practitioners of an ancient religion imported to Cuba and the Caribbean by Congolese slaves have been arrested in Florida for stealing human remains for use on a shrine, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office says.
Brian Montalvo Tolentino, 43, and Juan Burgos-Lopez, 39, are accused of robbing the graves of four people including three veterans at the Edgewood Cemetery in Mount Dora on December 6, 2020.
DNA from items left at the grave sites led investigators to Tolentino, the sheriff’s office said, and Tolentino confessed and told them he went to the cemetery with Burgos-Lopez.
Detectives served a search warrant at Burgos-Lopez’s home in Lake Wales on Wednesday and found a religious shrine in a shed. Seven skulls were on the shrine, the sheriff’s office said, but two were determined to be fake.