Human Hearts Found in Calif. Cemetery
A worker found half buried jars containing human hearts with photos attached.
Oct. 23, 2010— -- A cemetery worker in Colma, Calif., has discovered two plastic jars containing human hearts half buried in a remote section of the town's massive cemetery, according to police.
The jars found at Colma's Holy Cross Cemetery on Oct. 12 had photos of young couples taped to them, police said. Once the maintenance employee discovered the jars, he immediately called the Colma police.
"It appeared to be an organ, most likely a heart, and to the heart were attached pictures of a couple," Colma Police Commander John Read told ABC News affiliate KGO-TV in San Francisco.
After examining the hearts, the San Mateo County Coroner's Office ruled out any sort of foul play in the incident.
"The hearts had previously been autopsied, and there was embalming fluid [found]. We were very grateful to find that out, because that eliminated the possibility of a homicide," Reid said.
Read told KGO-TV that investigators are looking at some leads from the pictures, but wouldn't say if the investigation is identifying them. He says the hearts may have been stolen from a mortuary.
Though police said they now believe that the hearts came from cadavers, none of the graves in the cemetery were disturbed, nor have there been reports of theft from medical schools.
A Religious Ritual?
Police said investigators found partially smoked cigars and candles at the scene next to where the bottles were buried, which has led them and experts to believe that this is part of some sort of religious ritual.
Religious studies professor Marianne Delaporte told KGO-TV that police can eliminate the more commonly known Santeria ritual for one obvious reason.
"It's definitely something religious, but I can't think of anything that would be associated with African religions and Catholicism that have anything to do with human body parts; they use animal parts, chickens in particular," said Delaporte, who teaches as Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, Calif.
Instead, it may be that the hearts were part of a ritual of the Afro-Caribbean religion called Mayombe, which uses human bones in ceremonies, experts said.
The town of Colma has approximately 1,500 residents, but more than 1.5 million people are buried in the cemetery, leading to Colma to be dubbed the City of the Dead.