A church minister and four members of his
congregation have been arrested after a 25-year-old
woman allegedly pushed onto a bonfire because she
was ‘possessed’ by the devil.
Mum-of-two Vilma Trujillo Garcia, 25, died on Tuesday,
five days after being rushed to hospital in the
Nicaraguan capital Managua with first degree burns
over 80% of her body.
The five suspects , including 23-year-old church
minister Juan Gregorio Rocha Romero, were held after
Vilma’s grieving husband Reynaldo Peralta claimed she
had been stripped naked and tied up next to the bonfire
before being pushed on top of it.
The disturbing incident happened in the rural
community of El Cortezal in north-eastern Nicaragua.
Mr Rocha Romero, a pastor at the Assemblies of God
Church, is claiming the dead woman threw herself on
the flames to rid herself of “bad spirits” inside her.
He told a local paper: “God told her he was going to
remove that bad spirit from her and asked us to start a
fire because that’s where the spirit was going to be
expelled.”
Insisting no-one had touched Vilma, he added: “We
were praying when we looked at her and saw she was
on fire.”
But one of the four alleged accomplices - Eneyda del
Socorro Orozco Tellez is said to have told investigators
during questioning: “God made a revelation to me.
"He told me to make a bonfire in the church patio and
said we should take Vilma and tie up next to the
flames and pray so that the devil left her sick body and
threw itself on the fire.”
Daily newspaper La Prensa said a police report on the
tragedy had concluded the church minister had ordered
worshippers to gather up fire wood and start praying
for her before his alleged accomplices threw her onto
the flames.
Another of the five detainees, Franklin Jarquin
Hernandez, told the paper Vilma had been possessed
by a ‘bad spirit’ after committing adultery.
He added: “She had her life companion and committed
an error with another man and she was claiming to be
a Christian and fasting and I’m sure God punished her
in that way and she became possessed by the devil.
“It was a bad spirit that pushed her and she fell on the
fire.”
Vilma, mum to a boy aged five and a girl aged two,
died around 4.30am local time on Tuesday at Antonio
Lenin Fonseca Hospital in Managua after five days in
an intensive care unit there.
Her husband, speaking shortly before her death, said:
“My wife spent eight days prisoner in that congregation
and her sister told me that to burn her, they got some
fire wood together and then they pushed her naked on
the flames.
“She’s got burns on her face, legs and arms and her
kidneys and liver have been badly damaged.
“The doctors have told me 80% of her body is affected
and they don’t think she’ll pull through.
“I don’t think my wife was possessed at all. What they
did to her was witchcraft.”
Claiming she had been raped rather than committing
adultery, he added: “I went to confront the man I was
told was responsible but had to leave him alone
because he was carrying a rifle.”
Disturbing pictures showed Vilma being transferred to
hospital with bandages on her face after being rescued
barely alive.
The five suspects, branded members of a religious sect
by other church leaders, are expected to be formally
charged in the coming days after being transferred to
Managua by police.
Police said they were treating the case as murder.
A police spokesman, naming the three male and two
female suspects aged 23 to 28 at a press conference,
said initial investigations pointed to Vilma being kept
prisoner in the church from February 15 and thrown on
the bonfire earlier than first thought, meaning she may
not have received immediate hospital attention.
