Introduction
It is a mistake to say that ritual type or occult type murders do not take place. There have been plenty of examples of these types of cases occurring. While many of these cases have been isolated incidents, there is potential for ritual time crimes to continue. While I do not mean to sound the alarm and claim that a Satanic Conspiracy exists there are followers of non-traditional religions that for one reason or another have lost their reality switch and are committing ritual time crimes.
The crime highlighted below may or may not be an example of a ritual crime. British police investigators believe that they were dealing with a case of Muti or Juju murder.
The Victim:
On September 21st, 2001, the torso of an approximately 4-7 year old boy was found floating in the Thames River in London:
The way the boy’s limbs were cut off had the precision of a master butcher. The killer either used a set of heavy razor sharp kitchen knives or one that was sharpened regularly during the dismemberment (Shreeve (2008) P. 43 )
They cut the skin, peeled the muscle back and then cut through the bone. They never went through a joint. He added that the boy had died from violent blood loss caused by a knife wound to the neck and that there was no blood in the lungs which meant that the boy probably died lying down or upside down (Shreeve (2008) P. 43)
Based on the level of mutilation, police felt certain that they were dealing with a case of ritual murder. Experts on ritual murder were consulted and those opinions agreed with the opinions held by the police:
Dr. Richard Hoskins a specialist in African religions at Kings College London. He confirmed their suspicions the case of Adam is defiantly a ritual killing. (Shreeve (2008) P. 44)
Official figures states that around 300 ritual slayings of humans are performed every year in South Africa. About the same number are killed annually in Nigeria where the victims blood is offered to gods, spirits or ancestors, what’s more according to Europol estimates there have been at least 9 cases of ritual killing across Europe in the past 15 years or so(Shreeve (2008) P. 45)
Police did not just jump to the conclusion that this was a case of ritual murder; there was forensic evidence to indicate that the boy has some connection to Nigeria. The forensic evidence included the following:
Tests conducted by scientists of the royal botanical gardens in 2003…not long after Adam’s body was found the forensics team discovered a strange plant material in the boy’s gut which they couldn’t identify; they also found sand like mineral and a substance resembling clay pellets along with particles of gold. The scientists of Kew found a close match to the plant material the Calabar been a highly toxic climbing vine from West Africa (Shreeve (2008) P. 85)
Dr Richard Hoskins the expert on African religion and advisor to Scotland yard added that the calabar been alone with the other ingredients found in Adam’s gut all pointed to Nigeria and that witch doctors in the region were known to use such ingredients in magic(Shreeve (2008) P. 85)
Conclusion
Living in modern society makes it difficult for most of us to believe that there are certain individuals that hang on to old superstiscious beliefs that require human sacrifice, the sad fact is, that some individuals still do. Because of the fact that this boys killers have not been brought to justice, their actual motivation for the killings are not known. Evidence would seem to indicate that there were some ritual elements.
Refernces
Shreeve, J.L. (2008). Human Sacrifice. A shocking expose of ritual killings worldwide. Fort Lee, NJ: Barricade Books Inc.
