Florida grave robbers stole heads of deceased military veterans for religious ceremonies
Detectives with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office headquartered in Tavares, Florida, have been investigating the macabre thefts from gravesites at the historic Edgewood Cemetery in Mt. Dora since the incident occurred on December 6. While processing the crime scene at the cemetery, investigators collected items, which included cigars, that were left at the site and sent those items off for laboratory DNA testing.
Detectives soon received information that DNA samples had been obtained from the cigars and that the samples were being submitted into the database for comparison. One sample came back as a match to 43-year-old Brian Montalvo Tolentino, who resides at 115 Walpole Loop in Davenport.
On January 6, Lake detectives contacted The Polk County Sheriff’s Office, whose detectives obtained a search warrant for mouth swabs from Tolentino for a direct DNA comparison.
Lake County detectives then met with and interviewed Tolentino. During the interview, Tolentino confessed to going to the cemetery with another man, 39-year-old Juan Burgos Lopez, of 5170 Timberlane Road in Lake Wales, and committing the crimes.
Tolentino stated that Lopez used a crowbar to open the vaults and then removed the heads of the deceased. He stated they removed four heads from the four graves and then returned to Lopez’s residence. He stated the heads were taken for religious practices.
Polk County sheriff’s detectives were able to obtain and then execute a search warrant for Lopez’s residence on the evening of January 6 in an effort to locate and recover any of the human remains. During the search, detectives located a total of six skulls, a hand, a partial arm, and multiple other large bones within what appeared to be some sort of religious shrine.
Lopez identified four skulls as being those obtained from the Edgewood Cemetery and stated the other two skulls were obtained from other practitioners.
Sheriff Judd said three of the four graves were of veterans. He said the men’s preference was that they steal from the graves of heroes.
Lake County detectives said Tolentino claimed Lopez used a crowbar to open the vaults and remove the heads. ~ WPTV
Tolentino and Lopez told the sheriff that they use the human remains in their religious practice – “Palo Mayombe“- which is considered Santeria’s “evil twin” – and they chose veterans’ graves due to the fact that their religion demands that the remains are from those who have “done something heroic.”
Both men were arrested on the Lake County warrants by Polk sheriff’s deputies and were transported to the Polk County Jail where they were booked in with bonds of $40,000 each. Both were charged with four counts of Disturbing the Contents of a Grave and four counts of Abuse of a Dead Human Body.
Polk County Sheriff’s Office may be adding criminal charges for their jurisdiction as well.
(Source: Polk County Sheriff’s Office)
~ Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter
