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Help sought in voodoo slay

New York Daily Press, USA
Sep. 5, 2003
Martin Mbugua
www.nydailynews.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Monday September 8, 2003

British cops are asking Nigerians and other Africans in New York to help them solve the grisly ritual killing of a little boy in London - and they’re offering a substantial reward.

The torso of a 4- to 7-year-old Nigerian boy was found floating under London’s Tower Bridge in 2001.

Detectives believe the child, dubbed Adam, was slowly and expertly sliced up and beheaded while still alive.

“There may be people, Africans spread throughout the world, who may have knowledge of the crime or may help in putting cultural meaning to our discovery,” Detective Inspector Will O’Reilly of New Scotland Yard told the Daily News.

O’Reilly and three other detectives will meet this morning with experts in the city medical examiner’s office, who have been examining DNA samples from a potion – a mixture of clay, gold, quartz grains and tiny bone fragments – found in the boy’s stomach.

The investigators hope that advanced DNA techniques used to identify remains from the World Trade Center will help determine the origin of the bone fragments, which might be a witch doctor’s signature.

“Can you give any meaning to the concoction or potion that we found? Can you give any meaning why the child was dressed in orange shorts after his death and dismemberment?” O’Reilly asked.

Commander Andy Baker, Scotland Yard’s head of homicide investigations, said a reward of about $80,000 has been offered in the case. He asked anyone with information to call Scotland Yard at 011-44-207-2301212.