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Cult link probed after gory wedding murder

AFP, France
Aug. 11, 2004
www.iol.co.za

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Wednesday August 11, 2004

Puerto Princesa – Filipino police have arrested four people for murdering a wedding guest, roasting and eating parts of the body and serving some of the remains at the reception, they said on Wednesday.

Narra town police chief Senior Superintendent Perla Bacuel said they were looking into the possibility that some of the suspects may have been involved in other disappearances in the western island of Palawan since the 1980s.

Farm labourer Eladio Baule, his son Gerard Baule and nephews Sabtuary Pequi and Johnny Buyot allegedly killed the victim, Benjie Ganay, on July 17 after Ganay accidentally touched Eladio Baule’s daughter’s bottom during her wedding party, Bacuel said.

The four suspects, who were drunk at the time, then set fire to Ganay’s body and Bacuel said the aroma of roasting flesh may have tempted the group to eat parts of the burnt body.

The father and son then allegedly served some of the roasted flesh to other drinkers at the wedding party.

The crime was only discovered about eight days later, after the two nephews confessed to the police who originally found their accounts too shocking to believe.

The nephews insist that they did not take part in the murder but were only forced to eat parts of the body.

Bacuel said this was the first time she ever heard of such a bizarre crime in this area, adding they were looking into the possibility that Eladio Baule may have been a member of one of the rural cults that are known for chopping up their enemies.