[If it's happening in London, I bet it's happening here too. Ugh!]

Police probe link between African magic and butchered remains of 5-year-old boy

Antony Barnett, Paul Harris and Tony Thompson Sunday November 3, 2002 The Observer

Detectives hunting the killers behind the 'Torso in the Thames' child murder are investigating the illegal bushmeat trade after allegations that human flesh is being offered for sale in London.

Police believe that the murdered five-year-old, whom they have called Adam, was the victim of a ritualistic killing linked to a West African form of voodoo-like religion. Officers suspect that gangs illegally importing exotic meat, such as chimpanzee and bush rat from West Africa, are involved in trading in substances used in African witchcraft that may include human body parts.

Detectives from Operation Swalcliffe, which is investigating Adam's death, joined a raid on a north London shop last month by environmental health officers after a tip-off that human body parts were being sold. The officers seized two tonnes of unfit meat, including a crocodile head, used in ritualistic dishes to increase sexual stamina in men. They also found rat faeces, which had been removed from rats' intestines and prepared as a delicacy for possible use in a ritual.

The trade in importing bushmeat to Britain has boomed in recent years, but this was the first time evidence has been found linking it to witchcraft ceremonies. While police found no obvious traces of human flesh, packages of unidentifiable meat and ribs wrapped in plastic bags and stored in a backroom have been sent for DNA testing.

Clive Lawrence, Heathrow airport's meat transport director, who was on the raid, is convinced that human flesh is finding its way into the UK as part of the bushmeat. He believes that the trade is also linked to criminal gangs involved in people trafficking and drug smuggling.

'The intelligence we are receiving suggests human flesh is coming into this country," he said. 'We are dealing with some very nasty people.'

Experts believe African witchcraft rituals are on the increase in Britain. Professor Hendrick Scholtz, a South African expert in witchcraft and an adviser on Operation Swalcliffe, said: 'As these communities grow, elements of African culture will be inevitably transported to Britain.'

In the past year police have discovered seven incidences of West Africans conducting religious rituals on the banks of the Thames. They usually involve lighting candles and writing on white sheets that are then thrown them into the water. Early in their investigations, police thought seven half-burnt candles wrapped in a sheet near Battersea Power Station could hold the key to the murder. The name 'Adekoyejo Fola Adoye' was written on the sheet and carved in the candles.

However, detectives found that Adoye lived in New York and his London-based parents had performed a ceremony to celebrate the fact he was not killed in the 11 September terrorist attacks. Nevertheless, the revelation is thought to have surprised police who had been unaware such rituals had been taking place in public in the capital.

The use of human flesh is a taboo subject in many African communities, which stress that traditional culture abhors such acts. Scholtz said it is used when a normal animal sacrifice is considered insufficient. Human flesh is also typically used when a group of people is trying to achieve a common goal.

The possible uses of such body parts is varied: skin from a stomach can be used to cause pain to enemies, while fingernails and toenails are used in poisons. Eyebrows, hair and noses are often used in curses. Particularly strong magic is believed to reside in a person's genitalia. Breasts and genitalia from both sexes are used in love potions.

Police believe that Adam was brought to Britain as a slave and sacrificed in a ritual intended to bring good luck to his killers.

'There is an ongoing search for Adam's head and limbs and there is evidence to suggest a link between those who are involved and the trade in illegal animal parts and meat products,' said a spokesman for Operation Swalcliffe.

Privately, detectives believe Adam's arms, legs and skull have been kept as magical trophies. Two officers are in Nigeria trying to find his parents after DNA testing showed he was born there. They believe his death may be linked to an extreme element from the Yoruba people, a tribe with voodoo-like rituals.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2002

Answers

EGADS!

I'm thinking of all the missing people who are not thought to be abducted by a parent or relative.

that's a lot of voo-doo.

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2002

[Notice the following mentions skull and leg bones but nothing in between. . . .]

2002 Calendar 2002-03 School Calendar

Digging up pieces of the past By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

County archaeologists digging in the former Colonial port of London Town have come across the grave of a child about 6 years old, buried more than two centuries ago, apparently beneath the floor of a long-vanished home.

Discounting other explanations -- including murder -- county archaeologist Al Luckenbach and his staff have tentatively concluded that the child was a slave, interred beneath the house in observance of traditions brought from Africa.

If so, it would be the first such slave burial reported in the Chesapeake region, and perhaps the first in North America.

Lisa Plumley, who directed the dig, called the find "immensely important to the interpretation of London Town," and especially to those investigating the lives of Colonial slaves.

London Town, founded in 1683, quickly became a key tobacco port and an important ferry crossing on the road from Williamsburg, Va., to Philadelphia.

In 1995, archaeologists working on a plot overlooking the lane that once led to the ferry dock exposed traces of a structure. Mr. Luckenbach believes it was built in 1725, perhaps as a tenement for slaves, on property then owned by Stephen West. It later became a carpenter's shop.

Within the outlines of the building, and neatly aligned with its walls and floor beams, the archaeologists at the time noticed a rectangular stain in the soil, about a foot wide and 3 feet long.

During an excavation Oct. 16, archaeologist Jordan Swank found the unmistakable gray outline of a small coffin, punctuated by rusted nails. Near the head end, Mr. Swank uncovered an arc of 11 small human teeth, suggesting a child of about 6.

With the teeth as guideposts, Ms. Plumley and Mr. Luckenbach traced the faint gray outline of the child's skull and leg bones.

"I think there is a 75 to 80 percent chance this burial is under the floorboards," Mr. Luckenbach said. And "if it's under the floorboards, the only people we can connect this with are the slaves."

The English and Scots in London Town would have used nearby burial grounds, Mr. Luckenbach said. A murderer would not have used a coffin.

That left the town's enslaved African Americans. Mr. Luckenbach and Ms. Plumley began to find evidence that some African Americans buried some family members beneath their homes.

From 1725 to his death in 1752 Stephen West owned the property on which the building was built Mr. Luckenbach said. "When he died he owned seven slaves who probably worked at Rumney/West tavern," he said. The tavern was built by shipwright Edward Rumney possibly in the 1690s and was operated by him then West.

Mr. Luckenbach plans to return the child's teeth to the grave. A flat stone will be prepared to mark the spot, and local African-American clergy will be invited to conduct a reburial.

But first the teeth are being examined at a George Washington University laboratory.

"It is a long shot to be able to prove the teeth are African," Mr. Luckenbach said. "We will leave no stone unturned trying to prove it in other ways."

-- Anonymous, November 03, 2002