The enigmatic religious ritual that left 12 dead in Mexico more than 30 years ago

We will receive a spirit that will allow us to see God to the face

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That was the promise that Federico Padres Mejía, 62, gave his neighbors on the night of December 11, 1990. The man, who had arrived a few months earlier in the Mariano Matamoros neighborhood, within the border city of Tijuana, in the Mexican state of Baja California del Sur, he directed the so-called Templo del Mediodía.

According to residents of the area, the Padres’ house was a frequent meeting point in the small and impoverished neighborhood. Prayers and songs coming from inside the house were heard almost daily.

Therefore, few were surprised when, during the night of December 11, screams began to be heard in the place. “They were saying, ‘Help me, please help me.’ The children cried, the women complained and the old man (Parents) said: ‘Come to me, God, come to me, please help us,’” Ricardo Méndez, then 10 years old, told the AP agency three decades ago.

Immediately afterwards, silence reigned in the place. It was not until the next morning that a police patrol arrived at the Padres home, alerted by the relative of one of the people who attended the rite after she did not return home.

The doors were locked, as was the window. When the agents managed to enter, they found themselves face to face with a macabre scene: 12 bodies, some piled on top of others, lay on the floor and an armchair. Some foamed at the mouth.

The victims were between the ages of 11 and 75. They were all holding a rope with 13 knots that formed a kind of square around the group of corpses.

In the middle of it, you could see an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

A LITTLE MYSTICAL CAUSE

The case generated from the beginning a series of theories that pointed to a mystical or esoteric background behind the deaths.

???? On December 13, 1990, the Baja California judicial police reported the death of 12 people and the poisoning of seven others, during a ‘spiritual’ rite and that the victims were forming a circle. pic.twitter.com/TICjUbaw0L

— DeMemoria (@DeMemoria) December 13, 2020

There were those who claimed that satanic rites were performed in the parents’ house, while others considered it a divine punishment.

The authorities initially handled the hypothesis that the victims had perished as a result of ingesting a poisoned concoction.

The dissemination of an audio recording that recorded one of the rituals celebrated by the Padres increased popular hysteria after a minor was heard saying: “Are they here yet?” A question that is answered by the voice of an adult saying: “Yes, we have to stay still.”

The case was so publicized in Mexico that the local authorities received the support of an FBI team to analyze the samples of the victims and the audiovisual material that could be collected from the Padres house.

The mystery, however, would end up being revealed a few days later. On Friday, December 14, 1990, the spokeswoman for the Baja California government, Sara Yolanda Gonzalez, addressed the media saying: “They were left unconscious thinking they were in a trance.”

The investigations showed that the victims had actually died of suffocation, after the butane gas lamp that illuminated the environment consumed all the oxygen in the small two-room house.

By keeping the doors and windows closed, the victims sealed their own fate by preventing more oxygen from entering the room.

The Tijuana police chief, Jaime Sam Fierro, also took it upon himself to deny that a satanic ritual was being performed at the Padres’ house, clarifying that it was a spiritual ceremony, very common among Mexican Christians of the time.

Five people survived the fateful night in Mariano Matamoros. One of them, identified as Alfredo Osuna Hernandez, described to the AP agency the few memories she had before falling unconscious.

“People started complaining of stomach pains and some started vomiting. Others got scared and started screaming in pain,” said the survivor, who also explained that people died without letting go of the rope, fearing the damage this could have caused to their souls.

Source: Elcomercio

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I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.