Florida Men Arrested For Stealing Human Remains From Cemetery For Religious Practices

Two Florida men have been arrested for allegedly stealing human remains from Edgewood Cemetery in Mount Dora for their religious practices.

According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, Brian Tolentino, 43, from Davenport and Juan Burgos-Lopez, 39, from Lake Wales, face four counts each of disturbing contents of a grave and abuse of a dead body, NBC News reported.

The Sheriff's Office said a positive DNA hit from a smoked cigar left behind at the cemetery helped authorities identify Tolentino, who led the police to Burgos-Lopez.

The thefts took place on Dec. 6, 2020, from four graves at the cemetery. The accused used a crowbar to remove the lids of the tombs, then placed the heads and other remains in plastic bags and brought them back home.

A search of Burgos-Lopez's residence revealed a shed with a religious shrine, CBS Miami reported. The police also retrieved seven skulls, four of which were stolen from the Mount Dora graves. Two skulls were determined to be fake and a probe is on to identify the last skull.

Police County Sheriff Grady Judd said the accused were using human remains to create religious shrines.

"This is a black magic art that needs body parts to worship,” he said, according to CBS Miami.

According to the police, the suspects told them they used the body parts to practice Palo Mayombe, a religion that originated in Cuba among enslaved Central Africans, NBC News reported.

The duo chose the graves of war veterans as their religion demands the remains be from those who have done something heroic.

Three of the four remains belonged to war veterans — Henry Brittain, who fought in the Korean War and died in 1983; Elbert Carr, a World War I veteran who died in 1988; and Calvin McNair, a military police officer in the Marine Corps who died in 1992. The fourth set belonged to Annie Faniel, a caretaker and a good Samaritan, who died in 1988, CBS Miami reported.

The men were released on surety bonds Friday.

Investigators said Burgos-Lopez is part owner of two companies, which sell herbs and essential oils. The report said the Sheriff's Office referred to now-private videos from Burgos-Lopez’s YouTube page where he talked about the difficulty in getting human remains in the United States as opposed to Cuba.

Burgos-Lopez, who considers himself a religious leader, had made a video, a day before he stole the skulls, on how he helps those with worldly problems.