A Modern-Day Grave Robbing Suspect Was Arrested

Welcome to Weirdest Thing of the Week, where…well, we point out weird things.

Hope Cemetery in Worcester / Photo by halserad on Flickr/Creative Commons

When police conducted a narcotics search of the Connecticut home of Felix “Cuba” Delgado on Tuesday, they found human skulls, dead chickens, and blood.

According to the Associated Press, the items adorned several altars in the home. Delgado is reported to be a Santeria priest. Santeria, or “Way of the Saints,” is a religion that grew out of the slave trade in Cuba—it honors West African deities and upholds some Roman Catholic beliefs.

Delgado apparently acquired the human skulls from Hope Cemetery in Worcester. The Telegram and Gazette reports Delgado was involved in the theft of five human skeletons from two locked mausoleums in the cemetery last May. He is also thought to be involved in a later Hope Cemetery theft in December 2015. Delgado was charged with eight counts of disinterment of bodies this week.

Delgado is the second person to be charged in these grave robberies, after another Santeria practitioner named Amador Medina was arrested in December. At the time, Medina told police he was using the bones in Santeria healing ceremonies and had hired someone (now determined to be Delgado) to obtain the human remains in exchange for payment.

In December, police told the Telegram that they believed the last time a person was interred in the first robbed mausoleum was approximately 71 years ago.

Have you noticed funky happenings lately? Tell me about them: mbilis@bostonmagazine.com, @madelinebilis.