The Stolen Child

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
On June 22, 1919, in the city of Matanzas, Cuba, a 3-year-old girl Cecilia Dalcourt Jaruco was kidnapped. The police and the press accused sorcerers living in the town of sacrificing her. They were imprisoned. Dr. Armando Carnot, mayor of the city was accused of working with the cult leaders and crowds rioted in the streets. 

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Funeraria Torres (Torres Funeral Home), Matanzas, Cuba c.early 1900s

Many of the slaves brought to Cuba during the 17th and 18th century were from the Congo such as Old Calabar and Nigeria. They practiced a religion known as Yoruba which they disguised with saints of the Catholic Church. It was known as santeria. An offshoot of witchcraft practiced by the African magicians was, and is still considered a diabolical practice.

The Cuban province of Matanzas represents the largest congregation of this dark practice known as palo monte. For many years, it was warned that in late June, on the eve of the summer solstice, children should not be left unattended for fear they would be kidnapped and used as a sacrifice by the paleros. This was also the time of the feast day of St. John the Baptist on June 24.

On Zaragoza Street where four corners joined known as a crossroad, was said to be the place to deposit all luck magic and sorcery, from offerings to chango or mojo bags. On one corner was the First Baptist Church established in 1895, and on the other corner was the Torres Funeral Home.

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Public school, Matanzas, Cuba c.1906

On July 6, 1919, La Prensa newspaper reported that an arrest had been made in Matanzas of a dark magic practitioner known as Jose Claro. He was accused of killing a young girl named Cecilia. Claro confessed that Jose Galvez the head of the "Brujos de Bolondron", sacrificed a girl in order to cure a relative who was gravely ill. He said he had found the child at the corner of Santa Teresa and Narvaez Streets. He ordered his accomplices Jose Parra and another man who was a dishwasher at the Hotel Sevilla, to kidnap her and bring her to his home. Once there, they tied the child on a table. Galvez ordered Claro to sacrifice the child, and he took a large, sharp knife, with which he stabbed the child on the left side of her chest while she screamed in pain. Then Claro took the knife and opened her from her neck to her pelvis. They withdrew her entrails and intestines, then with a hatchet cracked open her skull and took out her brain. All of these were placed in a tray surrounded by onions, garclic and sesame. An old woman who took part in the ceremony collected blood in small glass vials. They took the child's blood and bathed their feet. Then they painted their forehead with the blood. Then with a single towel, which they passed around they dried their feet and their forehead. The child's heart, entrails and brain matter were cooked with the seasoning surrounding them on the tray, and was served to each of the participants. Each dribbled four drops of blood on each plate. This was served to the men by a relative of Claro's mother Facunda. The sick relative was served with the tongue and the fingers of the child.

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Cardenas Beach, Matanzas, Cuba (Postcard c.1924)

What was left of the child's corpse was placed in a box with candles, and was buried in the yard of Galvez's house about 15 feet from his door. The police tried to find the remains, but were unable to do so, and it was suspected someone came and moved the body.

Once the townspeople became aware of what happened they went to Galvez's house and set it on fire. They didn't allow the firemen to extinguish the flames, and he burned to death inside. Then it became known that during the previous night a man tried to kidnap Ana Rosa's daughter. She took her husband's revolver and shot at the man several times, and he fled.

​Claro told police that the plans were to sacrifice 7 more children in order to cure those with spiritual ailments. He said that Galvez had already killed three children, but he had only been involved with the death of the child Cecilia. The police then apprehended other accomplices named Benito "Chacho" Oliva, Luis Galvez, Francisco Parra, Marcos Rodriguez and Ricardo Villegas.

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Fort San Severino

For the safety of the prisoners they were taken to Castillo San Severino, a prison fort built in 1693. This place had its own grim past. Under the tower was a "shark hole" where the bodies of victims were thrown in occasionally as food for the sharks that infested the waters.

During the 1960s, Fidel Castro and his communist cronies executed many Cubans within its walls.

​Police Captain Curtis took Jose Claro to where the child was sacrificed looking for where she was buried. Claro said he couldn't find it because the box was buried at night, and he was drunk, as were all that participated in the ceremony. He took police to a farm belonging to Ricardo Villegas. This man had given him and Parra the box containing the child's remains. Villegas at first denied the accusation, then admitted to the crime. By the time of the confession, it was after dark, and the search for the box was to resume the next morning, however what was found was Villegas had hung himself with his belt inside the jail cell in the Castillo de San Severino.

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Carriage ride in Parque Central, Matanzas, Cuba c.1920s

Captain Curtis, took the testimony of Octavio Antolin Reyes, 9, who had observed when his uncle Jose Claro participated in the child's murder, and later when he buried the child in a section known as Coro de Angeles, (Choir of Angels) in the San Carlos Cemetery where Jose Claro worked as a gravedigger.

Octavio was the grandson of Facunda Reyes, Jose Claro's mother. In their house also lived a very old woman named Maria de la Cruz Rodriguez known as La Conga.

The child's body was found in the cemetery, and her father Casimiro Dalcourt and her mother identified her.

Dr. Filomeno Rodriguez and Dr. Antonio Font examined the body and confirmed she had her hands tied, the parietal bones were struck apart, the occipital bone was separated, and the frontal bone was divided. Her tongue, brain and heart were missing.

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Drawbridge at Fort San Severino c.1899

Captain Curtis held a press release in the cemetery where the child's remains were found. The child had been wrapped in a white camisole that was embroidered with the initials JT, and was purported to belong to Josefa Toledo a relative of Villegas, which was also arrested. She was the one seeking a cure.

​Then a rumor circulated in the city that the child's sacrifice had served to save the mayor's sister who was sick, and that the letters embroidered on the robe were not JT but JC, which stood for Juana Carnot. It was believed that it was no coincidence that Benito "Chacho" Oliva worked in the mayor's stables, and Jose Claro looked after his horses.

​On June 29, 1919, a mob made up of 1,000 persons, stormed the prison, and two were killed by soldiers. They were Jose Guerra, 23, and Armando Arbelo, 25. Of the eight prisoners, five tried to flee and were killed. The mob waited outside to burn their bodies, and did not want them buried in the cemetery. The officials said they would have them buried, and did so in a secret place.

​The mayor, Dr. Armando Carnot ended up resigning his post that he held since 1916.

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Report from the Imparcial on other attempted kidnappings c.1919

During this time the newspaper El Imparcial reported that there had been 17 attempts of child kidnappings by ñáñigos which were considered the practitioners of the darkest African belief systems.

On June 29, in Regla, a suburb of Havana there was another attempted kidnapping of a girl named Asuncion Leal. The child's father realized the intentions of the "brujo negro" and gave chase. He ran after him until police arrested him, and took the brujo to the police station.

A mob formed outside, riled by what had happened in Matanzas. They forced their way in, despite being shot at. Soldiers responded to help the police, but the crowd described as "furious" surged forward and overcame any resistance. They took the prisoner, tied him behind a horse, which was whipped into a gallop and he was dragged until he died.

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Voodoo death plot foiled c.1929

In 1929, it was reported that in Havana a voodoo plot to abduct a toddler for sacrifice was stopped by secret police working at Regla, a small town across the bay from Havana. Fourteen cult member were arrested and the 2-year old child saved.

​She had been seized by several Jamaican "negros brujos", that were acting under the order of their leader who wanted the child's blood to cure a sick woman.

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Desecrated tomb in San Carlos Cemetery in Matanzas, Cuba c.Jan. 2023

In January, 2023, a report was issued about the desecration of tombs in the San Carlos Boromeo cemetery. Bodies were stolen, as well as bones, especially the skulls. Other bones were strewn about. 

The cemetery officials claimed they didn't have sufficient manpower to adequately guard the cemetery. Also since there is no lighting on the grounds, the guards only stand at the entrance.

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Camaguey Cemetery c.2025

In December, 2025 exiled artist Camila Lobon reported that her family's remains were missing from the General Cemetery in Camaguey. Among the missing were the remains of her great-uncle, a political prisoner, and her great-grandmother and great-grand-aunt, who were central figures in her family’s history.

This continues a growing pattern of grave theft and desecration. This is part of a broader crisis affecting cemeteries in provinces such as Las Tunas, Sancti Spíritus, Matanzas, and Havana, where reports include exposed remains, stolen bones, destroyed vaults, and even the theft of tombstones.

It's believed the theft of the corpses and the bones are for "religious practices", and the resale of marble and metal tombstones on the black market.

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