- BRADENTON, Fla. (Reuters) - A Florida funeral home owner stuffed voodoo
dolls into a corpse in a death curse against her competitors in the burial
business and other enemies, police said Wednesday.
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- A report for police by a Miami voodoo
expert said Paula Green-Albritton, owner of Green's Funeral Home in Bradenton,
invoked the voodoo deity Damballah in the hope that people whose names
she had written on notes pinned to the dolls would die. She allegedly severed
the left hand of the corpse, garbage collector Willie Suttle who had died
of natural causes, and placed 12 dolls inside the chest cavity. ``These
dolls were placed inside a body that was to be buried and will decompose
with time,'' voodoo expert Rafael Martinez said in his report, which police
gave to Reuters Wednesday.
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- ``By placing these dolls inside Mr. Suttle's
body this voodoo practitioner intended to destroy the enemies represented
by each,'' he said. ``The invocations and curses mentioned in the notes
clearly indicate that Paula Green-Albritton was performing some type of
black or malevolent magic based on the voodoo religion.'' Richard Woodie
of the Westside Funeral Home was one of least two people whose names were
attached to the dolls who were connected to the funeral home business.
``Be gone and may you rot in the grave Richard Woodie -- Damballah curse
him as I curse him, and spoil him as a spoil him -- by the fire at night,''
one note said. Green-Albritton was arrested last month along with her son
Jimmy Lee Clarke. She pleaded not guilty Friday to tampering with a corpse.
No date was set for trial.
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- Police began the investigation after
a civic worker found a severed hand on the beach of the Manatee River in
June. A fingerprint test led them to the garbage collector's grave. When
the body was exhumed, they found the hand severed and the chest cavity
packed with the 12 dolls. Each doll also had a pin inserted under the left
arm as if to pierce the heart. The charges carry a maximum sentence of
15 years in jail or a $10,000 fine.
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