A 22-year-old woman from Belize, Central America died after her family took her to church where she underwent an exorcism ritual, believing she was "taken over" by an evil spirit after she played with an Ouija board.
According to Express UK, Jacqueline Sanchez succumbed from cardiac arrest after her body reportedly "lifted" up in the air in the Pentecostal Church of San Ignacio de Velasco. When the exorcism took place, Sanchez was even heard speaking in a man's voice and had to be held down by force.
Sanchez's possession began several months ago after she played with an Ouija board, which is a flat "spirit board" marked with letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0 to 9, the words "yes," "no," "hello," and sometimes "goodbye," which people use to communicate with the dead.
Her family noticed a drastic change in Sanchez after she used the Ouija board, and she suffered from several mysterious illnesses and even went through moments of convulsions and hysteria. When she was brought to the Plan Tres Mil hospital in Santa Cruz, doctors could find no reasonable diagnosis for her condition.
Worried, her family decided to bring her to church where a priest performed exorcism rites to cast out the evil spirit inside her. Unfortunately, Sanchez did not survive the ritual.
The Special Force to Fight Crime Santa Cruz (FELCC) confirmed that Sanchez died of natural causes and bore several cuts and bruises on her body.
"The forensic report realises that this girl, identified as Jacqueline Sanchez, died of natural causes due to a cardiac arrest, and the bruises and lacerations to her body (were) due to a trance that she was suffering," said FELCC spokesman Roger Gutiérrez.
Father Francisco Bautista, an exorcist from Mexico, earlier told the BBC that the rising number of exorcism can be attributed to the fact that Mexican migrants in Central America, the U.S., and Canada are joining the cult of "Saint Death," or Santa Muerte.
