Sicklerville police ID person found dead after voodoo ritual

Teahna Burch had grown used to cars from up and down the East Coast parking on her street, and tribal drumming pulsating through the walls of her neighbor's home almost every weekend.

But Friday, it was the sound of bells from her Sicklerville neighbor's back yard that drew Burch and her husband to their windows.

"I was shocked when I looked out," Burch said.

As a part of what police are calling a voodoo cleansing ritual, Burch said, a group of seven people, dressed in white, formed a straight line, turning in a new direction each time a bell was struck.

The next night, police arrived at the apartment to find one of the ritual participants dead.

Lucille Hamilton, 21, a transgendered woman from Little Rock, was pronounced dead at the home in the 400 block of Loch Lomond Drive after a caller said she was found unresponsive about 11 p.m.

Police are awaiting toxicology results to determine the cause of death but Jason Laughlin, spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, said it did not appear to be suspicious and no charges have been filed.

Police said the seven participants included a member of the family who lived in the town house and six visitors, among them the dead woman. Police did not name the resident who hosted the ritual, or other members of that family. Neighbors said they were unsure of the family's name.

Renee Miranda, 26, said she talked with the woman who lived in the house almost daily. She said they often spoke about their children, two of whom were in the same class, and their experiences in nursing school.

"I keep getting goose bumps," she said. "You just wouldn't believe the kind of normal person she is."

Miranda said the woman lived with a man and four children. The children were present but did not participate in the ritual, Laughlin said.

All the participants, including the ritual's host, were treated at the Virtua hospital in Berlin Township.

Frank Batten, 50, is the brother of a woman who lives adjacent to the home. Batten said that as many as 20 to 30 people would gather at the home, and the rituals featured lots of candles and sometimes consisted of sacrificing roosters and chickens.

"I am in fear for my sister's safety and I'm in fear for the children's safety," he said.

Mercedes Sandoval, a professor emeritus and expert on Afro-Cuban religions at Miami-Dade College, said Burch's observations were indicative of a Santeria ritual. She said the white clothing is used to symbolize purity and the bells are used to summon divinities.

Small-animal sacrifices are also common, she said.

"If you are a transgendered person, that's a situation where other churches may not accept you," she said. "This may be attractive because they accept you for who you are."

Laughlin said local code enforcement and health officials were investigating the property. Neighbors said housing in the community is government-subsidized.

The family living in the home where the rituals were held used to live across the street and moved to their current location after a June 2007 fire in an adjacent home.

For Miranda, the news that her friend's house doubled as a meeting place for religious rituals was still difficult to process.

"I must have been missing a lot," she said.