Weird crime: Man arrested over fatal sorcerer’s healing ritual

Colombia's National Police arrested Martín Rangel Londoño Jaramillo on Sunday on a murder charge over a woman's death in 2021 in the department of Antioquia. (Colombia's National Police/ Fire Graphic)

A 56-year-old man known as The Sorcerer of Liborina covered a 31-year-old mother of four with a potion that was made out of alcohol, sulfur, and camphor, a waxy substance that is usually made with turpentine oil, according to prosecutors.

The sorcerer was performing a healing ritual in a small town in northwest Colombia when he also poured the potion on the floor, and set it on fire just before the flames reached the woman who was covered in the flammable substance, according to police.

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Investigators reported that after the woman suffered burns on about 70% of her body, Martín Rangel Londoño Jaramillo sent her home and recommended an herbal treatment, so she died about a week later in a hospital in the city of Medellin.

Prosecutors announced the fugitive’s arrest on Sunday on a murder charge for the Sept. 16, 2021 crime in Sopetrán, a rural area northwest of Medellin. Londoño Jaramillo, also known as “Hoyito,” denied the accusations.


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The Emmy Award-winning journalist joined the Local 10 News team in 2013. She wrote for the Miami Herald for more than 9 years and won a Green Eyeshade Award.

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