Authorities believe Mercedes Salazar, 32, was the ringleader who orchestrated the woman’s captivity, according to James Keith, spokesman for the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.
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The alleged accomplices were named as James Cerda, Teanna San Nicolas and Tristan Smith.
The woman, who was not identified in public, told investigators that her abductors tied her to a chair, forced her to take heroin and other substances, cut her hair and drew blood from her as part of a freakish ceremony after she was rescued. Eventually San Nicholas fell asleep and the victim called her mom, cops said. When they barged in, deputies allegedly found San Nicholas threatening the victim with a knife and scissors, the sheriff’s office said.
The unnamed victim told police she was hog-tied and threatened with scissors and a knife. ‘We even have reason to believe that there was a blood ritual performed on her’.
This is not a fun story of witchcraft, like the witch/warlock dustup: authorities say four people abducted a Texas woman, held her for three days in a San Antonio-area home, and involved her in a few sort of “blood ritual”, reports the Associated Press.
Last month, the station reports, deputies arrived at a home near Lackland Air Force Base when they heard someone screaming. Smith was also arrested for kidnapping, the sheriff’s office said.
A 23-year-old man has been arrested after he posted on the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page that he meant to open fire on someone’s house.
It’s not clear what the four were trying to achieve with the ritual, Keith said, who added, “We’re exclusively operating on what the victim told us”.
Police later arrested George Quintanilla, 58, on kidnapping – but not murder – charges.
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Before deputies cuffed her Sunday, Salazar had been booked 11 different times in Bexar County jail on 43 charges since she was 17 years old.
