3 Die During Nighttime Cult Ritual In Tijuana -- Police Rule Out Suicide But Find Tainted Drink

TIJUANA, Mexico - Twelve people have died in a religious ritual, apparently after drinking a poisoned sacrament, and the leader of the ceremony clung to life in a coma today, officials said.

Authorities who went to the house last night in the impoverished El Florido neighborhood of this border city found 12 bodies strewn about the living room, with five survivors. Another ritual participant later checked into a hospital.

The dead included four men, seven women and a 6-year-old girl, police said.

The victims' faces were contorted in pain and had suffered a purplish discoloration of the skin, apparently caused by poisoning, the judicial police report said. Autopsy reports were expected later today.

Authorities in this city south of San Diego speculated the deaths were caused by an industrial alcohol, perhaps rubbing alcohol, that was poured accidentally into a fruit punch the participants shared during a religious ceremony.

``We believe we've ruled out both suicide and homicide,'' said Jose Nunez de Caceres, a commander of the Baja California state police.

Officers were conducting tests on the punch and a bowl of cooked chicken found in the house where the 12 bodies were found, said Baja California Police spokeswoman Sara Yolanda Gonzalez.

The group leader and owner of the home, Federico Padres Mejia, 62, was in a coma, hospital officials said.

Also hospitalized were Ana Osuna, aged four months; Consuelo Ponce, 35; Juan Jose Sarabia, 49; Moises Merida Gonzalez, 32, and Felipe Osuna Hernandez, 24. Hospital officials did not describe their conditions.

Relatives of the victims said they had previously attended healing rites in the house that were a mixture of Christianity and spiritualism, calling the spirits of the dead for consultation.

In a hospital interview, one of the survivors, Hernandez, said the people gathered round a cardboard Virgin Mary and drank the punch as a sacrament. Several hours later, people began falling ill, Hernandez said.

``People started complaining of stomach pains and some of them began to vomit. Some of them started to get scared and they started to scream from the pain,'' Hernandez said.

His sister-in-law, Margarita Ramos de Osuna, 25, was among the first to fall, he said. She was listed among the dead.

``I didn't try to help her because the Lord was there,'' Hernandez said.

Asked why no one left to seek help, he said:

``It is very damaging to leave the circle.''

Hernandez said the gathering was a cleansing or purification ritual. An unemployed auto-body repairman, he took part with hopes the ceremony would change his luck.

He wanted ``a little of the Lord's coin,'' Hernandez said. ``I was looking for a key to a job, a key to work.''

A neighbor, Gerardo Barrios, said he did small construction jobs at the house and had been invited by Padres to take part in one ceremony.

``He said he had died twice and that his spirit left him and returned,'' said Barrios.

Ritual participants sat in a circle within a rope and spread oil on their bodies, which Padres said would cleanse their souls, Barrios said.

``He would talk about eternal sleep and tell us to go to sleep,'' Barrios said.

Officers who saw the living room said a rope with 13 knots tied in it had been laid in a circle on the floor around four or five of the bodies.

A book of prayers dealing with the ``sixth seal'' reportedly was also found, apparently related to the biblical prophesies of Armageddon.

Neighbors said chanting had filtered from the house over the past several nights, the last time starting Wednesday night and continuing into the morning.

The house was located in a cluster of shanties typical of the grubby suburbs of Tijuana, Mexico's fourth-largest city with about 2 million people.

Authorities found the bodies sprawled in contorted poses on couches, chairs and the floor of the home.

Ana Faviola Miranda, 17, the daughter of a woman who died in the tragedy, discovered the bodies and reported them to police, said Gonzalez, the police spokeswoman.

Miranda said she went to the house at 8 p.m. Wednesday and Padres told her to leave and come back later, according to police.

After spending the night outside in a car, Miranda asked a neighbor for help, and the two entered the house through a window. Miranda at first thought healing ceremony participants were asleep or in a trance, police said.

When she returned an hour later, Mejia would not let her in, she said. Mejia told her that a spiritual ritual had begun and that two men were already in a trance.

Shortly after midnight, she said, ``I heard them praying loudly and I heard a man scream that the devil was not going to exist anymore. I also heard Federico yelling, `Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid!'

``I could hear people crying and baying like dogs. It was terrible.''

-- Material from the Los Angeles Times is included in this report.