Human skull found on backyard altar, Santeria ritual suspected

A human skull was found on a burned altar in a Los Angeles backyard on Sunday as coroners investigated a woman who may have been conducting Santeria rituals. The skull was found among burned artifacts, animal bones and other ritual paraphernalia in the backyard of a Pasadena home. Santeria is a religion practiced throughout the Caribbean and South America, and is described as a "syncretic" faith that fuses elements of pre-slavery African religious practice with Roman Catholicism. Use of human bones in its ceremonies is not common, but Santeria has no central creed for its practices. [Source]

Click msnNOW.com, updated 24 hours a day.