Sara Maria Aldrete was a multiple murderer and witch who ran a Satanic cult which sacrificed, mutilated and raped dozens of people, using their body parts in black magic rituals to protect their drug cartel.

Location: Matamoros, Mexico
Date: 1987-1989

BACKGROUND

Sarah Maria Aldrete was born on September 6, 1964 in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico and became one of the leaders of the notorious Narcosatanicos (satanic drug cult).

Matamoros sits on the border with the USA and has been described as a typical border town. It is a popular holiday destination for college students wanting to cross the border and let off some steam. It offers abundant alcohol, drugs and sex shows, as well as having a reputation for prostitution, poverty and crime.

Aldrete went to school in Brownsville, Texas, while living south of the border in Mexico. She was a model student who was academic as well as athletic. At a striking 6ft 1inc tall (1.85m) she excelled in physical education, which she wanted to teach in the future.

THE NARCOSATANICOS CULT

When Aldrete was 24, she met Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, and her life took a very different turn.

Constanzo was a Cuban-American fortune-teller and religious cult leader who initially went on a few dates with her but also introduced her to witchcraft and dark magic. He was known as the Padrino (Godfather in Spanish) of his cult, which was a mixture of Santeria, Aztec warrior ritual and Palo Mayombe, complete with blood sacrifices.

He gave Aldrete the nickname Madrina (Godmother in Spanish), and she helped him lead the cult.

SO, WHO WAS CONSTANZO?

Constanzo was born on November 1, 1962, a Cuban immigrant, and as a baby, was blessed by a Haitian ‘Palo Mayombe’ priest. Despite outwardly conforming and attending a Catholic Church, he and his mother secretly practiced Palo Mayombe magic, and as a teenager Constanzo was apprenticed to a Haitian priest in Little Havana.

His mother was frequently arrested on charges ranging from trespassing to shoplifting, fraud, theft and neglect, but none of the charges ever stuck, something she put down to the protection that her religion gave her.

Constanzo gained power within the local drug lords with his growing reputation for black magic and fortune telling, and he gradually took over a local drug cartel.

He named his cartel the ‘Narcosatanicos’ (satanic drug cult). Constanzo would sexually assault and kill other drug dealers and used their body parts for ceremonies to magically protect his cartel in old warehouse near Matamoros.

Many victims’ body parts were cooked in large pot called a nganga. Aldrete, who was by now second-in-command at the cult, supervised followers and conducted ceremonies while Constanzo was away shipping marijuana over the border into the US.

MARK KILROY

With Matamoros being such a popular vacation destination for college students, with some 250,000 students descending on the town each spring, perhaps it isn’t surprising that an American college student would become affected by Constanzo’s activities at some point.

In March 1989, Matamoros had some 60 unsolved disappearances so far that year, many of which are now suspected to be victims of the cult’s activities.

At this time, the killings and disappearances were starting to gain the notice of authorities, but it was when Mark J. Kilroy, an affluent American tourist, disappeared the heat really picked up.

Kilroy was one of thousands of American students who visit the town every year on spring break. He was a pre-med junior from the University of Texas and was abducted in the predawn hours of March 14, 1989.

Unlike many of the people who disappeared who were from the fringes of society, his disappearance was missed and reported to police the next day.

This was harder for authorities to ignore. He was not only American, but his uncle worked for the US Customs Service, so he had connections.

A $15,000 reward was issued for information leading to his safe discovery or the arrest of his abductors. Under pressure, Matamoros police interrogated 127 known criminals, but without getting anywhere.

DISCOVERY OF SHRINE

As part of one of the region’s regular anti-drug campaigns, the police set up random roadblocks around Matamoros targeted at drug runners. On April 1st, 20-year-old Serafin Hernandez Garcia refused to stop at a police checkpoint.

He was well known as the nephew of local drug baron Elio Hernandez Rivera. The police pursued Garcia and his companion and were eventually led to a ranch, Rancho Santa Elena, which was the base of the cult.

The police conducted a brief search of the ranch and discovered occult paraphernalia and traces of marijuana, but then left.

It wasn’t until some days later that the police returned and arrested Garcia and another dealer, David Serna Valdez. The pair seemed relaxed and defiant in custody, claiming confidently they were protected by a ‘power above man’s law’.

With a total belief in the cult’s power to protect them, they told detectives about Constanzo, saying he practiced the African magic ‘Palo Mayombe’. They told the police about him ordering slayings and that he tortured and sodomised victims before killing them and harvesting organs for magic rituals.

The police took Garcia back to the ranch, and he pointed out a makeshift graveyard and showed police where the bodies of 12 men were buried. The police were shocked by what they found.

Some of the victims had been shot, some hacked to death with machetes, and one of the bodies was that of Mark Kilroy, whose skull had been split open and whose brain was missing.

In a nearby shed, Detectives discovered a ‘shrine’ which was the site of the murders containing human hair, brains, teeth and skulls.

Ultimately, the bodies of dozens of people were found that had been mutilated and sacrificed in occult rituals. There was an assortment of voodoo paraphernalia – a blood-spattered sacrifice altar, cheap rum, human body parts, animal bones and chicken and goat heads.

A cauldron was filled with a foul mixture of blood, scorpions, spiders and flesh. In the cauldron, they found Mark Kilroy’s missing brain.

I thought in my twenty two years of law enforcement I had seen everything. I hadn’t. As we drew near, you could smell the stench… blood and decomposing organs. In a big, cast iron pot there were pieces of human bodies and a goat’s head with horns.

Carlos Tapia, Chief Deputy of Cameron County, Texas.

News reached to the other members of the cult that their ranch had been raided, and Constanzo, Aldrete and 5 other members of the cult went on the run.

HIDEOUT/SHOOTOUT

Police found Constanzo, Aldrete and the other cult members in a hideout in Mexico City on May 6, 1989. There was a shootout with police, and, according to Aldrete, Constanzo ordered Leon Valdez to shoot him and his right-hand man, Martin Quintana Rodriguez, to prevent them from being captured.

They were both shot dead with a machine gun.

ARREST AND TRIAL

Aldrete and the other cult members were arrested and charged with the ritual slaying of 15 people. While Constanzo was undoubtedly the leader of the cult, since he didn’t survive to face justice La Madrina and the other members were prosecuted in his place.

According to US law enforcement officials, Aldrete showed signs of split personalities.

I would say she has three personalities…
One personality comes out when she faces the cameras and denies any involvement in the human slayings, another emergent when she talks to police and the third comes out when she talks to herself

A source at the Mexico City attorney generals office

She was initially convicted of criminal association in 1990 and jailed for 6 years.

In a second trial, she was convicted of several killings and sentenced to 30 years in prison.

It is believed that while Constanzo ordered the killings, Aldrete was involved in carrying out the murders, and then she had the bodies buried at various points along the US/Mexico border. She is also believed to have taken part in human sacrifices, mutilations and other rituals involving human organs in the belief that the rites would protect their drug smuggling ring.

Many victims were never found or named and were people abducted off the street, both locals and otherwise. These people simply disappeared without a trace, so the full extent of the killings can never truly be known.

In their wicked, distorted minds there was no seriousness. They thought they had performed some kind of heroic deed for the Devil. They believed that by sacrificing innocent human beings, their loads of marijuana would have an invisible shield of protection from aw enforcement officers. They were moving an average of one thousand pounds a week across the border

Carlos Tapia, Chief Deputy of Cameron County, Texas

In the trial, it came out that Constanzo and Aldrete were obsessed with the 1987 John Schlesinger movie The Believers, starring Martin Sheen, which was about a New York City cult that sacrifices children to gain money and power with ideas from Santeria. It sounds like Constanzo combined ideas from this movie with his training in Palo Mayombe.

Serafin Garcia, one of the cult members, said:

I remember I didn’t understand what he was telling me. I said ‘Is it Santeria?’ And he said ‘Yeah, yeah, Sangteria, voodoo, man.’ And then he kept on saying, ‘The Believers, The Believers, The Believers.’

Serafin Garcia

There was a surge in video rental shops of people renting The Believers when the news came out and accusations of people’s brains being twisted and programmed by Hollywood films about human sacrifice.

Constanzo and his followers, including Aldrete, were willing to torture and kill anyone from total strangers to good friends.

He believed mutilation and pain were essential for Palo Mayombe magic. And told his followers:

They must die screaming

El Padrino

Ultimately, there was no final tally for victims, but there were 23 well-documented ritual murders and possibly a lot more.

Aldrete received a sentence of 62 years, which was reduced to 30 years after she filed an appeal.

She was freed from prison in 2002 after serving just 13 years, changed her name to Sara Maria Aldrete Davil and moved to San Antonio, Texas.

Since then, she has claimed that she was brainwashed and not a willing participant and has since written a book on her experiences within the cult called ‘El Angel de la Oscuridad’ (The Angel of Darkness).

She wasn’t the only person prosecuted for the murders, a total of 14 cult members were indicted on various charges from multiple murder to weapons and narcotic violations.

American authorities stated that if Aldrete was ever released, they would prosecute her for the murder of Mark Kilroy, but I couldn’t find out if this ever happened.

I think the suspects must be possessed by the devil. That would be the only explanation for such bizarre actions.

Mother of Mark Kilroy

It’s impossible to know how much Aldrete was a victim of brainwashing and indoctrination within a religious cult and how much she participated in the torture and murder of the victims, but she certainly did nothing to prevent the atrocities from happening, and it’s impossible to believe she had no idea what was going on.

Source:
Wikipedia.org
Los Angeles Times, May 11, 1989, May 8, 1989
The Matamoros Murders by Jason Kovar
Goodfight.org
Adolfo Constanzo by Michael Newton
trutv.
discoverwalks.com
Murderpedia.org

Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sara_Aldrete_BW_mugshot.png