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[EERIE MUSIC] CORNELL WOMACK: When FBI agents discover a secret altar lined with bone-filled cauldrons--
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DAN GARRABRANT: And each cauldron was like a big, giant witches cauldron. CORNELL WOMACK: --they wonder if these could be the remnants
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of a human sacrifice. One of the key questions that they must ask, are these body parts part of a homicide?
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CORNELL WOMACK: Or had the bones been stolen from local grave sites? DEAN MAGLIONE: The final resting place is a sanctity
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that shouldn't be disturbed. CORNELL WOMACK: This discovery offers new hope to a grieving family.
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We just want to be able to say, this is my father, and I want him back. CORNELL WOMACK: And only forensic anthropologist Gina
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Hart can solve the mystery. GINA HART: I was overwhelmed by this case. I didn't know what was in the cauldrons
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before we opened them up. [THEME MUSIC] [CHANTING] CORNELL WOMACK: On an unusually warm,
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summer day in Newark, New Jersey, local police and FBI agents prepare to raid a local botanica,
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a shop for religious items. They're here because an informant told them that something sinister is going on inside.
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DAN GARRABRANT: You walked in. There was an idol for the religion, candles, and powders,
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and just a normal botanica, nothing unusual, nothing that would make you realize
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what we were about to see when we went down to the basement. CORNELL WOMACK: Cautiously, Special Agent Dan Garrabrant
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and his colleagues descend the narrow staircase into the botanica's dark underground.
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The back wall of the basement, from one end to the other, was essentially a shrine of different idols, plates
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of food, animal bones, candles burning, just a very mysterious, unique thing that I had never seen before.
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CORNELL WOMACK: In the basement, a hallway leads off into the musty darkness. DAN GARRABRANT: These symbols were
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painted on the wall in red. And there were different Xs, and arrows, and shapes.
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Clearly, it represented something, and it just made it that much more mysterious.
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CORNELL WOMACK: At the end of the corridor, he finds a closed door. And no one is prepared for what lies beyond it.
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And we knew there was something dead in the room because of the odor that came from the room
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when you opened the door. CORNELL WOMACK: Against the far wall, Agent Garrabrant spots another makeshift altar.
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This one is topped with a row of iron cauldrons. The cauldrons are black, draped with chains and locks,
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and bristling with what looked like freshly cut twigs. As soon as I saw the cauldrons,
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I did a double-take, and I had to really move in for a closer examination. And that's when I saw that, clearly, there were chicken
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heads and other animal parts. CORNELL WOMACK: But as he peers closer, he sees something even more shocking.
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DAN GARRABRANT: But that's when I also saw what appeared to be human skulls in these cauldrons.
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CORNELL WOMACK: The discovery of possible human remains raises gruesome implications for investigators.
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I knew that this was something very unique and very different. It changes the scope of the whole search.
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CORNELL WOMACK: But first, they need to know if these bones are real and how they got here.
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To answer these questions, they turned to an expert in bones, forensic anthropologist Gina Hart.
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The thing that excites me the most about being a forensic anthropologist is being able to put these pieces
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together, being able to see things that other people can't readily see when they look at bones,
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just being able to see the stories that they tell. CORNELL WOMACK: Immediately, agents send the cauldrons
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to Gina Hart's lab at the Newark Regional Medical Examiner's Office. I certainly was shocked when the cauldrons
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were brought to our lab. Thanks, if you could just put them on that table, that would be great.
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It's different than most of the cases that I handle. I was a little overwhelmed at first
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because it was a big challenge. GINA HART (VOICEOVER): The first thing we needed to do
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was determine what was really valuable for our investigation. Do you want to help me get this bag out from under this?
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And then we'll take a picture of it before we start. CORNELL WOMACK: Gina Hart's most pressing task
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is to sort the grisly contents. GINA HART: It was very messy because we had these animal
00:05:32
heads that were fleshed. We also had fruit and different food items that were very rotten, and ripe, and just fluids
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mixing together from that. When the authorities brought the cauldrons to the lab,
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the first thing that they needed to know is if there were human remains in them.
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CORNELL WOMACK: With one glance, Gina has the answer. These are real human remains.
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GINA HART: It was shocking to see the remains in that way. And it was really "go by the moment" situation at first.
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CORNELL WOMACK: The discovery of human bones arouses very troubling questions for Gina Hart.
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Who could this be? And how did their bones get here? It was a person at one point in time.
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It was a person who had a life, who had loved ones. CORNELL WOMACK: And then she discovers something
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that ups the stakes even more. I discovered two skull caps. Now we have more than one individual.
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CORNELL WOMACK: The discovery of two skulls raises the grim possibility of finding even more victims.
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In order to get to the bottom of this mystery, Gina will need to work her way through all
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of the remains, sorting animals from human bone. Only then will she be able to determine
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the number of individual skeletons rotting inside the cauldrons. So the first step is really laying them out
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and do an inventory of which remains that you have. CORNELL WOMACK: While Gina continues separating
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and sorting the bones, detectives track down Marcos Quiñones, a leading expert in ritualistic crimes.
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Based on crime scene photos and Gina's assertion that the bones in the cauldrons are human, he immediately
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determines that they're dealing with a religion called Palo Mayombe. Palo Mayombe initially took root in 18th-century Cuba
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when enslaved Africans began to mix their native beliefs with Catholic rituals. Most practitioners worship the spirits of the dead
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because they believe the spirits will answer their prayers. But a rare few believe in channeling those spirits
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for evil purposes. MARCOS QUINONES: The use of human bones give the religion a very mystical, and powerful,
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and dark expression. CORNELL WOMACK: In Palo Mayombe, every symbol and object has a specific meaning.
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The cauldrons represent the universe. It also represents where the main god that they worship
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lives in. They will also feed it certain foods depending on what god or goddess you worship.
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CORNELL WOMACK: Offerings of sacrificial animal heads and blood give the cauldrons power.
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But human bones are the most important offering. They'll take the human remains and place them in a cauldron,
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and whose ever human remains is in that cauldron is the spirit that they'll be calling down.
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CORNELL WOMACK: Human bones are the key, and they are not always easy to come by.
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Some practitioners on rare occasion resort to drastic measures including human sacrifice.
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One such incident occurred in 1989 when a ring of drug dealers in Matamoros, Mexico,
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slaughtered at least five people as human sacrifices and then used their bones to cast spells.
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The individual that was doing the human sacrifices worshiped the devil in Palo Mayombe.
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So he would promise the devil that he would kill a certain amount of people in order to succeed
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in his criminal acts. CORNELL WOMACK: Authorities now wonder if they have stumbled upon another case
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of human sacrifice. Coming up, Gina Hart discovers clues that stun a grieving family.
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And when she told me what it was, I was in shock. I couldn't sleep over this. I was on the phone every day with anybody I could talk to.
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CORNELL WOMACK: When "Skeleton Stories" returns. [SHRIEKING] [CREEPY MUSIC] Authorities are counting on forensic anthropologist Gina
00:10:09
Hart to determine how many skeletons are in the cauldrons found in a Newark botanica and if this
00:10:15
is a case of human sacrifice. MARCOS QUINONES: One of the key questions that they must ask
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is, is this a homicide? Are these body parts or a complete body part of a homicide?
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CORNELL WOMACK: In order to answer these questions, Gina Hart scours the bones for evidence of foul play.
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But after hours of detailed analysis, she comes up empty-handed. I actually don't see any signs of recent trauma
00:10:49
on these bones. CORNELL WOMACK: To Gina, this means that the people were most likely not victims of human sacrifice.
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But she still must determine where these bones came from. You can actually go online and buy skeletal remains.
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If they were legitimately bought, then there was no crime here. CORNELL WOMACK: But bones purchased from a medical supply
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company are usually bleached a pale color white and then shellacked. Most of these bones are not white.
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They are brown. In fact, based on the color of the bone, Gina arrives at her next assumption.
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Bones sort of absorb all the nutrients around them. The brownish coloration on this skull
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really indicates to me that the bones were possibly buried, maybe in a cemetery-type setting.
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CORNELL WOMACK: Next, she examines the bones' texture and density. Right away, Gina notices that the bones are brittle,
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and this leads her to yet another conclusion. In my estimation, it was several decades that
00:11:58
these remains have been buried. CORNELL WOMACK: Since the bones are decades old and were not purchased legally online,
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investigators now wonder if these remains may have been illegally smuggled into the country.
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In Cuba, family members are permitted through the government to disinter other family members.
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CORNELL WOMACK: There, it is legal for Polo Mayombe practitioners to use their ancestors'
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bones for religious rituals. Maybe the remains were brought in from another country
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and a perfectly legal source. CORNELL WOMACK: But then investigators recall a spate of seemingly unrelated grave robberies
00:12:33
that took place in and around the Newark area three years earlier. Now they wonder if the bones found in the cauldrons
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might be from these graves. In 1999, groundskeepers were stunned to discover that an above-ground mausoleum had been broken into
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and the remains stolen. The tomb in question belongs to Leonard Perna, a bar owner,
00:13:04
World War II Navy veteran, and loving father who died in 1989. The cemetery staff immediately notifies his daughter, Rosanne.
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This came 14 months after my mother had just passed away. So it was like a double--
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double hit. And the first thing I did was I started calling my brothers and my family.
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I said, you're not going to believe this. And when she told me what it was, I was in shock, absolutely shock.
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They broke in, and they stole my father's body. CORNELL WOMACK: It's a gruesome and perplexing
00:13:40
blow to the Perna family. I couldn't sleep over this. I was on my phone every day with anybody I could talk to.
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I did a lot of research. I was on the phone with the prosecutor's office, spoke to the Newark detectives, newspapers.
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I did whatever I could. DEAN MAGLIONE: I took personal exception to the grave-robbing crimes.
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I had prosecuted a lot of crimes. But when I heard about the grave robbings, it didn't sit very well with me.
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ROSANNE PERNA: If it hasn't happened to you, and I wish-- I would never wish this on anybody,
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but you just don't understand it because it's like he died again. CORNELL WOMACK: Then over the next three years,
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four more graves in the area are robbed. The thefts include the remains of Harold Robinson,
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a prominent businessman who ran for mayor of Newark in 1900, Jeremiah Walsh, a Union soldier in the Civil War
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who lived well into his 70s, a very old age for his era, and Maxwell and Eleanor Stein, a husband
00:14:42
and wife who died within days of each other and were buried together. At the time, none of the targeted graves
00:14:50
appeared to have a logical connection, nor did authorities grasp the motive of these crimes.
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I had thought what many people in law enforcement thought-- it's a bunch of kids goofing around.
00:15:03
It's a prank. You know, we're going to find the remains in the middle of the street or in someone's front yard.
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CORNELL WOMACK: But the bodies were never found. And now that FBI agents have discovered human remains
00:15:15
inside cauldrons in a botanica, they need to know if these bones belong to any of the five individuals whose graves were robbed.
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But first, authorities need to find out who was involved in the basement rituals.
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Their next step is to requestion the informant, Eduardo Gutierrez, who tipped them off to the strange happenings
00:15:41
inside the botanica. After a lengthy interrogation, he reluctantly reveals how he knew about the bones
00:15:47
inside the cauldron. Essentially, what the informant said is that they had been paid money to go to graveyards
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and steal human remains when they would wrap the body in a sheet, and then race to their car that was parked nearby,
00:16:00
and throw that body in the car, and then take it to a botanica. And it was really about the money.
00:16:06
It wasn't about the religious part of it at all. CORNELL WOMACK: Under pressure, Eduardo also reveals
00:16:12
who paid them for these bones-- the botanica's owner, a mysterious Cuban woman named Miriam Mirabal.
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Miriam Mirabal, who was a Hispanic female that had been practicing Palo Mayombe for many, many years
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and was very well known within the community, she was the one you went to if you
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wanted black magic or bad spells cast on people. She was reported to be the highest priestess on the East
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Coast and was well known throughout the United States, and Puerto Rico, and Cuba as well.
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CORNELL WOMACK: And as the high priestess, she demands high prices for her spells and potions,
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purported to guarantee love, to cause harm to one's enemies, and even to protect criminals from the law.
00:17:03
This revelation is a horrifying thought to the family. They charge thousands and thousands of dollars
00:17:09
for you to come to get a charm, or to do some kind of a magic spell, or whatever it is,
00:17:14
and they make a lot of money at this. So now you're profiting off of my family's
00:17:17
grief and my father's body. And then I got angry. That's when the anger set in. These people were doing it for profit.
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It wasn't done for religion. CORNELL WOMACK: The more investigators learn about Miriam Mirabal, the more convinced
00:17:32
they become that she orchestrated the string of grave robberies. But all detectives have is circumstantial evidence and
00:17:41
a statement from an informant. They need physical proof that connects Miriam Mirabal to the crime, and they're counting on Gina Hart
00:17:49
to find it. We don't know where they're stolen from unless we can connect it to some grave or some individual.
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CORNELL WOMACK: Prosecutor Dean Maglione is confident that one positive ID is enough evidence to build
00:18:02
a case against Miriam Mirabal. If I tried to bring this case without specifically
00:18:07
identifying that the human remains which were recovered were stolen, the case would get dismissed
00:18:12
before it even went to trial. CORNELL WOMACK: But for the families, one ID is not enough.
00:18:19
There are families out there who need to know what happened to their loved one. I can imagine it was a real horror for the family, one,
00:18:26
to have their loved ones' graves disturbed and then to find out how these remains were being used.
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[CHANTING] CORNELL WOMACK: Coming up, Gina Hart is determined to provide some measure of peace
00:18:44
for the suffering families. I knew that if it was my loved one, I would really want to know what happened to them.
00:18:52
CORNELL WOMACK: When "Skeleton Stories" returns. [SHRIEKING] [SPOOKY MUSIC] Authorities are counting on forensic anthropologist Gina
00:19:13
Hart to prove that the bones found in a botanica basement had been stolen from local graves.
00:19:20
This evidence is what they need to build the case against the alleged ringleader, Miriam Mirabal.
00:19:26
Once you can identify that a set of human remains belong to a specific person, the case is made.
00:19:35
CORNELL WOMACK: And everyone, including Gina Hart, wants to return the dead to their final resting place.
00:19:41
It was important to me to really bring justice to those family members. Because if it was my loved one, I'd really
00:19:47
want them to be back at rest. CORNELL WOMACK: But first, Gina's focus is to figure out exactly how many individuals'
00:19:55
bones were in the cauldrons. To do this, she must sort and separate the remains by their unique characteristics.
00:20:05
GINA HART: It was very overwhelming to think that I had to determine how many people were there.
00:20:10
CORNELL WOMACK: But her challenge is even greater than expected. According to police records and prosecutors,
00:20:16
Miriam Mirabal ground up bones for her potions. DEAN MAGLIONE: The detectives interviewed somebody
00:20:21
who was familiar with this particular botanica and had found out that a woman had gone there and purchased
00:20:26
a powder to drink. The particular woman indicated that she had paid a lot of money for this particular potion
00:20:33
and had gotten quite sick after she drank it. And the powder that she was drinking was human remains.
00:20:42
It even became more particularly disturbing because the families would find out what was
00:20:47
happening to their loved ones. This is a money-making business. And I didn't want anybody profiting from my father.
00:21:05
The possibility that I might not be able to make this match because the bones were
00:21:10
ground up was discouraging. CORNELL WOMACK: Gina must now piece together an unknown number of skeletons that are
00:21:16
missing many of their bones. It is a painstaking process. And I can look at bones and see them in a different way
00:21:29
than an average person can and take everything into consideration-- the color, the shape, the size of the remains.
00:21:38
CORNELL WOMACK: Every human skeleton is unique in color, size, and texture. There are no two skeletons alike.
00:21:46
But detecting these subtle differences requires Gina Hart's specialized expertise.
00:21:51
GINA HART: The color of the remains was a guide because we did have some bones that had
00:21:56
some very different coloration. CORNELL WOMACK: If two skeletons have been lying
00:22:00
in their coffins for decades, they will both appear quite different from each other
00:22:04
depending on their surroundings. GINA HART: The factors include the type of wood
00:22:09
that's used in the coffin, the metal that's used in the coffin, perhaps the clothing
00:22:15
the individual is wearing, jewelry, embalming fluids. There's all sorts of factors that can really influence
00:22:22
the color of the remains after the body has broken down and decomposed. CORNELL WOMACK: But sorting by color is just a first step.
00:22:30
To confirm that a group of bones belongs to one person, Gina must articulate the skeleton.
00:22:37
Articulation is the process of reconstructing the skeleton and making sure that the bones fit together
00:22:43
at all the appropriate points. The articulation points are unique to each person,
00:22:49
to your activities. Your joints could be different if you do something repetitive,
00:22:54
like play tennis. CORNELL WOMACK: But having so few bones makes that process nearly impossible.
00:23:01
It is difficult to put together a skeleton that's not all there because we had maybe a lower leg,
00:23:06
and then we had the thigh bone or the femur that was missing. And I couldn't connect that to a pelvis.
00:23:13
Gina was kind of the puzzle master. And we had this complex case with many different pieces
00:23:19
of the puzzle, with many different puzzles. CORNELL WOMACK: After five days of painstaking work,
00:23:25
Gina Hart can finally conclude how many people are here. All said and done, I had six individuals after I
00:23:32
matched all the bones up. CORNELL WOMACK: There's just one problem. The police are only aware of five stolen bodies.
00:23:43
And that was disturbing to know that there were more graves that were robbed that we didn't even know about.
00:23:50
CORNELL WOMACK: The sixth individual is represented by a single bone, a top half of a skull,
00:23:56
called a skull cap. It's not much to go on, but the sutures in the skull cap provide her with critical information
00:24:03
about this decedent. GINA HART: And I could tell that from the size of the skull cap
00:24:11
and also looking at the sutures in the skull cap, that skull cap that I had was that of a young child.
00:24:19
CORNELL WOMACK: The discovery of a child's skull stuns the entire investigative team.
00:24:24
We did not have any burglaries of any crypts that we knew contained children. Who that skull cap belonged to, and the fact that someone might
00:24:33
have lost a child, and then to have that crypt or grave disturbed again, and to have the bones
00:24:38
used like that was horrific. It was terrifying. CORNELL WOMACK: To know that a child's bones may have
00:24:43
been used for dark purposes is a difficult realization for Gina. GINA HART: Dealing with children is a lot
00:24:54
more difficult in my field. That kind of death is going to be more traumatic for parents.
00:25:02
And so I knew that that would be more painful for the family. CORNELL WOMACK: Investigators scour cold case files, crime
00:25:08
reports, and missing persons databases for leads into the identity of the nameless child.
00:25:14
But their efforts lead to dead ends. The disturbing mystery unleashes a rash of concerns about the extent of these grave robberies.
00:25:23
The thefts might have been occurring outside of Essex County and other counties in the area
00:25:27
also. We knew of certain robberies. But we did not know the extent of this Palo Mayombe cult
00:25:32
here in the city. It's probably bigger than anybody has ever thought. It's probably been going on around here for longer
00:25:38
than anybody has ever considered it. CORNELL WOMACK: Coming up, as Gina zeros in on clues,
00:25:48
she faces an unexpected obstacle. My heart did sink a little bit at the realization
00:25:54
that now it looked like it was less likely that I could make a match. CORNELL WOMACK: When "Skeleton Stories" continues.
00:26:01
[SHRIEKING] [EERIE MUSIC] Investigators are depending on Gina Hart to positively ID at least one of the six skeletons.
00:26:25
They hope this will be the evidence they need to connect the bones in the cauldrons to the bones in the robbed graves
00:26:31
and finally charge Miriam Mirabal with the crime. And the Perna family is also counting on Gina.
00:26:40
We had some ray of hope to look forward to that they had some parts of remains or whatever they took,
00:26:47
and they had things that they could try and match. CORNELL WOMACK: Her first step is
00:26:51
to create a biological profile for each skeleton, which can pinpoint sex, age, ancestry, and stature.
00:27:00
A biological profile is never a positive identification, but it does lead the authorities in the correct direction.
00:27:09
CORNELL WOMACK: Normally, Gina would begin a bio-profile by analyzing specific features
00:27:14
in the bones themselves. However, in this case, many of the bones are missing, and only one set of remains has the bone
00:27:23
that easily indicates sex-- the pelvis. GINA HART: Essentially, the elements in the female's hip bone are different because
00:27:34
of childbirth. They're further apart, not necessarily bigger. From these two bones, I can tell that this
00:27:40
is definitely a female. This indicates that we have at least one female in the remains
00:27:44
that we found in these cauldrons. CORNELL WOMACK: Gina wonders if this could be Eleanor Stein, the only known female
00:27:50
whose remains were stolen. But with only that clue, she can't be sure. Next, she must determine sex for the other four individuals.
00:28:03
Without a pelvic bone, she turns to the skulls for clues. You can tell the difference between men and women
00:28:09
in the skull. Women's skulls tend to be smaller. The muscle attachments on women's skulls
00:28:15
are smaller as well. This is the mastoid process, and it's a muscle attachment which is bigger in men
00:28:21
than it is in women. This muscle attachment is bigger because men have bigger muscles.
00:28:27
CORNELL WOMACK: Based on her measurements, Gina concludes that these four skulls are male.
00:28:33
Next, she determines their ancestry by analyzing the shape of the eye orbits, the width of the nasal openings, and the length of each skull.
00:28:43
We measure from those points and then enter the results into a computer program.
00:28:47
CORNELL WOMACK: In order to approximate age, she examines the sutures of the skull.
00:28:52
In each, the jagged seams appear smooth and less distinct, indicative of someone older than 50.
00:28:59
With this data, she concludes that the four other skulls all belong to older, Caucasian males,
00:29:06
profiles consistent with the identities of the stolen bodies. There is a good possibility that the 55-year-old,
00:29:15
white male could belong to Leonard Perna. CORNELL WOMACK: And this gives the Pernas a reason to hope.
00:29:22
I really hope that it's my father. I want to believe it's him. And I guess I could say, I pray it's him.
00:29:33
CORNELL WOMACK: But a biological profile is not a conclusive ID. For investigators, there is another, more precise option--
00:29:41
a mitochondrial DNA test. To extract mitochondrial DNA, the bone is ground into a fine powder and then liquefied.
00:29:50
Enzymes then separate the DNA from all other bone residue. But there is no guarantee of obtaining a positive result.
00:29:58
There is no definite guarantee that we would even be able to get a good sample out of these bones because
00:30:03
of the condition that they were in. CORNELL WOMACK: Authorities must also face the realities of the state crime lab
00:30:09
where other criminal investigations take precedence. It is very difficult for family members
00:30:14
to be told that their case isn't a priority because it's not a recent homicide. CORNELL WOMACK: Given all the obstacles to performing a DNA
00:30:23
test, investigators are counting on Gina Hart more than ever to prove that these bones were taken
00:30:29
from the plundered graves. Her last option is to try matching any bones that might
00:30:33
remain in their graves to the ones she recovered from the cauldrons. September 2002, Gina Hart and the investigative team
00:30:49
return to the violated graves hoping to find any bones left behind. And we'd open the casket and essentially see nothing inside.
00:30:59
My heart did sink a little bit at the realization that now it looked like it was less
00:31:04
likely that I could make a match with so few bones left over. CORNELL WOMACK: In all, she recovers only two dozen
00:31:10
bones from the five coffins. Despite the odds of finding a match, Gina brings the remains back to her lab
00:31:17
where she will analyze them bone by bone. Only when she has completed this last phase of her work
00:31:23
will police decide if they have enough to prosecute. Coming up, detectives home in on their suspect,
00:31:35
but Miriam Mirabal has a few tricks of her own. She sat still as a rock, didn't move, didn't speak.
00:31:42
It was as if she was in some sort of trance. CORNELL WOMACK: When "Skeleton Stories" returns.
00:31:48
[SHRIEKING] [SPOOKY MUSIC] Investigators are counting on forensic anthropologist Gina
00:32:06
Hart to identify at least one of the skeletons found in cauldrons in a Newark botanica.
00:32:13
They need one positive ID to charge Miriam Mirabal with the crime of grave robbery.
00:32:18
Otherwise, the case will go cold. I was aware that the case rested on my shoulders,
00:32:24
and there was a lot of pressure on me. CORNELL WOMACK: The only way to confirm an ID was for Gina Hart
00:32:30
to match any of the remains found in the cauldrons to the bones recovered from the plundered graves.
00:32:36
If we didn't get a match, we would not have a case. Gina Hart had quite a task set forth before her.
00:32:42
CORNELL WOMACK: Back at the lab, she finds that she was able to retrieve a critical bone.
00:32:46
I have a first cervical vertebrae. CORNELL WOMACK: This bone both supports the skull
00:32:51
and connects it to the spinal column. Gina will now try to match it with any of the five skulls.
00:32:58
First, she takes notice of its color. The color's off on this one. And I can tell right away that this isn't a match.
00:33:07
And this one, the color looks a little closer. But it's still-- this is way too small to match up,
00:33:13
and it's definitely not that individual. CORNELL WOMACK: She then tries to establish
00:33:18
if this vertebra articulates with any of these skulls. This is a crucial test because a perfect fit
00:33:26
will provide a sure match. After carefully testing out each of the skulls, her scrutiny finally pays off.
00:33:34
This appears to be a match. This will actually help the investigators continue to process this case.
00:33:40
So this is a huge step for the case. CORNELL WOMACK: This one ID proves that at least some
00:33:46
of the remains found in the cauldrons match bones still in the plundered graves.
00:33:51
And this provides them with the evidence they need to arrest Miriam Mirabal. Flush with success, Gina hopes she
00:33:59
can identify the other remains. But her victory is followed by disappointment. I was only able to match two of those individuals up
00:34:07
to the remains from the cauldrons. CORNELL WOMACK: The two bodies belong to Harold Robinson,
00:34:12
the man who once hoped to be mayor of Newark, and Maxwell Stein, a man so distraught with grief
00:34:19
after the death of his wife that he succumbed only three days later. Now their remains will finally be laid to rest again.
00:34:27
But as for Leonard Perna and the others, including the unknown child, Gina Hart just can't be sure.
00:34:34
I was hoping very much that we would be able to identify him. I think there's a very good possibility
00:34:39
that we do have his skeleton, but I just couldn't match it up. Specifically, I was lacking the vertebra
00:34:46
that would really match the skull up to the rest of the body. So I wasn't able to say that we definitely had his remains.
00:34:55
It is like a roller coaster. It's your emotions go high. Then they go low. And then, all of a sudden, you hit a spot
00:35:00
where you say, oh, my god, it's never going to happen, and this is just the way it's going to be.
00:35:03
We appreciate the job that she's done even though we haven't been able to definitely say,
00:35:07
yes, this was my father's remains. CORNELL WOMACK: For investigators, one positive ID is enough.
00:35:19
But two conformations bolster their case against Miriam Mirabal even further. When Gina Hart, the forensic anthropologist,
00:35:26
was able to positively say some of the remains found in these cauldrons matched the human
00:35:32
remains that we knew to come from the burglary locations-- made the case. CORNELL WOMACK: Investigators now have the critical evidence
00:35:40
they need to charge Miriam Mirabal with theft of human remains. But they have one major problem.
00:35:47
They can't find her. After the raid on her botanica, she disappeared. Police believe that workers at some
00:35:54
of Newark's other botanicas may be trying to protect her. But after nine long months, they finally
00:36:01
uncover a possible lead. On one particular occasion, they were in a botanica, and the store owner denied knowing the suspect.
00:36:08
However, there was a letter that was addressed to the suspect, so we knew we were getting close to her.
00:36:16
CORNELL WOMACK: Detectives follow the address to a house in rural New Jersey, and they
00:36:20
are surprised when Miriam Mirabal answers the door. But when they question her about the grave robberies,
00:36:27
she remains silent. DEAN MAGLIONE: And she portrayed no emotion whatsoever. She sat as still as a rock, didn't move, didn't speak.
00:36:34
It was as if she was in some sort of trance. CORNELL WOMACK: But while Miriam remained stubbornly silent,
00:36:40
the traditions of Palo Mayombe give her away. DEAN MAGLIONE: On her right arm in the bicep area,
00:36:46
she had a very large scar that was Y-shaped. It was about 3 inches. And right underneath where the Y starts,
00:36:54
there was a line across it. One of the things that is a sure sign that an individual is
00:37:00
part of Palo, there is a ritual element that they do, [SPANISH],, where the high priest or priestess
00:37:08
will take a sharp blade or knife and will cut the individual. CORNELL WOMACK: With the scar, the informant's confession,
00:37:15
Miriam Mirabal's connection to the botanica, and, most importantly, Gina Hart's evidence,
00:37:20
investigators need no further confirmation that they have the right suspect. In the spring of 2004, Miriam Mirabal
00:37:30
is charged with burglary, conspiracy, and theft of human remains. The theft is normally graded by the dollar
00:37:39
value of the theft, but human remains has a separate statute. You are presumed to go to state's prison
00:37:45
when you steal human remains. CORNELL WOMACK: Coming up, more challenges lie ahead when
00:37:54
the case finally goes to trial. Fighting physical crime is one thing. But fighting spirits and the like
00:38:00
is a totally different situation. CORNELL WOMACK: When "Skeleton Stories" returns.
00:38:04
[SHRIEKING] [EERIE MUSIC] Armed with Gina Hart's positive IDs, authorities have charged Miriam Mirabal with grave robbery
00:38:26
and are now preparing for trial. And again, they turn to Gina Hart, this time to take
00:38:32
the stand as an expert witness. I was a little nervous preparing for it just because it is a huge case.
00:38:39
CORNELL WOMACK: As the date nears, prosecutor Dean Maglione is also anxious about the trial.
00:38:45
And I lived with this case from August 2001 until we went to trial in May 2004. And throughout the course, I learned a lot
00:38:54
about Palo Mayombe. CORNELL WOMACK: But the more he learns, the more concerned he becomes.
00:39:01
I was assured that the practitioners of Palo Mayombe would definitely be casting evil spells on me.
00:39:07
To be on the safe side, I did begin to burn candles myself. You know, I figured it was better
00:39:12
to be safe than to be sorry. And the head of the archdiocese gave me rosary beads, which I kept with me throughout the trial.
00:39:28
CORNELL WOMACK: On April 5, 2004, the trial begins. Dean Maglione starts by emphasizing
00:39:35
the gravity of the crime. The final resting place is a sanctity that shouldn't be disturbed.
00:39:43
CORNELL WOMACK: Next, he calls Gina Hart to the stand. Step by step, she walks the jury through her process
00:39:51
of sorting and matching each bone to the next. I think the visual of the bones really helped the jury understand
00:39:59
everything that was going on and sort of illustrated the story for them. CORNELL WOMACK: And then she offers her final conclusions.
00:40:07
Harold Robinson and Maxwell Stein's earthly remains were unquestionably found in the basement cauldrons.
00:40:14
I wasn't presenting these things as a bias against a religion, but more my scientific viewpoint as to what I found.
00:40:23
You could sense that or you could feel that the jury was not happy. GINA HART: It is a very emotionally charged item.
00:40:31
And all of these people are looking at this as possibly being their loved one. And it does become a graver issue.
00:40:40
CORNELL WOMACK: The trial drags on for nearly a month. But it takes the jury only 90 minutes
00:40:44
to render their verdict-- guilty. Miriam Mirabal is sentenced to 15 years in New Jersey
00:40:57
State Prison for conspiracy, burglary, and theft of human remains. She is appealing her conviction.
00:41:05
In exchange for his testimony against Mirabal, the informant Eduardo Gutierrez was handed a shortened sentence
00:41:12
for the theft of human remains. ROSANNE PERNA: If you do an evil act, then you have to pay the price.
00:41:18
And this is an evil act. CORNELL WOMACK: Detectives are still searching for leads into the identity of the nameless child.
00:41:33
Meanwhile, the unidentified remains sit in a storage box in Gina's laboratory. Without certainty as to who they are, families like the Pernas
00:41:42
are unable to return their loved ones to their graves. A mitochondrial DNA test is the Perna family's last hope.
00:41:50
But a month after the trial, Dean Maglione leaves the prosecutor's office for private practice.
00:41:57
And since then, the DNA test for the unidentified has yet to be performed. This is difficult for families like the Pernas to accept.
00:42:07
Just do the tests. Just let us know. We have everybody who needs to be tested is
00:42:11
ready to be tested for the DNA. We just want to be able to say, this is my father.
00:42:17
And I want him back. MICHAEL PERNA: We need closure. We need to put his body back where it belongs.
00:42:23
And we need to move on with our lives. And not that we could ever forget this happened, but it
00:42:28
would be nice not to have to think about it anymore, to go, OK, everything's back to normal.
00:42:36
CORNELL WOMACK: But the Pernas take some solace in knowing that Gina Hart's forensic analysis has finally
00:42:41
put the person responsible for this gruesome crime behind bars. MICHAEL PERNA: We were always glad Miss
00:42:47
Hart was working on the case as diligently as she was. She put her whole heart into it.
00:42:51
Without Gina Hart, there would not have been convictions. CORNELL WOMACK: The last remains may be shelved,
00:42:57
but they are not forgotten. I still hope to identify the remains and, hopefully, give rest to these family members
00:43:04
and give rest to the remains as well. CORNELL WOMACK: For Gina Hart, providing justice and closure
00:43:09
to the families brings with it a tremendous sense of accomplishment. My philosophy is what I do really
00:43:17
brings justice to those people who are left behind, who have to deal with unfair deaths
00:43:23
or with remains that have been disturbed. I am proud that without my work this case would
00:43:29
have never come to fruition.