27639: Hermantin(News)Skull aboard flight from Haiti likely used in Vodou (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Fri, Feb. 10, 2006

Miami Herald

Skull aboard flight from Haiti likely used in Vodou

BY JERRY BERRIOS
jberrios@MiamiHerald.com

The Broward Medical Examiner said this afternoon that he believes a human skull 
brought into Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport Thursday had been 
used in some kind of Vodou ritual.

The skull is that of a black man who was in his 40's or younger, Dr. Joshua 
Perper said. It arrived in a cotton bag labeled for wild rice, carried by 
Myrlene Severe, aboard a Lynx Air International flight from Cap-Haitien, Haiti, 
according to Zachary Mann, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. An 
agency officer detected the unusual object in the woman's luggage during a 
routine security check, and was turned over to the medical examiner's office 
for further testing.

''We do see human body parts come in, but typically they're used for research 
purposes,'' Mann said.

Perper said it was the first skull he has seen in his 12 years in Broward 
County that had been used in Vodou.

Severe, of Miramar, was arrested and charged with smuggling a human head into 
the country, according to Miami Herald television news partner CBS-4. A federal 
magistrate set bond of $100,000. Court documents indicate that Severe obtained 
the package from a man in Haiti to ward off evil spirits, CBS-4 said.

A witness who appeared to know Severe told TV reporters that the woman had the 
skull because of her interest in science.

The investigation is being jointly handled by Customs and Border Protection, 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Health and Human 
Services, as well as the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office.

Severe, 30, is being held in the Broward County Jail.