-Caveat Lector- http://www.canoe.ca/LondonNews/lf.lf-01-11-0001.html
Friday, January 11, 2002 Was it exorcism? THE DEATH OF WALTER ZEPEDA In an interview from jail, Diego Zepeda says his younger brother may have died during a ritual healing or exorcism as his parents tried to pray away his demons. By JENNIFER O'BRIEN, London Free Press Walter Zepeda may have died during a religious healing ritual or exorcism, his brother says. In an interview at the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre, where he is in custody on drug-trafficking charges, Diego Zepeda also said he was shocked to hear his 19-year-old brother was dead and his parents faced murder charges. But Diego, was "not shocked at all" to hear his mother and father might have strapped his brother down trying to exorcise "demons" from him last weekend. "That's what they believed . . . he was possessed and they could get the evil out of him by praying," he said. "I've seen it work." Police have charged Zepeda's parents, Diego Cordero and Ana Meija-Lopez, and a friend, Alex Osegueda, with first-degree murder in Walter's death. Police refused to comment on whether the death occurred during a religious ritual or an attempt to conduct an exorcism on the teenager. But Diego Zepeda said yesterday that's exactly what was going on. The older son said he has "the best family in the world," and knows his parents were only doing what they thought was right. "I love my family, that's why I'm here," Diego said. Diego turned himself in to police last month, three months after they raided his parents' basement apartment looking for him and evidence he was selling cocaine. His parents were heartbroken by the raid, said Diego -- who fled to Montreal when he heard police were after him. "I could've lived on the run all my life but it was hurting my mother so much," he said. "My family comes first before anything else." Autopsy results indicate Walter died of dehydration. But police said the 19-year-old Londoner spent his last three days strapped to chairs, allegedly while his parents and visitors ignored his attempts to escape. The three accused have been ordered not to associate with their pastor, Guillermo Fabian, whose church practises faith healing. Fabian visited the apartment several times throughout the weekend and has said Zepeda was delusional and may have been possessed by the devil. Diego doesn't practise the faith, because he likes "to drink and stuff," but he witnessed what he thinks was an exorcism as a kid in Montreal. "They do work, I saw it work," he said. "A lady was totally out of control and some people from the church tied her down and prayed for her . . . then the (evil) went out of her. She got better." Though Diego said faith healings are "kind of like" exorcisms, he said those being healed are not given drugs, potions or liquids. He explained the rituals as simply an extension of his parents' strong faith as members of the Missionary Church of Christ. "They look at life differently. My dad's answer to everything was always based on God," Diego said. As boys growing up, Walter was always "the good one," Diego said. "If my parents wanted to kill anybody, they would have killed me, don't you think?' "I'm sad about this, obviously," he said. "I don't have a little brother any more." He said his parents never inflicted unusual punishments on the children growing up and none of them had ever been tied down to anything before last weekend. But his parents loved their kids, he said. Even when police raided the family's home in September, his parents "didn't stop loving" him. When Diego returned home Dec. 22 to be with his family before turning himself in, his brother greeted him with a crooked grin. "He . . . just shook his head and said 'you're dumb,' " said Diego. "But he was happy, that's just the way he always acted -- grumpy, but it was because he was serious, not really grumpy." But when Diego called home from jail, after turning himself in, Walter had an announcement. "He said, 'I'm a changed man. I'm going to church now and I found God.' " Then one day last week, Diego's parents told him Walter was sick. "They didn't say what was wrong -- just he was sick and he didn't recognize anybody." Fabian has said the man's father, Diego Cordero, told churchgoers his son was behaving strangely and acting violent toward his parents. But back in jail, Diego didn't hear anything else until Tuesday, when a detective came to tell him his brother had died -- and his parents were charged with murder "I was like, 'that doesn't make sense,' " Diego said. "My parents are not murderers . . . I know my parents. "If they knew my mom, they'd know there is no way she would do something like that. I know they are really religious and nobody around here understands the way they think." Diego said it doesn't make sense that his brother died from dehydration. "I heard he was drinking water and he was bigger and chubbier than me," said Diego, who is about five-foot-nine and 170 pounds. "People don't dehydrate that fast. There must have been something else." __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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