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Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 12:00:18 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Article on 'Adam' - Case File 380UMUK
The following is from a British magazine called True
Detective (a sister magazine of Master Detective). It
refers to Adam case
Torso Boys Last Journey
A boy whose mutilated torso was found floating in the
River Thames was brought to Britain as a slave and
sacrificed in an African religious ritual intended
to bring good luck to his killers.
Genetic tests carried out on the boy found last
September with his head and limbs removed and wearing
orange shorts points to a West African origin.
Further analysis of the stomach and bone chemistry
show the child, aged four to seven years, could not
have been brought up in London. Detectives are now
working on the theory that he was bought as a slave in
West Africa and smuggled to Britain to be killed.
Experts on African religion consulted by Scotland Yard
believe that he may have been sacrificed to one of 400
ancestor gods of the Yoruba people, Nigerias second
largest ethnic group. Oshun, a Yoruba river goddess,
is associated with orange, the colour of the shorts
which were put on the boys body 24 hours after he was
killed. The body was then stored for a further day
before being dumped in the river.
An examination of the cuts where the head and limbs
were sliced from the corpse shows that they were made
by an expert using extremely sharp, specially prepared
knives, in a horrific operation reminiscent of animal
sacrifice. The flesh around the limbs and neck was
first cut to the bones, which were slashed with a
single blow from an implement like a butchers
cleaver. The boy would have been stretched out
horizontally or upside down during the sacrifice and
kept there as the blood drained from the body.
Investigators discount the theory that the boy was the
victim of a so-called muti killing, where body parts
are taken to be used as medicine.
They now believe rich West Africans imported the boy
after hiring a specialist witch doctor to procure him
perhaps paying his family to allow him to be put to
work abroad. The child was well treated before he was
killed. Traces of cough medicine found in his stomach
indicate that someone wanted him in good health for
his execution.
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