TX - Boy, 2, in 'raising ceremony' starved to death, Balch Springs, 22 March 2015

[shadowraiths]

BALCH SPRINGS, Texas – A 2-year-old boy who died last month had been starved for more than 20 days by his parents and church members they lived with because they believed he was possessed by demons, according to the arrest warrant for the boy's parents and a church leader.

The church's pastor later held a "raising ceremony" to attempt to bring the victim back from the dead before the boy's family fled to Mexico with his body.​

link

 

[micki68]

Disgusting case! How could any LOVING parent/adult do something so heinous? Possessed? Absolutely unfreaking believable! Is this a cult? I have to research this one! Anyone with info please post, this site has the most well informed intelligent people.

 

[shadowraiths]

The church is called Nazareth Zurita. Here's another article with a video of their "raising" ceremony. (link)

 

[micki68]

The church is called Nazareth Zurita. Here's another article with a video of their "raising" ceremony. (link)

I did a little bit of reading, clearly not a "traditional" church, and apparently illegal. I am thinking lots more will come out during investigation, I am betting that a percentage of anything their "members" -made was taken by the "church". Did these "church elders" prey on immigrants? That remains to be seen, but my gut tells me YES. A poor defenseless child starved SMH So terrible and preventable. I hope the parents are found and held accountable.

 

[OkieGranny]

Feature article from April:

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/comm...ch-where-boy-died-called-fearful-isolated.ece

Police reports and interviews with witnesses describe a fearful, isolated environment in the house, which functioned as a church — Iglesia Internacional Jesus es el Rey...

As the 2-year-old grew thinner before he died, one woman who lived in the house asked the toddler’s mother “why she would allow... [him] to be this way,” she told police. She said the mother replied: “It was God’s will.”

To her believers, Meza’s powers were convincing.... “We all believed what she said was the truth,” said a church member who spoke in a brief phone interview on the condition of anonymity because she feared her children could be taken from her. “The [boy’s] parents were manipulated into doing what she said.”

 

[Rayemonde]

April 2015:

Five children, ages 1 to 13, from “several families” were moved from the home into foster care following Meza’s arrest, Texas Child Protective Services spokeswoman Marissa Gonzales said Wednesday...

An arrest warrant affidavit named 42-year-old Daniel Meza, husband of Aracely Meza, as a suspect, along with the dead child’s parents, Liliana and Zenon Aparicio, who are 28 and 31, respectively...

A video obtained by the media of the resurrection ceremony shows Aracely Meza holding the lifeless boy in her arms as she pleads loudly into a microphone. Children look on.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/comm...me-where-toddler-died-parents-body-sought.ece

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

Texas pastor gets 99 years in prison in death of child who was starved

Aracely Meza held the child’s limp body in her arms as worshippers looked on. She spoke loudly into a microphone, chanting words in Spanish as she stroked the child’s hair and rubbed something on his forehead.

The scene captured in a video was a ceremony to resurrect the lifeless 2-year-old boy. He died after more than three weeks without food. Meza, a Dallas-area pastor and a self-proclaimed prophet, had claimed that God wanted the boy starved to get rid of demons inhabiting his body.

Now, three years later, Meza is set to spend the rest of her life in prison for Benjamin Aparicio’s starvation death.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2018/03/23/pastor-starved-toddler-death-exorcise-demon-gets-99-years-prison

 

[bleuboy]

Texas pastor gets 99 years in prison in death of child who was starved



https://www.dallasnews.com/news/cou...ler-death-exorcise-demon-gets-99-years-prison

Really glad to see this but think her husband should have had the same charges and imprisonment.