Severed animal parts in New Rochelle may be tied to religious rites

A woman taking an afternoon stroll at Glenwood Lake Park in New Rochelle came upon a startling sight: a severed goat head surrounded by the heads of four roosters.

The grisly Nov. 12 discovery came days after the bodies of two decapitated rams, male sheep, were found Nov. 7 at Ward Acres Park. The heads lay nearby.

While no direct link between the two macabre discoveries has been made, investigators said the incidents were the latest in the Lower Hudson Valley linked to ritualistic practices, such as Santeria, an Afro-Caribbean religion that often uses animals for ceremonial sacrifices.

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