Bones Stolen From Worcester Cemetery: Court Upholds Interrogation

WORCESTER, MA — The state Supreme Judicial Court made an important ruling this week in the case of a man charged in connection to a 2015 grave robbery in Worcester. The court upheld statements the man made as police searched his Hartford, Conn., home for human remains.

The case dates back to December 2015, when a person called Hartford police to report human remains at an apartment. An officer went to the home, where Amador Medina explained that he did indeed have human bones, pointing out several plastic bags with bones sticking out of them. Medina told the officer he had five sets of bones in the apartment, according to court records.

Medina was using the remains in religious ceremonies, he told the officer.

"He 'cordial[ly]' explained that he was a priest in the religion of Palo Mayombe, which, he said, 'is the darker side of Santeria and is a very old religion,'" this week's ruling says. "He described the role that bones played in rituals of his faith, and how bones of different ages had different healing powers."

Medina then explained he had paid a man in Worcester $3,000 for each set of bones in May 2015, according to court records. Police later discovered that the bones had been stolen from the Houghton and Norcross mausoleums located at Hope Cemetery.

Leading up to his trial, Medina asked the court to suppress statements he made to Hartford police because he had not been given a Miranda warning. A Worcester Superior Court judge agreed. But the Supreme Judicial Court has overturned that ruling, finding that Medina was not being detained by police when he talked about where the bones came from.

Medina's trial was set to begin in March in Worcester. He has been charged with nine counts of disinterring a dead body, conspiring to disinter human remains, disturbing a grave and two counts of breaking and entering, according to court records.