An elaborate shrine to a sinister death cult was found in the bedroom of suspected Texas mass shooter Francisco Oropesa, with candles still burning days after he allegedly killed five, authorities have said.
The shrine found in the master bedroom was made up of multiple statues and candles dedicated to various Santa Muerte cult saints.
The Santa Muerte (Saint of Death) cult has blossomed among the Mexican cartels and the wider criminal underworld.
Adherents believe prayers and offerings will protect illegal business dealings and will hold off arrest.
The shrine found in Oropesa’s house was covered in offerings from $2 bills and freshly cut flowers to what appeared to be offerings of drugs, law enforcement said.
The Mexican national is accused of shooting five members of the same extended family, his neighbours, dead on April 29 following a dispute about noise.
Oropesa was arrested at 6.30pm on Tuesday in Conroe in Montgomery County, Texas which borders San Jacinto County, where the shooting took place.
Divimara Lamar Nava, 53, wife of suspect Francisco Oropeza, was also in custody in connection with the Friday night shooting, according to Montgomery County Sheriff Rand Henderson.
Nava had previously denied knowledge of Oropeza’s whereabouts, Henderson said, but authorities believe she hid him in the home near Conroe where he was arrested Tuesday.
His wife, Lamar Nava was arrested early Wednesday and was being held in the Montgomery County jail on a felony charge of hindering the apprehension or prosecution of a known felon, according to online jail records.
The records do not list a bond for her and indicate she was arrested by state police at a home in Conroe.
During the four day manhunt, FBI released pictures of one of Oropesa’s tattoos which features a Santa Muerte figure, a skeletal figure holding a sickle.
Oropesa was found under a pile of clothes just 75 minutes after an FBI tip came in about his whereabouts. He was found less than 20 miles from where the shooting was carried out.
The shootings have been identified as Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, Daniel Enrique Laso, 9, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21, Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, with son Daniel and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18.
Oropesa is now being held on a $5million bond and is facing five counts of murder.
