Guyana Woman Accused As Vampire Lynched

A crowd of Guyanese villagers lynched an elderly woman they accused of being an evil spirit who drinks the blood of human babies, police said Monday.

Authorities in the South American country said the woman raised suspicions with unusual behavior and was set upon by villagers who apparently believed she was an “Old Higue”—the equivalent of a vampire in the local Obeah religion that blends folk magic and African rituals.

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Some expressed surprise at the persistence of belief in Higues, a creature said to take the shape of an old woman who can shrink herself to enter victims’ homes through a keyhole.

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Police have arrested three people and are questioning others in the beating death of the unidentified woman, whose remains were found on Saturday in a village east of Georgetown, Superintendent Balram Persaud said today.

Authorities said the woman raised suspicions with unusual behaviour and was set upon by villagers who apparently believed she was an “Old Higue”—the equivalent of a vampire in the local Obeah religion that blends folk magic and African rituals.

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