In 2017, Natalia Guerra was sentenced to five years for the sacrifice of her three day old child. After her conviction, she managed to escape police custody and had been on the run ever since. Now finally, two years later, she is back in police custody.
A part of an apocalyptic cult in Chile that regularly used ayahuasca, Guerra was told by the leader, Ramon Gustavo Castillo Gaete, also father of the child who called himself "Antares de la luz" (Antares from the light) that sacrificing the child, which he declared to be the antichrist, would help prevent the word from ending on December 21, 2012.
One month before the fated end of the world, on the night of November 21st, a small group of people from the 12 person cult gathered in a secret ritual at a house in Colliguay, Chile, where they stripped, gagged, and bound the baby to a board. After calling on the spirits, they threw her alive, into the bonfire.
Four people were arrested in April 2013, of which Guerra was one. Gaete managed to escape the police at that time but when confronted a month later in Peru, chose to take his own life.
According to a 2013 article from Latin Times, Miguel Ampero, an agent with the Police Investigative Unit, the Chilean version of the FBI, said that surprisingly each cult member was a "professional" in business. "We have someone who was a veterinarian, [a] flight attendant, [and even a] filmmaker."
Guerra was able to elude police capture for two years by moving consistently, changing her identity, and remaining indoors most of the time. Despite having her partner conduct all business for her outside the residence, police were eventually notified and so began a three month surveillance of the residence to confirm her identity. Handwriting analysis gave them the confirmation they needed to make a move and take her back into custody.
According to Newsweek, during the surveillance, they noted that she was holding meetings two to three times a week with five or six people. Juan Pardo, head of the Special Police Investigations Brigade, stated that "meetings were held in the house, following an unknown cult. But cults aren't illegal in Chile unless they carry illegal activities."
When taken back into custody, Guerra expressed no remorse for her crime and instead, attested to her innocence because she'd been manipulated by the cult.