New Jersey Police Puzzled by Animal Parts in Cemetery

VINELAND, N.J.-- Police in Vineland suspect someone is sacrificing animals at a cemetery.

A caretaker says he found a severed pig's head in a plastic bag and mice and crows without heads in the Sacred Heart Cemetery since summer. He also told police he once found a black pot with four-leaf clovers, dolls and flowers.

Authorities are trying to determine whether it's a crime.

Bev Greco of the Cumberland County Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals tells The Philadelphia Inquirer the discoveries seem consistent with the religious rites of Santeria and may not be crimes if the animals were killed humanely.

A spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden, which owns the cemetery, tells the Vineland Daily Journal that security has been stepped up.