Piura: woman dies of severe burns during 'blooming bath' ritual; healer flees
Record class
Context only
Evidence status
Active investigation
Authority role
curandera (traditional healer) performing 'baño de florecimiento'
Organization
No organization assigned
Spiritual nexus
The victim died during a traditional ritual healing bath performed by the accused curandera under claimed spiritual/therapeutic authority over her medical complaint.
- Spiritual healing or treatment
Evidence structure
Proceedings
2025-07-07 · preliminary investigation opened, suspect fugitive
Tambogrande police station / Peruvian prosecutors, Piura, Peru. Marcelina Panta Zapata, 47, died after suffering third-degree burns over nearly her entire body during a 'baño de florecimiento' (blooming bath) ritual performed by healer Sandy Chozo in Tambogrande, Piura, which she had sought for chronic leg pain. Her family filed a police report; authorities opened a preliminary investigation for culpable homicide. Chozo fled and remained a fugitive as of the most recent reporting.
Documented coercion mechanisms
- claimed healing authority over the victim's chronic leg pain
Primary record
Sources
- regional press death report Infobae, 'Mujer muere tras baño de florecimiento en Piura: sufrió quemaduras en el 90% del cuerpo y el curandero está prófugo' (July 9, 2025).
Reports the death, extent of burns, the healer's flight, and the opened investigation.
- national broadcaster follow up report Panamericana TV, 'Curandero implicado en muerte de mujer en Piura sigue prófugo'.
Confirms the healer's continued fugitive status.
Related record
Related cases · Claimed spiritual healing or mediumship
- 2019 · Abadiânia, Brazil João Teixeira de Faria ('John of God'): convicted of rapes of spiritual patients; ~600 accusers
- 2024 · Cartagena and Turbaco, Bolívar, Colombia Cartagena: man charged over assaults allegedly presented as spirit-cleansing sessions
- 2026 · Cuenca, Azuay, Ecuador Cuenca curandero: appellate court imposes twenty-nine-year sentence after assault during medicine sessions
- 2017 · Gualaceo, Azuay, Ecuador Gualaceo curandero: twenty-nine-year sentence after a false healing claim and death threat
- 2021 · Yesera San Sebastián, Tarija, Bolivia Yesera curandero: twelve-year sentence for assaults committed under cleansing-ritual claims
- 2026 · Guadeloupe Jean-Luc Promeneur: seventeen-year sentence for abuse under mystical domination
- 2008 · Moscow, Russia Grigory Grabovoi: eleven fraud convictions for paid supernatural claims
- 2020 · Turkistan Region, Kazakhstan Nurgazy Bukhbanbayev: eleven-year rape sentence after claimed healing and clairvoyance