ANSON CO., N.C. -- Sheriff's deputies in Anson County have arrested a person in connection with a number of dead animals found in a church cemetery.

Investigators arrested 60-year-old Annette Horne Griffin of Winston-Salem when she was buying more animals late Monday. They said they tracked her down through an ear tag left on one of the dead animals.

Griffin told investigators she's a Yoruba priestess and sacrificing animals is part of a healing ritual. She said she was calling up her dead mother's spirit by slaying the animals on her tombstone.

Griffin has been charged with five counts of felony cruelty to animals, five counts of conveying animals in a cruel manner and one count of defacing a grave. She has been released on bond from the Anson County Jail.

A groundskeeper at the Garris Grove Church cemetery outside Wadesboro originally reported finding mutilated animals last month.

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