Oklahoma woman fatally stabs daughter in throat with crucifix to ‘rid Satan from her body’

A 49-year-old woman has been arrested in Oklahoma City after confessing to carrying out a gruesome murder of her daughter, whom she believed to have been possessed by evil spirits.

The killing was discovered last Saturday by Francisco Merlos, who went to visit his girlfriend, 33-year-old Geneva Gomez, only to be met by her mother Juanita.

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Juanita had previously disliked Gomez – accusing him of theft - and encouraged her daughter to break up with him only two days earlier, but now dragged him into the house, where he hugged her to try and put an end to the feud.

But when he requested to see Geneva, there was no reply, and when he came into the living room, he saw a grotesquely disfigured body.

“She was laying on her back with the cross on her chest, and you couldn’t even recognize her face,” Merlos told the Oklahoman.

Overcome with horror, Merlos attempted to escape, struggling out of a chokehold by Juanita, who babbled “incoherently” about the devil and money.

He called the police, who arrived within minutes, to encounter Juanita, whose hands were bruised from fighting her daughter, who was resisting her attempts to “rid Satan from her body.”

Gomez then detailed how she murdered her daughter.

"Juanita stated she punched her daughter repeatedly and forced a crucifix and religious medallion down her throat until blood came out of her daughter's mouth," said court documents released on Monday. "Juanita saw her daughter die and then placed the body in the shape of a cross."

© Geneva Gomez © Facebook

She then washed Geneva’s body, prior to the arrival of Merlos.

The older Gomez was handed a suspended 10-year sentence for drug trafficking and gun possession in 2009, but it was not clear if she had a history of mental illness. Friends and neighbors speaking to the local media said that mother and daughter, who had a relatively small age gap, had been very close to each other.

During her arraignment, which was done through video link, Gomez refused to mention her deceased daughter, and instead spent time complaining about the lack of toilet paper in her cell, and claiming she’s got “the best lawyer in town,” under the name of Blaine. Online records showed that Gomez, who refused a public defender, has not hired a lawyer.

Gomez ended her statement by asking the judge, “Do you believe in God? I do.”