Two people have been arrested on attempted murder charges after a man said they stabbed him inside a Clarksville mobile home and told him they were going to "sacrifice him to Santa Muerta (sic), the saint of the death," according to their arrest warrants.
Santa Muerte, a Mexican folk deity, is associated with protection and delivery to the afterlife. While condemned by the Catholic Church, a religion based on the figure has several million followers worldwide, the BBC reported last year.
A third suspect was also accused but had not yet been arrested, although there is an active warrant for his arrest in Montgomery County.
The stabbing happened Dec. 26, 2017, but the man accused of starting the attack wasn't arrested until Tuesday, when police were finally able to find him.
Jose Raul Mendez told police he was inside a mobile home on Power Street with the trio when Bernardino Rodriguez Molina began crying.
When he asked him why, Molina told him, "You are about to die."
He said that he was going to sacrifice Mendez to Santa Muerte. He ordered another man and woman to lock the doors and windows to keep him from escaping, according to his arrest warrant.
The two complied, and Mendez said he ran to a bedroom but was captured by the suspects, stabbed in the left forearm, struck in the head with the knife and punched.
Molina snatched his phone to prevent him from calling police.
One of the three yelled for Molina to finish the job, but Mendez escaped through a window, according to the warrants.
Mendez said the three got in a truck, "yelling they were going to catch him," but he hid, and they drove past him.
He then ran to another home and asked a man to call police.
The trio spotted him at the man's front door, so he fled and hid at another mobile home until police arrived.
Mendez was taken to Tennova Healthcare for a stab wound, swelling to his left eye and bruising to his ribs, according to the warrant.
Clarksville Police searched the mobile home where Mendez was attacked and found Molina's ID and blood evidence, according to the warrant. The occupants were gone.
Warrants were issued for their arrests Feb. 23.
Sarah Coleen Miller, 31, was arrested Feb. 23 and indicted on charges of attempted first-degree murder and especially aggravated kidnapping.
On Tuesday, Bernardino Rodriguez Molina, 41, was arrested on charges of attempted murder, especially aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault.
There is an active warrant for the third person listed as taking part in the attack, Daniel Rodriguez Molina, Clarksville Police spokesman Jim Knoll confirmed Thursday. But it has not been served and he remains at large.
Mendez could not be reached for comment.
Reach Reporter Stephanie Ingersoll at singersoll@theleafchronicle.com or 931-245-0267 and on Twitter @StephLeaf