Ark. woman's death was 'God's choice,' N.J. voodoo priest says

HOUNGAN HECTOR Salva, a native of Vineland, claims he can improve people's fortunes, get the incarcerated out of jail and return lost lovers. But he, too, answers to a creator who does not grant interviews.

That's why the mysterious death earlier this month of Lucie Marie Hamilton, 20, a male-to-female transgender woman from Little Rock, Ark., who traveled to the voodoo priest's home in Camden County for a spiritual cleansing, can't be solved on an earthly level, he said.

"That's God's choice," he told the Daily News yesterday. "I don't have no say in when God deems your turn."

Authorities are awaiting results of a toxicology test to determine the cause and manner of Hamilton's death, which has not been deemed suspicious. No charges have been filed, and Salva, who goes by "Houngan Hector," said he is "100 percent confident" there was no wrongdoing on his part.

Salva, soft-spoken and polite with a constant smile, said that no drugs were involved in the spiritual cleansing called the Lave Tet, but that small amounts of rum sometimes are consumed.

"Maybe a sip," he said, but he added that Hamilton had "passed on the rum."

Salva said Hamilton was referred to him by someone else, and was in good spirits when he picked her up July 10 at Philadelphia International Airport. He said she was undergoing hormone treatment for an eventual sex-change operation, although friends of Hamilton's have said that isn't true.

The following night, he said, Hamilton's last hours in the house on Loch Lomond Drive, in Gloucester Township, were spent "laughing, dancing and singing voodoo songs" with the other six participants, some of whom traveled from as far as Canada and the Netherlands to pay for the spiritual cleansing.

"She was happy, very positive," he said. "She seemed very fine as far as everyone knew."

What happened about 11 p.m., Salva said, is the same scenario he told dispatchers during a frantic 9-1-1 call.

"She was taking a nap and we woke her up to see if she was hungry, and she was nonresponsive," he reiterated yesterday. "We kept calling her name and she wouldn't respond."

The other participants in the ritual could not be reached for comment. Salva declined to provide their names.

Authorities and hospital officials have declined to say why Salva and the others in the house were taken to Virtua Hospital in Berlin Township for treatment July 11. Salva said that everyone was having their "spirits called" and may have looked "different" to police.