Three siblings killed their elderly mother after gouging out her eyes and cutting out her intestines in a horrific satanic ritual, police claim.
The mutilated body of 75-year-old Teodora Quispe Ccayllahua was found by police inside her house in the mountain village of Andabamba, northern Peru.
Her three children, Aurelia Quispe, 38, Percy Quispe, 41 and Marcelina Suane, 46, were later caught by National Police officers and reportedly confessed to the murder.
Aurelia Quispe is said to have convinced her two elder siblings to participate in the gruesome killing after having a dream that she had been chosen by Satan to carry it out
According to police, the siblings conspired together to kill their mother on Saturday (24) night in a grotesque healing ritual in which a loved one needed to be sacrificed to the devil.
Police commissioner Julio Torreblanca told the Peru 21 TV channel that one of the sisters gouged out the woman's eyes during the rite, then cut out some internal organs, including her intestines, with a knife.
They then threw her insides into a nearby pond and bathed in their mother's blood, 'invoking the devil', he said.
Aurelia, described by police as the ringleader, reportedly said at the moment she was arrested: 'The Master of Darkness ordered me, the king of demons is already with us, we are more and every day we will become bigger.'
The murder happened in a remote part of Santa Cruz province (pictured) where Satanic cults are known to operate, promising rewards in return for carrying out grisly rituals
She later told police that she had convinced her older siblings to offer their mother in the human sacrifice after having 'a strange dream, in which I heard I had been chosen. Then a small frog appeared at my door.'
Police later recovered the woman's eyes and internal organs, which were taken with her body for autopsy.
Locals claimed that satanic sects operating in remote areas of the Santa Cruz province are known to practise such gruesome rituals, promising cures, success and financial gain.
The prosecutor in charge of the case described the crime as 'terrifying'. The three siblings were charged with qualified homicide, which can be punished with life imprisonment.