Saturday, May 23, 2009

'Vampire' haunting Peruvian city is unmasked... as a tragic British holidaymaker

From Daily Mail UK

A woman who was reputedly executed as a Bride of Dracula and now haunts a Peruvian city has been revealed as a humble Lancashire weaver who met her death on holiday.

Sarah Ellen Roberts has become a cult figure in Peru, where the story goes that her husband brought her after she was executed in 1913 as a murderer, a witch and a vampire.

She had apparently been seen biting the neck of a child and sucking its blood, and her merchant husband John witnessed her pouring blood over ice cream before eating it.
The legend: Sarah Ellen Roberts is believed in Peru to have been a bride of Dracula, like the one portrayed here by Elena Anaya in the 2004 movie Van Helsing

Though she was reputedly tried and executed in Blackburn, John Roberts is said to have travelled the world seeking a place to lay her to rest after the Church of England refused her burial on consecrated ground.

Only the town of Pisco in Peru would take her body, according to local playwright Racso Miro Quesada, who is adapting Sarah's story for the stage.

He said: 'Her husband John Roberts traveled the world trying to find a place to bury his wife.

'Because of the things she was accused of, there was no place on earth where she could rest.'

He added: 'No one wanted to have the remains of the person he loved. She ended up being accepted in the small fishing town Pisco.'

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