Skeletal remains of boy taken from Tampa cemetery

The skeletal remains of a 6-year-old boy were removed from a sealed vault beneath a 600-pound lid, authorities said.

Caretakers at Memorial Cemetery discovered the empty coffin Thursday, police said. The vandals broke an adhesive seal on a 29-year-old marble vault, slid off the lid and peeled back a metal liner to get to the coffin, police spokesman Larry McKinnon said.

The coffin, which held the skeletal remains of Stevie Russell Dale, was found empty beside the vault, McKinnon said.

"We don't feel like it was pranksters or kids committing vandalism because it's too much work to get these remains," he said. "We are just leaning toward it being cult related or involving Santeria or some voodoo because we don't have any other reasonable explanation."

Danny Jorgensen, chairman of the religious studies department at the University of South Florida, refuted the theory by police.

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