UPma  03/29  2221  Inquest  testimony  turns to devil worship By DAVID
SINGLETON

   SCRANTON, Pa. (UPI) -- An inquest into  the  death  of  a  mentally
retarded  New  Jersey  woman who disappeared from a summer camp in the
Pocono Mountains took an unexpected twist Thursday as testimony turned
to devil worship and cults.

   An employee of Keystone Pocono Residence said workers at  the  camp
in  Lackawanna  County  talked  about  the  possibility  that  Lourdes
Iglesias may have fallen victim to "satanists."

   "I think that might have been one of the more bizarre possibilities
that were  suggested,"  Scott  Mitchell,  38,  Keystone's  maintenance
supervisor, said during the third day of the inquest at the Lackawanna
County Courthouse.

   Coroner William Sweeny recessed the proceeding until next week.  It
was tentatively set to resume next Thursday.

   Sweeny  ordered  the  inquest in an attempt to learn more about how
Iglesias died.  An autopsy failed to reveal either the  cause  or  the
manner of her death.

   Iglesias,  who  was 25 but had the mentality of a 3- to 6-year-old,
disappeared from  Keystone  last  Aug.  8,  touching  off  a  massive,
five-day search of the camp and the surrounding countryside.

   Hunters  finally found her decomposed body Nov. 20 in a swampy area
within sight of the camp.

   District Attorney Michael Barrasse has said  investigators  believe
Iglesias died somewhere other than where her body was discovered.

   Five  days  after  Iglesias  disappeared,  Mitchell  and  two other
Keystone employees found a teddy bear  Iglesias  often  carried  along
Elmhurst Boulevard, a road more than 10 miles from the camp.

   Mitchell  said he and the other workers, frustrated that the search
around Keystone had turned up no sign of Iglesias,  decided  to  check
Elmhurst  because  of  its  reputation  as an area "where weird things
happen," including devil worship and other cult activities.

   The stuffed animal was lying along the side of the road,  he  said.
"Satanic" symbols were painted on the pavement nearby.

   "We didn't know what to think," Mitchell said.

   Barrasse   questioned   Mitchell  at  length  about  several  other
employees at Keystone, including a worker who Mitchell said had  shown
an  interest  in  demonism and had boasted about saving a woman he was
seeing from a "satanic" cult.

   Iglesias  had  been  a  resident  of  Keystone  City  Residence  in
Scranton, which runs the summer camp, since 1985.  Her family lives in
North Bergen, N.J.