What Really Happened to This Aspiring Vodou Priestess Who Died on a Haiti Retreat?

A North Carolina man didn’t know July 1 would be the last time he saw his mother alive before she embarked on a trip to Haiti for a religious retreat. However, the details surrounding her death are nothing short of a mystery.

Last month, 51-year-old Dana Jackson traveled to Haiti for a month-long Vodou retreat, according to a USA TODAY interview with her son, Timothy. He told the outlet she’d been researching and practicing the religion for the past four years. The religion of Vodou (not “Voodoo”) traces back to West Africa, and eventually migrated to Haiti, where those who practice say they “serve the spirits,” according to a Harvard University article. Their rituals include singing, drumming and dance to manifest spirits to take possession of a devotee.

Jackson aspired to be a Manbo, or “priestess,” her son told USA TODAY. Timothy said she joined a group who call themselves “Sosyete” and planned with to go to the Haiti retreat together. The trip was supposed to go from the first of July to the 26th. However, toward the end of the retreat, Jackson’s son tells reporters he became suspicious.

Read what happened from USA TODAY:

“If you do any research about that part of the ceremony, even just on Google, it’ll tell you, that’s very sacred and things of that nature,” he said. “So she sent me one last message on the 13th, and she said, ‘we will talk on the 21st going to church tomorrow.‘”

Jackson and his mom spoke every day. The no communication part was nerve-wrecking to him, but he wanted to respect his mother’s decision to participate in the ritual. In the last message he received from his mom on July 21 she asked him to, “pray for her.”

“That whole entire week just kind of low key, (I was) having anxiety because I’m not able to hear from her, and I know that this is a very important part of the ceremony,” he said. “On the 21st, I didn’t hear anything from her. I did reach out to her at about 5 p.m. on WhatsApp. I didn’t get any response.”

On July 22, Timothy said he received the news from his grandmother that his mother passed away while on the trip. In investigating what happened to his mother, he ran into a number of red flags. The first concern was when he reached out to one of the group leaders who asked him, “How much do you know?”

The next red flag came from the claim that Jackson became seriously ill during a ritual ceremony and fainted, Timothy said. However, when she gained consciousness, his mother apparently didn’t recognize where she was, Timothy was told. Instead, she thought she was in Virginia, where she and her son lived over a year ago.

When Jackson was transported to the hospital, she was reported to have had a heart attack, multiple seizures and a stroke before dying. However, a group member mentioned to Timothy something about his mother forgetting to pack her medicine.

“They said that my mom didn’t bring her medicine. So there was a red flag, because what medicine are you guys talking about? It sounds like they were trying to perpetuate a story,” he told USA TODAY.

Timothy still awaits details on how to transfer his mother’s remains but tells the outlet he hasn’t gotten any word from the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince or any officials who could help. However, he maintains that foul play was behind the mysterious death of his mother and said he’s already sought information on obtaining an independent autopsy.

“To be completely honest with you, my initial thought was my mom went down to Haiti, they did this last piece of the ceremony, and something sinister happened,” he said.