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A family is seeking answers after a North Carolina woman died during a Vodou retreat in Haiti.
The death of Dana Jackson, 51, unfolded in July while she was in Haiti with a group she met through the Vodou community, her son, Timothy, said, per USA Today. Prior to the trip, Jackson had been practicing Vodou for a few years and wanted to become a female ritual specialist known as a Manbo priestess.
“Four years ago, my mom started to do a little bit of research on the African traditional spiritual belief systems and Vodou was a part of that,” her son said. “She had kind of been on this path of just kind of doing research and practicing, or at least, just doing her due diligence as far as research is concerned.”
Timothy said he was nervous about his mom's trip but noted that she knew the people she was traveling with.
“The people that she went down there with, their name is Sosyete and I believe that that means society in the Turkish language and Nago,” Timothy said. “These weren’t strangers that she went down there with. These are people that she’s built a relationship with.”
Jackson wasn't allowed to contact the outside world during parts of the Vodou retreat. Her son said the last time he heard from Jackson was on July 13, 13 days before she was scheduled to come home.
“So she sent me one last message on the 13th, and she said, ‘We will talk on the 21st going to church tomorrow.‘”
Timothy said he messaged his mom on the 21st but never received a response. On July 22, Timothy's grandmother told him that his mother died in Haiti.
“The way she told me was, ‘Your mom’s not coming back from Haiti,’” Timothy recalled.“I called her back. I asked her, what did she mean? She said, ‘She’s not coming back from Haiti. She passed away.’ I hung up the phone. I called her again.”
When he reached out to one of the leaders of the Vodou group, Timothy alleged that they asked him how much he already knew about his mom's death.
“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,” Timothy said.
Timothy said the leader told him that Jackson fainted at one point during the ceremony. They allegedly took Jackson to the hospital, where she had seizures and suffered a heart attack and a stroke.
Jackson's son said the group then claimed she 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," Timothy said.
The exact circumstances of Jackson's death remain unclear. A GoFundMe campaign was launched to raise money to help "bring Dana's body back, give her the memorial she deserves, and bring much-needed closure to her loved ones," the page reads.
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