California woman says she was kidnapped for exorcism

A California woman says her husband and son kidnapped her to perform an exorcism, made her drink oil and told her she had devils inside her.

Forty-one-year-old Blanca Farias told News10 in Sacramento that she was held down in the backseat of a pickup truck on Nov. 9 after being picked up in Stockton.

“They were saying I had three devils inside of me,” Blanca Farias said.

She said her husband, Jose Magana-Farias, 42, and son, Victor Farias, 20, convinced her to meet them at a Walmart in north Stockton. She has been separated from Magana-Farias since January.

She told News10 that they told her they wanted to talk about the failing marriage at a nearby coffee shop, but coaxed her into the back of a pickup truck and held her down in the back seat while a pastor — whom she knew — drove.

An hour and half later, she said, they arrived at a church in Bay Point, where she was forced inside and bathed in oil.

“They made me swallow some of that oil,” Blanca Farias said. “I started throwing up and this pastor was just saying, `You’ve got the devil. Get off of her, get off of her, get off of her,’ until I fainted.”

She said she believes that the incident was motivated in part by her choice to see another man since the separation.

“They thought I was crazy,” she said, referring to her son and husband. “That, really, because I’m not with you, I have the devil?”

She said she was able to text her current boyfriend, and authorities were waiting when she returned home. Magana-Farias and his son were immediately arrested.

“That’s what hurts me the most,” Blanca Farias told News10. “Because it was my husband, who I haven’t been with since January, and then my son, following the steps of the dad.”

The father and son initially were accused of kidnapping, false imprisonment and conspiracy to commit a crime but on Nov. 13 officials said no charges would be filed unless there is more evidence found.