20 Venezualans vanish after prophetess promised them meeting with God

About 20 people, including five children, have gone missing in La Grita, Venezuela, after embarking on a retreat with Rosa García, a spiritual leader who said she could arrange a meeting with God or the Virgin Mary for them because the world was about to come to an end.

According to UK Daily Mail, Garcia, 57, had originally managed to convince 40 people to embark on the trip with her, but some of them opted out of the group when they noticed she was behaving erratically.

At the beginning of the retreat on August 22, Garcia promised it would end on September 1. So, relatives became worried when their loved ones that went on the trip failed to return on the scheduled date.

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Before the trip started, Garcia had instructed members of the group to discard their cellular phones.

Nine of the missing individuals are members of the same family.

Presently, about 160 members of law enforcement agencies and search and rescue teams are working together to find the group, including the spiritual leader.

In March, she made her followers stop watching television and encouraged them to pray at 3 am every day. Her female followers were urged not to carry hairstyles. They were also not permitted to show their faces in public.

On September 5, authorities discovered an abandoned farm, where some of the people who are still unaccounted for, had discarded several clothing items and left food behind.

FIJ