Francina Ileus

The case of Francina Ileus was documented into many works which includes, Les Eglises Protestantes en Haiti by Rev. Fritz Fontus, Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombi by Wade Davis among others.

The case of Francina Ileus allegedly happened in 1976.  Francina was also called Ti Fanm which means little woman.  She used to work as a market woman when she was still alive.  She left her husband and decided to go with another man on whom she had a child.  She was declared dead on 1976 at the age of thirty.  But there has been a rumor about Francina Ileus becoming a zombie after she refused to marry the person that her family chose for her.  The story spread like a wild fire that brought fear to the villagers.  The police, in an attempt to disprove the story, exhumed the body just to find rubble of rocks.  The grave was empty with the remains of Francina Ileus.

In 1979, a friend of Francina recognized a woman in a catatonic state wandering around.  She was sure that the person has a striking similarity to Francina.  The mother recognized her for her unique features such as the scar on her temple caused by a childhood accident.

The zombification of Francina Ileus was blamed to her jealous husband for apparently being pregnant with the child of another man.  There is also a story that her mother seek the help of a bokor to turn her into a zombie after disobeying her will to marry the man she chose for her.  It was said that the book “Roaming Through the west Indies bear a similarity with the case of Francina.

But sceptics such as Douyan claimed that the case of Francina cannot be used as a proof to the zombie legends.