Denver, Colo., Jan 13, 2022 / 17:31 pm
A 26-year-old woman has turned herself in on two charges related to some $10,000 in vandalism damage to Denver’s Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.
Madeline Ann Cramer faces one charge of criminal mischief and another of a bias-motivated crime in connection with an Oct. 10 incident, the Denver District Attorney’s Office said Jan. 13. Both the cathedral building itself and nearby statues were “spray painted with numerous specific messages consistent with anti-Christian bias,” said District Attorney Beth McCann.
Cramer had fled to Oregon but turned herself in to law enforcement Jan. 12. According to social media video posts, she says she was baptized a Catholic but now identifies as a satanist and opposes Catholic stands against abortion.
News photos of the vandalism showed slogans such as “Satan Lives Here,” “White Supremacists,” and “Child Rapists, LOL”, as well as swastikas, written in bright red spray paint on the outside of the cathedral building, sidewalks, and on the base of a statue of St. John Paul II. The pope had visited the cathedral during 1993 World Youth Day.