American pastor Lester Sumrall was building a church in Manila, when the news broke of Clarita's possession.
From her island province home, she made her way to Manila in the summer of 1953 looking for her father and settled in the district of Malate.
On May 6, 1953,[4] she mistakenly offered her service to a plainclothes police officer and was incarcerated at the Old Bilibid Prison (now Manila City Jail), as she was a minor and prostitution was illegal.
Clarita was surrounded by "about 100 medical specialists, nurses and Pressmen" according to Rodolfo Nazareno, a reporter for the United Press.
Manila Mayor Arsenio Lacson, who received reports about the incident, ordered that Clarita be brought to the city morgue so that he could see for himself.