FBI To Aid Mexican Police In Series Of Unsolved Killings
by Nancy San Martin
Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
The FBI is looking for a killer. Agents won't stop at the US border to find the guilty.
Under an unprecedented arrangement, a team of FBI agents specializing in the psychological profiling of serial killers will arrive in Ciudad Juarez next month to help Mexican authorities solve a series of gruesome slayings that authorities believe has taken the lives of nearly 200 young women.
Authorities in this border city across from El Paso say they may be looking for more than one killer.
The FBI's cooperative effort follows another slaying discovered this week. Soccer players stumbled across the corpse in a field on the outskirts of town, within sight of guard towers for the state penitentiary.
"These homicides are up to a point where we have to do whatever is possible to resolve it," said Steve Salter, a public safety adviser for the state of Chihuahua who enlisted the FBI's help.
The unsolved killings began in 1993, according to statistics from the medical examiner's office. At least 50 of the victims, including the most recent, were strangled.
What concerns authorities most is the similarity in about 30 of the cases: The victims are young, dark-hair, slender women whose bodies often show signs of mutilation and rape. Those similarities fuel the theory that a serial killer may be lurking.
Three experts from the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime in Quantico, Ba., will test that theory when they arrive on March 8.
"The FBI is not going to come and tell us who is responsible for this, but they are going to tell us what kind of person is responsible," said Mr. Salter, an American working under contract with Chihuahua authorities.
The agents will stay in Juarez for a week and give Mexican officials guidance on what areas to concentrate on. They will be looking at things like the time of day the slayings were committed, the ages of the victims and where they fit in the social structure.
Many of the dead women worked at assembly plants known as maquiladoras, prompting fear among the facilities' largely female workforce.
"I think it's great the FBI is going to help because too many women have disappeared," said Martha Arellanes, 32, a maquila worker. "We are part of society and the authorities need to take care of us, too."
Dr. Irma Rodriguez Galarza, a forensic scientist, is skeptical about the serial killer theory. She speculates that some of the deaths may be the result of a troublesom change in the psyche of Mexican men as Ciudad Juarez continues to evolve as a player in the global economy.
"There exists a rivalry, professionally and economically, between men and women," Dr. Rodriguez said. "Women don't say at home anymore. They have more liberty now, liberty that puts them at risk.
"I'm sure that the FBI, as experts, will come to the conclusion that this is not the work of a serial killer, but of a social criminological phenomena - a product of a loss of values and influence of drugs and alcohol," Dr. Rodriguez said.
Mexican authorities have pointed to gang members and copycat killers and have even raised the possibility that the deaths could be the work of one or more Americans crossing the border.
Within the past three years, several suspects have been charged with some of the killings. But there have been no convictions.
The dirt soccer field were the most recent victim was found has been a dumping ground for at least two other women, Chihuahua state police said.
Throughout the week, Mexican authorities combed the field in search of evidence. They also released a composite of the victim, believed to be 18 to 20 years old. No one has yet come forward to claim the body.
Authorities said their biggest obstacle in solving the cases is citizens' refusal to step forward with information that could aid the investigation.
Some residents said the reluctance is due to a lack of trust of police officers and fear of retaliation from the criminals.
"Here, criminals with money tend to go free and those without money are on vacation in Cereso [prison]," said Cenovio Miranda, 43, an area resident, pointing to the penitentiary near the soccer field as police worked. "People don't like to get involved."
Copyright 1999 The Dallas Morning News