Juarez Murders Continue To Baffle Police, Families
By BYRON HARRIS / WFAA-TV
JUAREZ, Mexico - The pink crosses are clustered around Juarez, each one representing a young girl.
Some of the bodies have been found with their faces eaten off with acid. In Spanish, they're known as desaparecedas. In English, they're called "disappeareds".
Now, there is only grief where the girls used to be.
"Right now I feel helpless," says Celia de la Rosa. "I am mad and don't understand why anyone would hurt my daughter in this way."
De la Rosa is one of more than a hundred Mexican mothers whose daughters have been killed and abandoned in what have come to be called the "killing fields of Juarez". And there are parents just like her on the El Paso side of the border.
Jaime Jervilla of El Paso lost his godson and his wife eight years ago when they went across the border to Juarez and were murdered.
Now he's part of a 10-year unsolved murder mystery where new victims are discovered every year. The cases span the border. Twenty-six men and women from El Paso have never come back after going to Juarez.
"It is very frustrating to talk to the parents and loved ones of U.S. citizens who say, 'My husband, my son, my parents, they disappeared,'" says El Paso FBI chief Hardrick Crawford.
In his first few months as chief, Crawford is responding to demands by Americans. He's offered FBI resources to Mexico to help solve the crimes. So far, his offers have not been accepted.
Mexican officials say they're on the trail.
Lilliana Herrera is the fifth prosecutor to work on the cases in 10 years.
"The previous administrators were colleagues of mine, and I didn't think they mistreated anyone," she says.
The first arrests came six years ago. The killings continued. More people were jailed. The murders went on. Mexican police now say the "disappeareds" were targets of several serial killers.
The latest victims were found dumped in an arroyo. It's actually not too far from a well-to-do neighborhood. But the case has changed since then. It's not just victims, but victims connected to victims.
The face of a victim was painstakingly reconstructed from a skull by Juarez forensic specialist Irma Rodriguez.
She sculpted them to help parents identify their children. But Rodriguez quit her job after her husband and daughter were murdered a few weeks ago.
Since then, two bus drivers were jailed. They confessed to eight other murders, but said police tortured them.
In February, police shot and killed their attorney in his car. Police first claimed it was suicide. Multiple shots disproved that.
Nobody knows who's doing the killing. It could be the police. It could be the army. It could be somebody from the government. Or someone from El Paso.
"Of course, the answer is yes," Crawford said. "That person could be an American or a U.S. person who lives in El Paso.
Alfredo Tena doesn't know which side of the border justice comes from. He still can't think about his 13-year-old niece, who was raped and murdered five years ago.
If she were still alive, she'd probably be working at the factory up the street where girls as young as 14 make parts for American products.
When the sun washes the streets in the afternoon, they're safe. But when they get off at midnight, they are prey.
Copyright 2002 WFAA.com