As of this week, the Jalisco Attorney General’s Office (PGEJ) has now officially confirmed the identities of all but two of the 18 people whose dismembered remains were discovered on May 9 in two vehicles abandoned on the outskirts of Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos. Additional body parts of the murder victims were found on May 12 concealed inside a freezer at criminal hideout located in Chapala’s Riberas del Pilar residential neighborhood.
Nine of the dead were identified by relatives within 48 hours after the massacre was revealed. Most of the others have been named more recently on the basis of DNA tests practiced on close family members.
PGEJ press officer Jose Ramirez provided the Reporter with a list of the victims and other details concerning the case.
Francisco Javier Torres Lopez, 51, proprietor of a Jocotepec billiard hall, was kidnapped from his place of business on April 20, along with Miguel Angel Leal Nava, 17, Jose Miguel Rubio Sanchez, 31, and a fourth man whose whereabouts remains unknown. Another unnamed individual was shot dead during the same incident.
Julio Cesar Arana Aceves, 25, Humberto Centeno Sanchez, 25, both from San Luis Soyotlan, also disappeared April 20 at an unknown location. The motorcycle they were riding on that day was later found at the Chapala Malecon.Blanca Liliana Toro Verdia, 17, her brother Armando Daniel Toro Verdia, 25, and their cousin Pedro Isai del Toro Calvario, 15, were grabbed off the streets of San Juan Cosala on the evening of April 21.
Juan Manuel Reyes Lango, 46, a bricklayer from San Juan Cosala, left for work on April 22 and never returned home.
Elias Flores Hernandez, a 50-year-old bricklayer from Guadalajara, was abducted along with his brother and a fellow worker while walking next to the highway in La Floresta on the evening of April 24. Flores’ sibling managed to escape his sleeping captors and lead police the Ajijic address where he had been held. The third man is either still missing or counted among the last of the unidentified bodies.
Gustavo Daniel Martinez Perez, 18, his cousin Carlos Jesus Martinez Delgado, 21, both students from Ajijic, and their friend Abel Paz Enciso, 25, a dance teacher from San Antonio Tlayacapan, vanished from the Ajijic Malecon on May 3.
Chapala residents Jonathan Daniel Martinez Rios, 17, Miguel Angel Mata Barragan, 25, and Juan Luis Sandoval Camarena, 26, were snatched May 6 on the highway in Riberas del Pilar as they headed home from their jobs as waiters in San Juan Cosala. A young woman taken at the same time was set free the following morning together with a foreign resident of Ajijic who was held also overnight after coincidently crossing paths with the kidnappers as he headed home from an evening hike.
Forensic officials have tentatively identified Adolfo Ramirez Fernandez, 46, as the 17th victim, pending results of DNA analysis. He was reported missing on January 10.
Over the past seven weeks, state police and Mexican army troops have located three criminal hideouts in the Chapala area and another in the municipality of Tala that appear to be linked to multiple abductions and homicide perpetrated by members of the ruthless Zeta-Milenio cartel alliance. Caches of weapons, ammunition, illicit drugs and other evidence related to the crimes were found during these operations. Authorities have also located and dismantled three clandestine laboratories for manufacturing synthetic drugs in the region. In addition they have captured seven suspects connected to the case and obtained significant leads on identifying others who remain fugitives.
So far there is no evidence that any of the deceased were involved in drug trafficking.