The death of Roca Azul trailer park resident John Paul Abeel last week hasn’t flustered long-term inhabitants of the park. Abeel was a loner who lived on the edge of the transient RV community and wasn’t well known, even to his nearest neighbor, who lives just ten meters from the now sealed motorhome.
According to one neighbor, Abeel was a heavy drinker and didn’t make any friends, driving out in the early evening to local bars and returning late honking his horn.
The neighbor said that a girlfriend of Abeel, who drove down with him from Washington in the RV, called the park’s manager, Theo Orren, asking him to check on Abeel after she hadn’t heard from him in a while. Orren crawled through an open window in the RV and found Abeel’s body on the floor of the rig. He then called police.
The man charged in the death of Abeel, Miguel “Mike” Angel Alonso Mendoza, had done odd jobs for many people in the trailer park. The neighbor said one week before the police showed up he saw Alonso and two other men, who arrived in a white SUV, talking with Abeel in the early morning. The neighbor said he went over to ask Abeel to tell them to turn down the music from the vehicle. After they took off, Abeel told him that he didn’t know why they were bothering him as he already paid them 200 dollars.
“I asked him ‘why would you give them 200 dollars.’ But he didn’t respond,” said the neighbor.
The park was a beehive of official activity the day the body was found, as state investigators, the Ocotlan-based forensic crew and municipal authorities milled around, said the neighbor.
After police fingerprinted Abeel’s Volkswagen Beetle and his RV, a flatbed truck took away the VW for further investigation and said they would be back for the RV, said the neighbor.
The next day, the owners of the park, two brothers Rafael and Arturo Sanchez, held a meeting with most of the RV park residents and told the group that according to initial reports Abeel died of natural causes, saying he fell down and cut himself on a sharp edge of a counter and then bled to death, but that there was “no visible violence,” according to the neighbor.
“Whether he fell down drunk or was killed for his debts, either wouldn’t surprise me,” said the neighbor.
Roca Azul, just a few kilometers south of Jocotepec on the highway heading south around Lake Chapala, was founded as a private club in the 1960s for wealthy Guadalajara’s residents. Dozens of lots were sold over the years and homes built, many of them by expats from the United States and Canada. The Sanchez family has owned the club since the beginning and the original founder’s grandsons still run it. In the last decade or so they opened part of the club nearest the lake to motorhomes. About a dozen people live there, many year round, others during the winter months.
The park, which spans many hectares, has two large soccer pitches, basketball, volleyball and tennis courts and lots of heavy-duty children’s playground equipment on a large grassy area. The prime attractions are large swimming pools, one of them thermal. On the weekend, separate steam rooms for men and women and a restaurant serving snacks are open. Grills and tables under cover are available for groups. A few cabins are available for rent to members of the club. The majority of members are still Tapatios or local Jocotepec residents. A one-day pass is available to try out the club, but is not renewable. To find out more, go to www.roca-azul.com.