Chapala police detained Debra Ann Cuevas Gates, 36, by in the early hours of Tuesday, December 9, as the prime suspect in the fatal stabbing of her aunt, retired Chapala school teacher Maria Eugenia Cuevas Alcantár.
The 74-year-old victim succumbed to multiple wounds to the chest and head inflicted during a violent family dispute that occurred in the middle of the night at her second-floor apartment on Avenida Madero.
According to information provided by acting police chief Moisés Torres, officials at the local Ministerio Publico (district attorney’s office) and state authorities, the crime occurred at the height of heated argument between Cuevas Gates and her teenage son, who had been living under the victim’s care for several years after his mother took up residence in Nayarit. It appears that the suspect turned her wrath on her aunt when she tried to intervene and quell the fight.
Police and medical first-responders arrived at the crime scene shortly after the boy fled the premises to seek help, but it was too late to save the mortally wounded teacher.
Officers reported that Cuevas Gates appeared to be in a state of mental derangement, possibly under the influence of drugs, when she was taken into custody, still clutching the bloody kitchen knife she presumably used as the murder weapon.
While the case remained under investigation at press time, local officials indicated that the suspect had confessed to the crime and will likely be brought up on a charge of parricide. If convicted she would face a 20- to 30-year prison sentence.