State and federal authorities believe one of two bodies discovered Tuesday in the burned out interior of a luxury SUV is that of Gabriel Gómez Michel, who represents Jalisco's 18th district in the Chamber of Deputies (Mexico's lower house, equivalent to the U.S. House of Representatives).
Family members reported Gabriel Gómez Michel as missing around 6 p.m. on Monday. An hour earlier police had received reports of an abduction in progress on the southern Guadalajara beltway (periferico).
Jalisco Attorney General Luis Carlos Nájera said reviews of security camera footage show the moment of the abduction as several vehicles surround Gómez Michel's blue Suburban, forcing him to stop on the outer lane of the highway.
Nájera said the burned bodies were found in the legislator's vehicle on Tuesday morning across the Jalisco state line in neighboring Zacatecas. They were "unrecognizable," he noted, adding that definitive identification would have to wait until DNA samples had been analyzed. He confirmed no ransom request had been made.
The Fiscalia del Estado de Jalisco (Attorney General's Office) is working closely on the case with their Zacatecas counterparts, as well as with federal authorities.
Gabriel Gómez Michel was a member of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). A graduate of the Universidad de Guadalajara School of Medicine, he was mayor of El Grullo from 2010 to 2012.