Week of June 14, 2021, | Issue 16
Kesa White, NORTHCOM
Mexico Signage[1]
Date: May 15, 2021 - Present
Location: Mexico
Parties involved: Mexican Police and suspected serial killer Andres
The event: On May 15, 2021, a Mexican police commander began searching for his wife after she did not return home from a shopping trip with her friend, Andres. When confronting Andres at his home, the police Commander discovered his wife’s body and personal belongings in the basement. The police were then informed about his wife’s body. Next, police formally searched the suspect’s home where investigators found several women’s personal belongings, which suggested that he may have killed multiple women as he did with the police commander's wife. In addition, the suspect kept audio and VHS recordings of his victims, many of which had been missing for as long as five years.[2] The suspect is being held and awaiting trial for a separate murder charge of another woman while law enforcement continues to search his home. After finding numerous personal belongings, investigators searched under the house by excavating under the suspect’s home where they discovered bone fragments from at least 17 victims.[3] Investigators are working to extract DNA from the bones they discovered under the house to identify their remains.
The implications:
The event is concerning because it shows that the Mexican police would not have the suspect on their radar unless the police commander confronted him about his wife going missing. The suspected serial killer almost certainly would have continued killing individuals undetected unless someone of importance had gone missing, which would have led the police to investigate the situation more seriously.
Now that investigators found bone fragments under the suspect’s home, they must quickly identify the remains. The police must determine the identities quickly to prevent Andres from being released if he is found not guilty. If the suspected killer is released from custody, the risk of harming more women or fleeing Mexico increases now that he knows the police know about his crimes. On the other hand, if he is found guilty of an unrelated crime, he will be forced to stay in prison, allowing the investigators more time to provide further evidence that he killed all of the women found in his home. Therefore, there is a lot of pressure on authorities to find evidence convicting Andres of these crimes to prevent further killings.
The Mexican police may need to review their missing person’s reports to determine if any women were reported missing that were never found. Utilizing this tactic will help to determine the identities faster and contact their relatives. However, if one of the disappeared persons happens to be one of the women found, that would look poor on the police department because they never followed up on the missing person’s report. Therefore, in the future, the police department should improve their investigative procedures and improve their protocols efforts when it comes to missing persons because the killer had been attacking women for more than five years based on the VHS tapes and personal belongings found in his home.
[1] "MEXICO" by Geraint Rowland Photography is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
[2] Mexican Police Find Thousands of Bone Fragments at Suspected Serial Killer’s Home, Rolling Stone, June 2021, https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/mexican-serial-killer-bone-fragments-victims-1184231/
[3] Ibid.
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