The Disappearing Women of Chihuahua City

The hills of Sierra Nombre de Dios are rocky and hard to climb. "The last journalist didn't make it to the top," says Patricia Cervantes as she parks her pick-up truck at the base of the hills. This is her second trip to the site where two female bodies were found over a week ago by a group of teenagers on a hike. The police claim one of them is her 19-year old daughter, Neyra Azucena.

The dead women are just the most recent victims in a complicated story of murder and corruption that has enveloped Chihuahua City. While the world's attention has been fixed on the mass murders in Juarez, few have paid attention to the 16 women who have vanished into thin air in this Mexican state capital less than five hours south of the border.

The Disappearance of Neyra Cervantes

Neyra Azucena Cervantes disappeared on May 13, 2003, while returning home from her job at a downtown clothing store called Condor High in Chihuahua City. The police had no leads and added no information to Neyra's report until two months later, on Jul. 14, when the bodies were discovered. The family went to identify the corpse the following day at which time the police detained Neyra's cousin, David Meza Argueta, and her father, Jesus Argueta Vargas for questioning.

At the end of the interrogation, David was accused of committing the murder. According to Jesus, the men were submitted to physical and psychological torture: "They gave us electrical shocks, beat us, put water with gas up our noses, and threatened to kill me if David did not sign the pre-written confession. David was afraid and signed, but it is all a lie fabricated by the police." Neyra's uncle, Carlos Azucena, also speaks of psychological intimidation. He says, "They asked me if I liked Neyra's body, if she had ever let me touch her, things like that, sexual questions. I said that I wouldn't answer any more questions because they were offending me. How could I think of her body like that if she is my niece?"

Police officials say they detained David based upon his "behavior," according to an interview with police chief Vicente Mayorga printed in the local newspaper, El Diario. They claim that David, who is originally from the state of Chiapas, hired two men from the same state to kidnap Neyra and then murdered her in Sierra Nombre de Dios. The investigators have not, however, performed any DNA tests or presented any circumstantial evidence to bolster their claims.

The Cervantes family believes that the police are targeting David for speaking out against police negligence and corruption in his cousin's disappearance. The bodies were the third and fourth in a series of corpses discovered at the same site. Astoundingly, not one of the corpses was discovered by the police themselves, even though the site is no more than a 15-minute walk from a recently built $365 million government testing facility overseen by the Mexican justice department. Eight bodies have been found so far in Chihuahua, all in deserted areas around the city.

On this most recent trip to the site on Sunday, July 27, the Cervantes family finds bits of clothing, teeth, strands of hair and decomposing bones at the top of the hill -- even though the police claim to have already searched and removed all pertinent evidence from the location. An inspector's latex glove and bits off garbage litter the area, contaminating the crime scene.

The Lost Women of Chihuahua

While the case of Neyra Cervantes is tragic, it is hardly unique. She is only one of at least 16 young women who have disappeared over the past three years in Chihuahua City. Each was abducted downtown in broad daylight, while returning home from their jobs or computer classes. They also share a common socioeconomic profile, coming from poor families who live on the outskirts of the city. Many of them worked in maquiladoras alongside their mothers to help support their families. The women also look uncannily similar. They are all tall and slender, attractive, dark-skinned and between the ages of 14 and 19.