A water truck driver was the first to discover, around 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 16, the bodies of 10 people murdered at the Marihuana ranch in the community of Texcalapa, municipality of Tehuitzingo, Puebla.
Among the victims were six members of the Torres family, four ranch workers, two minors, and a one-month-and-20-day-old baby. The State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) points to a family conflict as the motive for the crime, but the family of José Alfredo “N”, initially identified as a suspect, rejects this hypothesis.
FGE forensic experts collected 18 spent shell casings at the scene, both .22 and 9mm caliber. The head of the institution, Idamis Pastor Betancourt, indicated that this type of weaponry does not correspond to that typically used by organized crime groups, which reinforces the hypothesis of a family conflict.
The discovery occurred in two stages. The driver of a tanker truck first located the bodies of three mechanics repairing a backhoe in the ranch’s barn. Continuing his search of the property, he found the seven members of the family inside the house. At least three of the victims were bound and had been shot execution-style.
