Juárez house hid 3 bodies under floor. Woman missing on Good Friday found slain in desert
A Juárez woman who disappeared on Good Friday was found slain in the desert and three other bodies were uncovered under the floor of a house in separate cases in the Mexican border city this week.
The body of 27-year-old Sayra Esmeralda Rios Gomez was in the desert about a half-mile southwest of an electric plant south of Juárez, according to a social media post by the woman's family and the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office.
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The body of Rios had been burned and an autopsy determined she died of asphyxia by strangulation, the attorney general's office said.
State investigators arrested Christian Emmanuel B.Q., 27, in connection with the femicide, authorities said on Thursday, April 4. Police did not disclose his last name in keeping with Mexican rules regarding the naming of crime suspects.
Rios was reported missing after being last seen on Good Friday, March 29, in the Morelos II neighborhood in southeastern Juárez, a missing-persons flyer stated.
The Chihuahua Attorney General's Office said that a body was found Tuesday morning, April 2, during a ground search as part of an ongoing investigation by a state unit that handles gender-related crimes against women.
The attorney general's office did not divulge the deceased person's name, but Rios was identified in a social media post by a relative.
Femicides, or the murders of women, have been a decades long problem in Juárez along with rampant drug-related violence.
3 bodies found under floor in Juárez house
The decomposing bodies of three people were found Tuesday underneath the floor of an empty house near downtown Juárez by Chihuahua state missing-persons investigators.
The unidentified bodies were discovered during a court-approved search for evidence as part of an ongoing investigation into a man's disappearance, authorities said. The gender of each body had yet to be determined.
Investigators joined by a police dog noticed foul odors emanating from floor sections, which were different from the flooring in the rest of the house in the 500 block of Hospital Street in Barrio Alto, the state attorney general's office said.
After sections of floor were dug up with a sledgehammer and shovels, investigators found two graves — one body was found at one spot and two more were found in the second, officials said. A knife and a cap were also found.
Forensic tests are being conducted to identify the remains and determine the cause of death.
There were 89 homicides in Juárez in March with more than 300 killings this year, according to tallies in news accounts.
Hidden 'narco graves' found in Juárez desert, backyards
In Juárez, bodies are regularly dumped along streets and sidewalks and buried in vacant lots, abandoned properties and the desert, often linked to homicides tied to gangs and drug cartels.
It is unknown if the bodies at the Barrio Alto house are related to other recent cases, which remain under investigation.
In mid-February, a banner was hanged claiming there were more than 30 corpses buried in a "narco grave" allegedly tied to a border crime suspect nicknamed "El Pitufo," (The Smurf) at a specific address in Juárez. Investigators found two bodies in the yard of the house on Cafeto Street near Mezquite Street in the Francisco Villa neighborhood, across the border from El Paso's Sunset Heights.
About two blocks away a week later, the bodies of two men in advanced stages of decomposition were found buried in the rear yard of a pink-colored house on Argon and Geranios street in the same neighborhood, the attorney general's office said.
State investigators continue to find clandestine burial sites at homes and in the surrounding desert.
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The skeletal remains of three persons were found buried in a desert lot in the community of El Sauzal in the Valley of Juárez on March 6, state authorities said.
Around March 22, investigators found an unidentified decomposing body wrapped in a blanket buried in a backyard under trash at a house in Flor del Desierto street in the Parajes de Oriente area in the southeastern edge of Juárez, officials said.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Juárez house hid bodies under floor. Missing woman found dead in desert
