Family of 8 murdered in northern Mexico

GlobalPost
Updated on

A three-month-old baby was the sole survivor of a massacre of eight members of the same extended family in the northern city of Ciudad Juarez on Sunday, local media reported Monday.

The victims, including three children aged between four and seven, three women and two men, were found in a house with their mouths duct taped and hands and feet bound. 

There was a discrepancy in inital reports as to how the family was murdered, with some media outlets reporting they had been stabbed, while others said they had been shot.

Chihuahua state Prosecutor Enrique Villareal was quoted by the Associated Press as saying the family had been stabbed to death and they likely knew their assailants as there were no signs of forced entry into the house.

Police still don’t have a motive for the gruesome murders, but officials have ruled out organized crime. 

The grisly crime scene was discovered after the family failed to attend a meeting of the Jehovah’s Witness and members of the congregation went looking for them.

More from GlobalPost: Juarez: The sequel

Police believe the attackers killed the family in the early hours of Sunday. A three-month-old baby girl was spared, the Los Angeles Times said, citing local media reports. 

Neighbors told the Agence France-Presse that the owner of the house was a car salesman. 

The murders come after a mass shooting at a house party in Ciudad Juarez on Sept. 22 that left 10 people dead.

Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, used to be considered the most dangerous city in the world as rival drug cartels battled for control of the lucrative smuggling route into the United States.

More than 10,000 people have been killed in the city in the past seven years, though the murder rate has declined over the past year, which security experts have attributed to the Sinaloa drug cartel defeating the Juarez gang, rather than improved law enforcement. 

More from GlobalPost: Another day, another mass grave uncovered in Mexico

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