7 Dead Bodies Found in California Pickup Truck in Tijuana

"HEARST" for Borderland Beat

Police discovered that an abandoned pickup truck, with a California license plate, had seven dead bodies inside. The vehicle was found at a gas station in the border city of Tijuana. 

The two detainees brought in for the crime were just publicly cleared by the Attorney General, who says the men were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. The actual perpetrators are reportedly still at large.

The Discovery of the Seven Dead 

On June 12, 2023, the Tijuana municipal police sent out a press release giving information on the recent discovery of seven dead bodies inside a white pickup truck. It read as follows: 

"During the early hours of today, after a chase on Terán Terán Boulevard, Municipal Police officers arrested two people who are being investigated for their possible involvement with a Ford F150 pick up which was found to have a number of lifeless bodies inside. 

The discovery occurred while municipal agents were on the Alamar expressway, when they observed the driver of a pick up that immediately made an illegal turn upon spotting the patrol car. Subsequently, a chase ensued. 

The chase ended in the Ejido Chilpancingo neighborhood, in the parking lot of the Gasko gas station. When municipal officers arrived, they found the pickup truck with its doors open and two men who were standing just a few meters away. 

After inspecting the vehicle, the officers found human remains, covered with tires and pieces of wood, and a fuel can inside the pickup. 

The two men were identified as Juan ‘N’, 60 years old, originally from the state of Sinaloa, and Jonathan 'N', 32 years old, originally from Tijuana."

Many news outlets covered the information given in this press release. A number of US outlets, such as NBC News and the San Diego Tribune, covered the story, picking up on the fact that the pickup truck had a license plate from the US state of California - a detail which was omitted from the press releases. 

The weekly magazine Zeta Tijuana gave additional details on the discovery, writing that “the policemen saw that inside there was a corpse wrapped in a blue blanket. In the bed of the pickup truck, there were several wooden boards and tires, which - when lifted - revealed the dead bodies of six people, apparently all male.”

Zeta also added that "it is believed, they intended to burn the corpses" based on the fuel found inside. 

Images of the Crime Scene

Below are some of the photos published of the pickup truck.

The Coverage and Reactions 

As covered by SoCalj yesterday, the mayor of Tijuana Montserrat Caballero announced that she would be moving onto a local Army base in Tijuana due to security concerns related to threats she received from cartel groups, as well as a previous attempted attack which targeted her in May 2023. 

The announcement of her move came on the same day as the discovery of the pickup truck however it is believed to be unrelated. The coincidental timing, however, led to the two stories being grouped together by various media outlets. 

Francisco García Burgos, the president of the Educating for Peace foundation, spoke to reporters about the discovery on June 12, shortly after it happened, saying "Tijuana needs 7,000 police officers and we only have 2,000. Last year only 43 new police officers graduated from the [state police] academy so at this rate we are not going to make up the difference.”

He went on to suggest improving the working conditions of police officers, saying “we need to offer police officers better working conditions, a much better salary, the possibility of having a mortgage, and social security for themselves and their families, in order to attract better candidates who are more experienced to join the police."

The Detainees Were Not Involved

On June 14, 2023, Ricardo Iván Carpio, the State Attorney General, commented further on the incident at a press event, saying "the municipal police detained some men because of the specific time and place they were spotted."

"And, officers, who were trying not to omit any line of investigation and establish the facts of the case, were trying to determine if the men were responsible for the incident or not.” 

"And I can say objectively now that these people are innocent and have no involvement in this whatsoever. The technical and scientific data - the legal and genetic evidence establishes that they are not responsible for having been involved in this case," he said.

According to an article by PSN, Attorney General Carpio clarified that the people driving the vehicle were presumed to have fled the area before police arrived on scene. 

Rafael Orozco, a prosecutor from the Attorney General's Office, added that "the police presented the men before the Attorney General's Office as suspects.  They were not spotted while doing a criminal act or in the vehicle and they did not have a very strong reason to suspect them outside of this." 

The Attorney General told Zeta Tijuana that the only line of investigation they are pursuing is related to “narcomenudeo”, or street-level drug dealing.

He also said the fingerprints of the victims did not match with anyone in their criminal database system.

Carpio said the victims had been preliminarily identified by neighbors, however, they cannot release the names of the victims until family members confirm the identities of the deceased.

The Discovery And Coverage Sources: Tijuana Police Press Release, Univision, San Diego Tribune, El Universal, La Silla Rota, Zeta Tijuana Article 1, Article 2, Milenio, El Diario MX Newsweek Español, Uniradio Informa, NY Post 

Detainees Innocent Sources: Zeta Tijuana, El Vigia, Telemundo

Photo Sources: Noticias de Tijuana, Jesus Aguilar, Crimin@les Tijuana