Does Acuna have a serial killer?

Posted by DD for Borderland Beat

A big thanks to our readers for the tips that gave us additional info.  Keep em coming.

forensics guy collecting evidence  near body

 In the early hours of Sunday, May 1, a taxi driver traveling on the beltway in Acuna saw a woman's body laying in a pool of blood alongside the Beltway.  He immediately called the police and when they arrived they found the body of Nidia Karina Maldonato Salazar. 

The police reported that she was 24 years old, but various media sources list her age anwhere from 22 to 24.  Local reliable sources in Acuna have told BB that she was only 19.

She was dressed in  black shorts, pink blouse and black shoes, and had an apparent  head wound.  that appeared to have have been caused by a heavy blow to the head by a blunt instrument.  Because of the pool of blood under and around the head had not dried the police suspected that death had come to the lifeless body very recently.

After cordoning off the scene and collecting the evidence, the body was taken to the Medical Examiners office for autopsy and then turned over to the family for burial. 

Family members told police that Nidia had no problems with anyone and they knew of no reason why someone would take her life in this manner.  The police said in a press conference that they had begun an investigation, starting with trying to determine her activities in the last hours of her life.

The fact of a dead body found on the street in Mexico is not usually occasion for a big news story.  But when you start looking at the number of women who have been murdered in Acuna in the near past, perhaps it should be a big story.

Borderland Beat reported in December in a story, Femicides Sow Fear in Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila, about 2 women, in separate incidents whose dead bodies were found along the roadside and the people of Acuna were concerned about there being a serial killer on the loose.  The police said the killings were unrelated and there was no serial killer on the loose.

Since the first of this year the authorities have recorded 3 femicides and Nidia Karina's death makes the fourth reported by the police.  But those same local sources in Acuna question the accuracy of the police report.

The Director of a NGO with it's office in Acuna told BB that she knew of at least 10 women murdered in the city so far this year.  One of her sources has close ties to the Mayor's office and considers that source 100.% reliable.



 Though social media has not picked up on this in a big way, one comment on FB said "They are going to be like the dead girls in Juarez after awhile".

As regular readers of BB are aware news of violence and cartel activities is extremely difficult to obtain in areas where there is a heavy presence of cartels.  This area of Coahuila is controlled by a cartel and is one of the worst in trying to get news of violence even in cases like the murdered women there is no evidence of their involvement in drugs or association with cartels.

Alejandro Hope posted in his newsletter yesterday some possible answers why that may be the case.  I highly recommend you read his entire newsletter here, but here a few excerpts that may apply to this situation

"Silent night.  As argued here at Silver or Lead a few days ago, some 2000 people were murdered in Mexico in March. That’s broadly equivalent to ten times the number of victims in the Paris terrorist attacks last November. And yet, no seems to care in this country. With a few exceptions violence has simply dropped off the radar of most media outlets.

the government has tried to regulate coverage of the issue by a) reducing the absolute amount of information on crime stories

A large portion of the crime beat is absolutely local in nature. National media outlets (or foreign ones, for that matter) will most likely not interest themselves in local dynamics. And that makes sense: the national press corps should cover national events. But that comes at the cost of not covering some big stories that unfold in the local space.

Case in point: Colima. Homicides in that state have increased by 388% over the past year and its murder rate is now the highest in the country. And yet, from the vantage point of Mexico City, we have absolutely no clue of what is going on."


The sheer number of women murdered in Acuna, the pattern of leaving the bodies beside the road, some of them similarly partially covered by a blanket should be enough to cause authorities to broaden their investigation to include whether all or some were committed by one perpetrator.

We all know that the governments continued denial that there was a serial killer in Juarez resulted in the death of hundreds of women. 

Outside of the people in Acuna it seems that "absolutely" no one has a clue what is going on in Acuna.   Borderland Beat will continue to shine a light on all the femecides taking place in Acuna and hopefully some of MSM will pick up on it and the publicity will force the police and other government agencies to take a serious look and investigate the possibility of serial killer is on the loose in Acuna.  

Mexico: 7 Femicides Each Day
In some Mexican states, femicides are 15 times higher than the global average
An impunity rate of more than 95 percent in femicide cases fuels violence against women.