Tijuana: San Diego teenage girl executed

San Diego teenager executed in Tijuana

Last year Ana Hernandez, a San Diego teenager, was found shot and beaten to death in off Maket Street in Grant Hill, she had been wrapped in a blanket, and dropped in front of her mother's house. The case bore similarities to organized crime killings in Tijuana, known as encojibado's, wrapped. Ana's killers, were local gang affiliates, who killed her to possibly cover up her rape, and that she may have been being sex trafficked by the men, who weren't much older then Ana.  

In a grim parallel to that case, Destiny Memory Hernandez, 18, of San Diego, a Mar Vista High Student, who lived in Imperial Beach, was found on the 'Fast Track' area of Tijuana, in a baseball field, earlier in the month, shot 7 times, in the head, thorax, and abdomen, no signs of sexual assault.

 She had been partying in Revolucion, at a bar in Zona Rio with friends, and WhatsApp messages between her, and a girlfriend, state she was headed home with some men she met in a club, to El Florido.  The messages state the men were handsome, and include the slang, 'heavy',   Her friend advised her to be careful.  She never came home, and her family came to Tijuana to investigate, with fliers, and social media outreach.  

Her brother, Francisco says he heard from her up until last Thursday morning, and then contact was broken.  Her body was identified on September 13, and assumedly found in the days before.  There are some time frame issues, that aren't clear to me, but will try to clarify.  It's not known whether she had ties to local gangs, or traffickers in Tijuana.

I say they not to slander a victim, but because that is the way these killings usually turn out.  In no way does that mean she wasn't an innocent, or deserving of death, whether it's true or not.  That doesn't mean she isn't a victim, or she is at fault for her death.  It's the way of Mexico, sometimes, and the United States to blame victims, esp. female, which is appalling, and I will never condone. 

Local San Diego gang members, esp, in Imperial Beach party in Tijuana, and have family there. It's possible there is involvement from San Diego residents in her killing, as people know killings are generally not solved in Tijuana.  In March 2009 three US citizens in their late teens and early 20's from Chula Vista were found after a night partying in Tijuana, tortured, bound and stuffed in a van. Their killers, or the reasons for their death were never revealed. 

In 2008, three women from Mexicali were partying with members of CAF (at the time) under Teodoro Garcia Simental, El Negro, and two of his friends met up with the women in a Tijuana nightclub, and after a dispute, drove them to a safehouse in the city.  The women were promised a ride home, and a last minute change of mind from El Negro, they were brought to a home, strangled, and dissolved in lye, common in Tijuana in those years.

Sources: NBC San Diego, AFN Tijuana 

Note: If you are in San Diego, or are able to donate online, please do. The family is asking for support for the funeral.