Mexico police arrest alleged serial killer who lured women with job offers
Authorities in Mexico have arrested a suspected serial killer accused of luring at least seven young women on Facebook with false job offers.
Surveillance camera footage from two states showed the man meeting with the victims in public places, and in one case driving a victim away on a motorbike, officials said.
The suspect “is a serial killer of women, and there are at least seven cases of women’s killings where this person could be involved”, said assistant public safety secretary Ricardo Mejía.
Mejía said the most recent case involved the killing a 31-year-old woman in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz after she went for a job interview last month.
“Viridiana Moreno left her house in [the town of] Cardel, Veracruz, and went to the Bienvenido hotel to attend a supposed job interview she had obtained with someone on Facebook,” said Mejía. “After that she disappeared.”
Her name was made public by relatives who mounted protests after her disappearance. Her unrecognizable body was found days later, and was identified by an ID card found near the scene and by DNA testing.
Prosecutors in the central state of Morelos said on Thursday the same suspect had killed a 22-year-old student looking for work in April. Local activists said the student was lured into meeting the suspect at a cafeteria in late March by a Facebook listing for a job or articles for sale.
He then took her to a barber shop, where she was apparently killed.
Three days later, prosecutors said, her body was found: “The victim had been beaten, sexually abused and strangled.” Protests also occurred after her disappearance. One chilling aspect was that both women disappeared after making contact with the suspect in public places with a lot of people around and had accompanied him willingly, apparently convinced by the job offers.
Prosecutors in both states mentioned finding their remains in “several places” or in various plastic bags.
The Morelos prosecutors said the man had a long string of aliases and had been sought on rape charges in 2012. They listed Juan Carlos Gasperín and Greek Román Villalobos as the two most common aliases.
The man was arrested along with a female companion in the northern state of Querétaro. It was unclear if he had a lawyer.
Authorities said he may also have been involved in cases in the states of Querétaro and Puebla.
The desperation of women needing work in small, provincial Mexican towns and Mexico’s largely under-thetable economy provides a fertile field for fake job offers.
On Thursday, authorities said they rescued two girls, ages 13 and 14, who had been lured away from home with offers of employment in the western state of Jalisco. They were found with a suspected abductor at a Mexico City bus station.
Drug cartels in Mexico have also been known to offer employment on social media sites.