Suspect in massacre of nine Mormons held in Mexico

MEXICAN police have arrested a suspect in the murder of nine US Mormons, as it emerged that a 13-year old boy travelling in the ambushed convoy hid his siblings and walked for six hours across a desert to raise the alarm.

The unnamed suspect was holding two hostages – bound and gagged – in the hills of Agua Prieta in northern Sonora state, investigators said. The suspect had several rifles and a large amount of ammunition.

Cesar Peniche Espejel, attorney general for the neighbouring state of Chihuahua, confirmed yesterday’s arrest.

Three women and six children with dual Us-mexican citizenship were murdered on Monday as they travelled from Sonora to Chihuahua for a wedding. It is unclear whether their cars were mistaken for those belonging to organised crime groups, or whether they were deliberately targeted.

Mr Peniche Espejel said he believed the newly formed Los Jaguares cartel, an offshoot of the Sinaloa cartel, may have been behind the massacre. “These very cartels of Sinaloa, after the arrest of [Joaquín] Guzmán ‘El Chapo’ have suffered fragmentations,” he said.

Rhonita Lebaron, 30, was driving one car and was killed alongside her children Howard, 12; Krystal, 10; and eight-month-old twins Titus and Tiana.

Dawna Ray Langford, 43, was driving a second car. Her sons Trevor, 11, and Rogan, aged two, died, with passenger Christina Marie Langford, 29.

A six-month-old baby, the daughter of Ms Langford, was found unharmed, hidden on the car floor.

Devin Langford, 13, witnessed his mother being murdered, hid his six siblings and escaped to raise the alarm – walking 13 miles through the desert.

Members of the Lebaron family mourn by a burnt-out car at the scene of the murder of nine women and children, who were ambushed by gunmen as they drove to a wedding, near Agua Prieta on the Us-mexico border