As if the kidnapping problem in Mexico has not been severe enough, it is now getting worse at a terrifying scale.
Hundreds of people disappear without a trace every year, and in the instances that they do come back, they are no longer alive, sometimes in pieces.
Authorities suspect the kidnappers are drug cartels desperate for cash from ransom money or carrying out a mission to intimidate rivals.
Beginning in 2006, Mexican criminal organizations started to engage in kidnapping and extortion tactics in the hope of acquiring ransom money to fund their activities.
To run underground enterprises effectively, they require extensive personnel and a sizable supply of assault weapons to defend themselves from Mexican law enforcement and rival gangs.
Their kidnapping targets are often individuals from wealthy families, improving their chances of actually getting ransom money. Among the high-profile victims was Susana Carrera, who was declared missing in February 2019.
She was a businesswoman and co-owner of an aluminum company. Security camera footage showed someone forcefully coercing her into an unidentified vehicle.
It appeared that the kidnappers had been following her for some moments before. Then, just a week later, her lifeless body was found inside a trash bag.
10 /10 Her Body Discovered
On February 13, 2019, the body of Susana Carrera was found in a parking lot in Coatzacoalcos in the state of Veracruz, Mexico.
The captors put her body inside a black trash bag attached with a message indicating that she was murdered because her husband did not want to pay ransom money.
Kidnappers were asking for 4 million pesos (around $200,000) to free her.
Authorities in the city discovered at around 11 p.m. It later came to light that Mrs. Carrera was decapitated. However, it remains unclear whether the decapitation was premortem or postmortem.
9 /10 The Kidnapping
CCTV camera captured when Mrs. Carrera was forcefully rushed into a vehicle a week earlier in the Playa Sol neighborhood of Coatzacoalcos.
Local media reported that she was about to pick up one of her children from a friend’s house.
Seconds after she rang the doorbell, a car pulled up to the house then the kidnapper approached her from behind.
The unidentified vehicle quickly drove off. It took less than 15 seconds when she rang the doorbell to the point the captor made her enter the car.