Nohemí Medina Martínez and Yulizsa Ramírez were found roughly 17 miles apart from each other on a stretch of Juárez-El Porvenir Road.
Content warning: This story may include topics that could make some readers feel uncomfortable.
The women, who were both 28-years-old and of El Paso, Texas, were discovered on 16 January the day after seeing family whom they had travelled to visit in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, El Diario reported.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Chihuahua Committee for Sexual Diversity director Karen Arvizo confirmed that the pair were parents to three children and got married last year.
Arvizo also shared their fears that, like many other crimes against the LGBTQ+ community, the killings could go unsolved.
“The concern is that authorities will absolutely do nothing,” Arvizo further explained to the outlet. “We feel like we are treated like second-class citizens and that we really don’t matter.”
Martínez and Ramírez lived in Texas, but were both Mexican citizens.
They were discovered in two separate trash bags on the streets of the Mexican border town and had reportedly been tortured, shot dead and dismembered.
As well as the couple, two other women were discovered on 17 January at an intersection in the neighbourhood of Patria-Zaragoza.
Although they remain unidentified at this time, the victims had also been tortured and shot.
One was declared dead at the scene, with the other dying in hospital as a result of a gunshot wound.
The Specialised Prosecutor for Women (FEM) said that an investigation was ongoing and that it will try to discover what happened to the women in their final hours.
It remains unclear if the four murders are connected and there are yet to be any arrests made.
La Verdad Juárez reported that Ciudad Juárez district attorney Jesús Carrasco said: “We don’t see the big cartels as active or active in the city, but we do see the gangs.
“We do see these groups or small cells that separated from the gangs, that generated new groups and there could be a series of conditions between them that could be generating these intentional deaths.”
Galop is an LGBTQ+ charity there for those who have experienced abuse or have been the victim of a hate crime. They can be contacted Monday to Friday from 10am-4pm on 0207 7042040 or at HateCrime@galop.org.uk. You can find out more about them here.
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