Two people have been arrested by Chihuahua state investigators in relation to the brutal torture and killing of a lesbian couple.
According to El Plaso Times, the attorney general’s office confirmed on 24 January that Jaqueline Isela C.R, aged 25, and David R., aged 24, were arrested on charges of aggravated femicide.
Nohemí Medina Martínez and Yulizsa Ramírez were found roughly 17 miles apart from each other on a stretch of Juárez-El Porvenir Road on 16 January.
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.
They were found in two separate trash bags on the streets of the Mexican border town and had reportedly been tortured, shot dead and dismembered.
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.
The investigation found that the man and woman arrested contacted and approached Martínez and Ramírez during the afternoon of 15 January – the day before the discovery of their bodies.
They were then “viciously murdered” at a home on Calle Del Ejido in the village of San Isidro, a statement from authorities confirmed.
It was also stated that evidence of the killings was found at the home during a search.
A motive for the crime is yet to be confirmed, though LGBTQ+ rights groups in the region are calling it a “hate crime.”
The couple’s killing sparked protests in Juárez, with some officials being fearful that the case could go unsolved prior to the arrests.
“The concern is that authorities will absolutely do nothing,” Arvizo further explained to the Daily Mail at the time. “We feel like we are treated like second-class citizens and that we really don’t matter.”
Court proceedings are set to begin this month.
Latest
