Mexico - Elisabeth Mandala, 18, beaten to death, Nuevo Leon, 27 April 2010

[tk71texas]

I used to go shopping in nuevo progresso...........i haven't been since all this violence started though.....i'd be kinda scared since i'm a single mom

 

[jnTexas]

FWIW, there may be some areas of Mexico that are safe but not many of the border towns. Neuvo Loredo being one of those that one should really not travel to as an American.

This article is from March of this year but I'm willing to say it's still accurate:

http://www.wfaa.com/news/crime/Gun-battle-rages-in--86026647.html

and this one dated a bit later:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/20/AR2010042004961.html

(I only linked the above articles so that we can get a sense of things there in the town she was found, not all areas of Mexico are combat areas for the cartels, just the borders ones).

Even if she has a Latino surname she shouldn't have been there. What is odd is that the accident was staged. Usually, these cartel hinchmen will just leave a body lying out in the open so that others are intimidated and terrorized. They are known in the Juarez area (border town in Chihuahua) to remove the head of victim and stage their bodies for public view with the head on their chest or nearby. (If that is who is responsible for these deaths)

I live about five miles from Juarez as the crow flies. I can see the break in the Franklin mnts where the rio cuts through and that is right at the border ---from my backyard.

As a civilian I could travel to Mexico (Juarez) but I have chosen not to do so. My Husband (Active duty Military) has been given a directive that he can't travel to Juarez. If the DOD says a man that has been trained in combat for 26 yrs can't go because it's too dangerous---my lil' (not so lil' anymore) middle aged behind is staying put right here! LOL

Seriously, if I had to guess at this moment in time what she was doing there. I would have to guess that one or more of the people in the vehicle where the crash was staged was involved with the drug war over there in one way or another. She may have only been in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don't know.

ETA: As the years go by in this turf war, more and more innocents are being killed to terrorize the general population. Many of those killed these days are in no way allied with these cartels. JMHO.

BBM: I was thinking about the cartel leaving bodies out in the open too. I think there is more to this story. I think this was a cover up. I'm thinking the parents know more also. she left on tuesday was suppose to be back by thurday and they report her mising saturday...but she wasn't suppose to go.
I hope this doesn't rub anyone the wrong way... we have alot of illegals in the houston and surrounding area I wonder if her parents are legal and if they are in on or friends with someone who is a coyote. She did not just come up with the idea to be a coyote and take off to mexico.:waitasec:

 

[tk71texas]

BBM: I was thinking about the cartel leaving bodies out in the open too. I think there is more to this story. I think this was a cover up. I'm thinking the parents know more also. she left on tuesday was suppose to be back by thurday and they report her mising saturday...but she wasn't suppose to go.
I hope this doesn't rub anyone the wrong way... we have alot of illegals in the houston and surrounding area I wonder if her parents are legal and if they are in on or friends with someone who is a coyote. She did not just come up with the idea to be a coyote and take off to mexico.:waitasec:

yep....i totally agree :twocents:

 

[Kat]

Unfortunately, the TX/Mexico border towns have become very dangerous because of the drug cartel wars.....I used to go to Nuevo Laredo & Ciudad Acuña several times a year -- but that was years ago.

In fact, a family member was going to cross over to Nuevo Laredo just a couple years ago & had to turn back because a gun-fight (automatic weapons at that) broke out....he hasn't been back either.

I love Mexico, too, but it's getting dangerous - even in the more upscale tourist areas like Acapulco (google "violence Acapulco mexico")...I miss my shopping trips with the girls -- but it's just not worth the risk, IMO....such a shame because shopping in Mexico is like a Texas tradition.

I was disappointed that I wasn't able to go over into Mexico and shop and have dinner. We were so looking forward to visiting.

To jnTexas: Yes I agree with you. Something is amiss.

 

[reen]

I used to go shopping in nuevo progresso...........i haven't been since all this violence started though.....i'd be kinda scared since i'm a single mom

Same here! But Nuevo Progreso isn't (or didn't used to be) anywhere near as bad as Nuevo Laredo crime-wise. It's smaller and not as close to larger cities in TX like Laredo and San Antonio, where it's easy to mix in as an illegal or hand off drugs.

This story is so sad in so many ways...she had such a bright future.

 

[tk71texas]

Same here! But Nuevo Progreso isn't (or didn't used to be) anywhere near as bad as Nuevo Laredo crime-wise. It's smaller and not as close to larger cities in TX like Laredo and San Antonio, where it's easy to mix in as an illegal or hand off drugs.

This story is so sad in so many ways...she had such a bright future.

stripping & human smuggling <<< bright future? :waitasec:


sorry.....couldn't resist!!!

 

[reen]

stripping & human smuggling <<< bright future? :waitasec:


sorry.....couldn't resist!!!

In the sense that she had a [bold] potential bright future. Pretty, about to graduate, etc. No, she didn't make good choices but I think she had it in her to turn it around.

I wish they'd figure out what she was doing with these men. So mysterious!

 

[Kat]

Has LE confirmed she was a stripper and wanted to be a coyote? TIA.

If not, I'm going to hold back on that info for now JMHO.

 

[Kat]

Articles from Spanish language newspapers.

http://www.milenio.com/node/436420
04/05/2010 - 16:37

...The bodies of the driver Mondragón Luis Angel Estrella, 44 years old, and the businessman Dante Ruiz Siller, 38, were claimed by their relatives ...

...The murder of these three people was learned on Sunday, when his killers tried to simulate an accident at kilometer 180 of the Monterrey-Monclova Road...

Another article same news agency:

Wed, 05/05/2010 - 11:16
http://www.milenio.com/node/436930

..The dispute over the Plaza de Nuevo León between the various drug cartels has hit two American citizens in recent days...

...One victim was the young Elizabeth Mandala 18 years old, who was beaten to death along with two men whose bodies were found last Saturday morning pretending to have crashed in the Monterrey-Monclova Road in the town of Mina...

The first post tells us the names of the men with her.

The second post tells us that the Spanish media is suggesting that these 3 were murdered by the cartels. I don't know about that yet.

Note: when you use google translate it doesn't always translate as good as it should. Some words aren't really accurate as translated into English. I am not fluent and barely read Spanish.

 

[Kat]

http://www.fortbendnow.com/feed

Today, May 05, 2010, 3 hours ago

...Mexican authorities said Elisabeth Mandala of Sugar Land was found dead inside a Dodge Dakota pickup truck along with the bodies of two Mexican nationals.

Police said Mandala, Dante Ruiz Siller and Angel Estrella Mondragon were beaten to death and then placed into the pickup. The truck, which had Texas license plates, was then intentionally run into the rear of a larger truck to make it appear as though the trio died in the accident...

and:

... Mexican Federal Judicial Police said a rock had been placed over the accelerator of the pickup, causing it to run into the back of the tractor-trailer truck on the Monclova highway. The three bodies had been dead at least 10 hours before the accident outside of Mina, a town of about 6,000 people near Monterrey in the state of Nuevo Leon...

and:

...According to family members, the same high school senior who liked teen heartthrob Justin Bieber and enjoyed horseback riding around her Plantation Stables home was, at the same time, working as an exotic dancer and saying she wanted to learn how to transport illegal aliens.

It may have been Mandala&#8217;s dark side that led to her rent a car and drive to Mexico April 27 without her mother&#8217;s permission, purportedly to learn more about smuggling illegal aliens...

and:

...Siller and Mondragon were described as a merchant and a cab driver, respectively, but Mexican authorities say both are suspected of having drug ties...

Strange circumstances to be sure.

 

[tk71texas]

Has LE confirmed she was a stripper and wanted to be a coyote? TIA.

If not, I'm going to hold back on that info for now JMHO.

I thought I read her mom made that comment....maybe not, i'll have to check!


found it....post #7 above

 

[Kat]

I thought I read her mom made that comment....maybe not, i'll have to check!


found it....post #7 above

In one of the articles I posted in the last hour or so it referenced her family as having said that. It's not that I don't trust the Mom it's just a very odd thing to say about your teenage 18 yr old daughter. Dunno.

 

[laura08]

Elisabeths mother knew she was renting a car and going to mexico but the mother did not know type of vehicle she rented. Her mother went on to say she was an exotic dancer she wanted to smuggle illegals into the country. The mother is not allowing people on her property asking them to stay away. I think it is sad, that in all of these articles it is she wanted to be a stripper and help illegals get in the country, when they should be speaking about an 18 year old that never will have a chance of life and finding the people who did this to her. Her mother is strange for sure I understand when your child go's missing you give police all the information you can, but the things she told them seems like she had no control over her daughter and negative refelections. I wonder who co signed for her to get that rental car. I know most places dont allow 18 year olds to get a car unless they have someone co sign. Police did say she was involved in some things she shouldn't have been (Elisabeth) I'm thinking this has to do with drugs.

 

[jjenny]

Just a little bit of new information. Her mother called to report her missing six hours after she was found dead in Mexico. Her mother also told police the daughter was working as a stripper.
"By noon on Saturday, Paula Mandala had grown worried enough to call Houston police to report her daughter missing. But her daughter&#8217;s beaten body had already been found six hours earlier on a Mexican highway in a Dodge Dakota pickup with Texas license plates. It was unclear if that was the same vehicle that Elisabeth Mandala had rented before leaving Houston."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6991536.html

 

[laura08]

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas/mexico-investigating-us-teens-death-as-homicide-671118.html Here is information on the driver of the truck they hit.

 

[jjenny]

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas/mexico-investigating-us-teens-death-as-homicide-671118.html Here is information on the driver of the truck they hit.

I find it rather amusing that the school principle apparently wrote a letter saying she was traveling to Mexico over the weekend. Did the school not notice she was missing from school during the weekdays, since she left on Tuesday?

 

[laura08]

I don't speak fluent spanish, but I think I do okay. So I will sum up what I have understood. The truck that was hit, that guy is in custody Fermin Garcia. They don't believe he is saying all he knows. It says something about possible gunfire but they have found no bullets entering or exiting the vehicle. The victims bodys were stacked on top of each other then fell onto the floorboard of the truck. So the media is saying two different things, one the driver is not in custody and here they say he is in custody.
WARNING THESE ARE GRAPHIC PICTURES and a video! I hope it is okay to post if not please remove. http://www.milenio.com/node/434256

Jjenny I haven't read much on if the school knew she wasn't present if I find anything I'll post it. I know here when the kids are not in school they do call and let you know on an automated system and we can accept e-mails that will e-mail it to. I wonder if they did that.

 

[tk71texas]

Mine, NL. - The ministerial police of the state investigates the death of two men and one woman that would have passed away in a supposed accident to vehicular when hitting the light truck in which they traveled against another one of load. The facts happened in kilometer 70 of the Highway to Monclova in the municipality of Mine, Nuevo Leo'n. The victims have not been identified but she is presumed that they could be of between 25 to 30 years of age. The men dressed trousers mezclilla, playera and tennis, whereas the woman dressed short trousers mezclilla, blouse in red color, sandals and had dyed hair blond. The case is investigated had that although it is presumed would have been assassinated to shots are impacts of no bullet in the vehicle. The one of the strange things that it investigates authority is that the bodies have spots of blood in the head, are almost above one of the other, but the vehicle in which traveled does not have indications that they died by the road accident. To the arrival of the authorities as much policemen as federal the zone was surrounded before the doubt of the situation. Inside the Dakota light truck in black color where the victims with palcas of circulation AC-487-20 of the state of Texas traveled, it was found a great stone and aluminum tins with beer. The driver of the truck with trade name “Super Frutería and Carnicería Garci'a Brothers” with plates of circulation of the state of Coahuila, was identified as Fermín Garci'a Noriega disposition of the authority so that of the version of the facts had left in which it participated.

I translated it in microsoft word....I hope that was ok

 

[Kat]

I don't speak fluent spanish, but I think I do okay. So I will sum up what I have understood. The truck that was hit, that guy is in custody Fermin Garcia. They don't believe he is saying all he knows. It says something about possible gunfire but they have found no bullets entering or exiting the vehicle. The victims bodys were stacked on top of each other then fell onto the floorboard of the truck. So the media is saying two different things, one the driver is not in custody and here they say he is in custody.
WARNING THESE ARE GRAPHIC PICTURES and a video! I hope it is okay to post if not please remove. http://www.milenio.com/node/434256

Jjenny I haven't read much on if the school knew she wasn't present if I find anything I'll post it. I know here when the kids are not in school they do call and let you know on an automated system and we can accept e-mails that will e-mail it to. I wonder if they did that.

Laura I see nothing wrong with linking to that video but then again I am used to viewing Mexican TV (I watch the local news here and the news from Juarez).

Some might not be experienced and it might help to bold what I bolded and put it in red. They can be forewarned and chose to view or not. I thank you for posting the video!

It does look as if they were piled upon each other much like cordwood. Staging is obvious don't you think? Whoever thought that one would work is lacking in some way or another.

It does make sense, that the truck driver probably had some ties to the crime or criminals that did this. I thought of how insurance fraud is commited here in the States. KWIM? This isn't insurance fraud though.

As for the in custody/not in custody...boy that happens a lot in the reporting from there.

The wording in the article about the Principle writing a letter to parents: I think the reporter worded that in such a way that it reads as if the letter was sent out she traveled to Mexico over the weekend and was killed.

The editor should have caught that wording. I think what was meant to be said was that the student traveled to Mexico and was killed there over the weekend. JMHO.

 

[Kat]

Can someone that isn't squeamish look at the pics and tell us what kind of truck (make, model) in which the bodies were found?

Is the radio, etc. missing too? (That isn't significant, I just couldn't tell).

I'll have to go back but I thought it was reported that she rented a white truck? That one is black.