Showing posts with label kidnap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kidnap. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Mexico bar kidnap: Bodies identified

26 August 2013 Last updated at 05:15 ET Security forces guard the entrance to a ranch where 13 bodies were found in August 2013 The mass grave was found after a tip-off in a wooded area near the capital Forensic experts have identified the bodies of five more youths who had gone missing after visiting a bar in a popular entertainment district in Mexico City.


Police found 13 bodies in a mass grave on a ranch near the capital on Thursday.


Ten of them have now been identified as those of the youths who disappeared from Mexico City’s Heaven bar in May.


The motive behind their disappearance and subsequent killing remains unclear.

Mystery disappearance

Seven young men and five women ranging between 16 and 34 years of age were reported missing in the days after the group went to the bar in the Zona Rosa district on 26 May.


Surveillance footage showed some of them being led to cars outside the after-hours bar.


There was no obvious sign of force on the surveillance footage. The men who took them away were not masked and did not seem to be carrying weapons.


There was no trace of the youths until their bodies were discovered in a grave covered with lime, cement and asbestos on the outskirts of Mexico City.


All of the youths come from the rough Tepito neighbourhood of Mexico City, and local media have speculated that their killing could be related to warfare between local crime gangs in the area.


Relatives of 12 youths who went missing from a bar in Mexico City listen at a news conference by the prosecutor on 22 August 2013 Relatives have accused police of acting too slowly after the youths disappeared

Three of the youths are related to convicted crime bosses, but their relatives have denied the youngsters were involved in illegal activities.


Mass kidnappings carried out by drug cartels are not unusual in the border areas of Mexico, but the case of the 12, who disappeared in broad daylight on a Sunday morning from the centre of the capital shocked residents.


Two co-owners of the Heaven bar and two employees who were working on the night of the incident have been arrested in connection with the case.


Another co-owner, Dax Rodriguez Ledesma, was found burned to death in July. Police had been searching for him at the time of his killing.


Official figures say 26,000 people have gone missing across Mexico since December 2006, when the army was deployed to fight crime gangs.


Amnesty International has accused the Mexican government was not doing enough to investigate the disappearances of thousands of people.


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Mexico bar kidnap: Bodies identified

Friday, August 2, 2013

US kidnap victim appears in public

28 July 2013 Last updated at 16:01 ET Amanda Berry, one of three women held captive in a Cleveland home for a decade, joins rapper Nelly on stage during a surprise appearance at the RoverFest concert in Cleveland US rapper Nelly invited Amanda Berry, centre left, back on stage after his set One of three women held captive for a decade at a home in Cleveland, in the US state of Ohio, has made her first public appearance three months after her escape.


Amanda Berry appeared at a concert a day after her abductor pleaded guilty to kidnap and rape charges.


She walked onstage with her family and waved to the cheering crowd.


It comes after Ariel Castro, 53, agreed a plea deal that will see him imprisoned for life without parole.


He abducted Ms Berry, now 27, as well as Michelle Knight, 32, and Gina DeJesus, 23, from the streets of Cleveland, Ohio, between 2002-04.


Castro was charged with 977 counts including two of aggravated murder for the “unlawful termination” of one of the women’s pregnancies, as well as multiple counts of kidnapping and rape.

Partying

Ms Berry appeared at the Cleveland’s RoverFest 2013 on Saturday.


She was introduced onstage by a local radio host who had invited her to attend the music festival on his show Rover’s Morning Glory.


The host, Shane French, told the Associated Press news agency he was as surprised as anyone when she arrived.


“I just said that she had 10 years of partying to make up for and she should come,” he said.


US rapper Nelly called Ms Berry back to the stage after his music set at the festival.


She vanished on 21 April 2003 after leaving her job at a Burger King restaurant – a day before her 17th birthday.


The women were discovered in May after Ms Berry attempted to flee the house where they were being held when Castro went out.


She attracted the attention of neighbour Charles Ramsey, who managed to help her.


When officials arrived they freed Ms Knight and Ms DeJesus, as well as Ms Berry’s six-year-old daughter, who was fathered by Castro.


The women thanked the public for their support in a YouTube video earlier in July.


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US kidnap victim appears in public

AUDIO: Nelly on meeting US kidnap victim

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AUDIO: Nelly on meeting US kidnap victim