Dart Award
Yvette CabreraYvette Cabrera
Writer
Minerva CantoMinerva Canto
Writer
Rose PalmisanoRose Palmisano
Photographer

The Dart Award for
Excellence in Reporting
on Victims of Violence
recognizes outstanding
coverage of victims
and their experiences.
 
Learn more ...

 
2005 HONORABLE MENTION «
Women of Juárez
NOTES 3

The suspects

Abdel Latif Sharif Sharif, Egyptian immigrant with arrest record of assaulting women in the United States, charged in 1995 with murders of seven women in Ciudad Juárez. Convicted in 1999 of murdering Elizabeth Castro, 17. Conviction overturned in 2000 and other charges dropped. He remains in a Mexican prison pending an appeal. He maintains his innocence. In 2003, charged with seven more murders he’s suspected of commissioning from prison.

Seven members of “Los Rebeldes” (“the Rebels”), nightclub workers said to belong to a Juárez gang, were arrested in 1996 and remain in prison. Sharif was accused of commissioning the murders, but the suspects said they are not guilty and were tortured into confessing by authorities. The gang’s suspected leader, Sergio Armendariz, was a nightclub security guard.

Jesus Manuel Guardado, bus driver known as “El Tolteca” (“The Toltec”), arrested in 1999 in the kidnapping, rape and choking of a 14-year-old girl who survived. Guardado named three other bus drivers, and another man, Victor Moreno, who were arrested and charged with seven murders each. Agustin Toribio Castillo, Bernardo Hernandez Fernandez and Jose Gaspar Ceballos said they are not guilty and were forced into signing confessions by authorities. None have been sentenced.

Victor Javier Garcia Uribe and Gustavo Gonzalez Meza, bus drivers imprisoned in 2001 in connection with the murders of eight women whose bodies were dumped in a Juárez cotton field. They say they were tortured by authorities into confessing to the murders. Gonzalez died in prison. Garcia remains in prison waiting for his case to be tried.

Cynthia Kiecker, Minnesota woman who lives in Mexico, and her husband, Ulysis Perzabal, arrested last year in the slaying of a woman in the city of Chihuahua, where the serial killings are believed to have spread. Kiecker and her husband say they were tortured by authorities into confessing.

Details on slaying cases
Investigators say no women who have been killed in 2004 fit the profile of the victims of possible serial killers.
To see the list of slain women that has been kept by Casa Amiga domestic-violence center see www.casa-amiga.org/English%202002.doc and www.casa-amiga.org/English%202002.doc

 
PART  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8      NOTES  1 2 3 «
C O N T E N T S
Index
Read the story
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Supplementals
Help from the U.S.
The suspects
Resource list Page layouts PDF
Meet the team
2005 DART AWARDS
Meet the judges
Winner
Detroit Free Press
Honorable Mention
The Orange
County Register

Honorable Mention
Rocky Mountain News

 
A C T I O N
What do you think?
Take our survey
Request materials
Newsletter (free)
Enter your e-mail to join or manage profile.
 
 
N O T I C E S
Learn more ...
The text, images and supplemental materials of Dart Award honorees are used with permission and may not be reproduced or distributed (in any manner) without the consent of the publisher.
© Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma. All rights reserved. Contact Us. Design: Hemisphere Design