Mexican authorities arrest three in the execution-style killings of three medical students and their driver, whose bodies were found in a field
- Three aspiring doctors and their driver where executed in Puebla, Mexico, on Sunday after they attended a local festival
- The victims were identified as Colombian foreign exchange students José Antonio Parada and Ximena Quijano
- A third student, Francisco Javier Tirado, and an Uber driver identified as José Manuel Vital also were gunned down
- The bodies were found Monday at a grass field in Santa Ana Xalmimilulco, a neighborhood in the municipality of Huejotzingo
- Parada, Quijano and Tirado were interns at Cholula General Hospital
- Mexican authorities arrested three people reportedly involved in the killings
- Parada’s mother, Angélica Cerpa, told Colombian news magazine Semana that she followed his GPS and that they never left the area where they took the Uber
Mexican authorities arrested three people in connection with the execution-style murder of three aspiring doctors and their Uber driver after the students attended a weekend festival in east-central Mexico.
Authorities discovered the bodies of Colombian foreign exchange students José Antonio Parada, 22, and Ximena Quijano, 25, Monday morning in Huejotzingo, a municipality in the state of Puebla.
A third student, Francisco Javier Tirado, 22, a native of the gulf state of Veracruz, and the group’s Uber driver, José Manuel Vital, 28, were also found near the other bodies.
Surveillance images released Tuesday showed the moment the three students placed their belongings in the taxi before they were killed.
Ximena Quijano, a Colombian medical student, was one of four people killed by at least three gunmen on Sunday after she and two other students attended a festival in Huejotzingo, a municipality in the state of Puebla
Mexican authorities located the bodies of José Antonio Parada and three other people on a grass field near a dirt road in the neighborhood of Santa Ana Xalmimilulco on Monday morning, a day after they were killed
The lifeless body of Ximena Quijano was found on an empty lot lying on top of one of the other three males who were executed in the east-central Mexican state of Puebla
The four victims were dumped on an empty grass field near a dirt road in the neighborhood of Santa Ana Xalmimilulco. Area residents made the gruesome discovery and contacted the police approximately 10:20am Monday.
Parada and Quijano, who had been in Mexico since August, and Tirado, were all interns at Cholula General Hospital in the Puebla municipality of Tlaxcalancingo.
The Colombian students were participating in a foreign exchange program at the Popular Autonomous University of the State of Puebla. Tirado was a medical student at the Benemérita Autonomous University of Puebla.
Surveillance camera captures the last moments of Ximena Quijano (right) and fellow medicine students José Antonio Parada and Francisco Javier Tirado. They boarded an Uber on Sunday night and were later murdered by at least three men in an incident a state government official labeled an assault
Francisco Javier Tirado was one of the three aspiring doctors whose life was cut short Sunday in Mexico when they were killed moments after attending a local festival
Uber driver José Manuel Vita was identified by the Puebla State Attorney General’s office as one of the four victims in Sunday’s execution. Authorities have arrested at least three suspects
The three future doctors had just finished enjoying the Huejotzingo Carnival on Sunday night when they solicited an Uber ride at 10:15pm, according to the Puebla State Attorney General’s office.
The prosecutor’s office, which did not reveal the names of the suspects, located the Uber driver’s car and also said three homes within the proximity of the crime scene would be searched.
A state government official lawmaker told several Mexican news outlets Tuesday that the incident was an assault.
Pictured above are two of the three men, who along with a Colombian female medical student, were assassinated Sunday in Mexico
Medical examiners remove one of the four lifeless bodies that were located Monday morning
Angélica Cerpa, Parada’s mother, told Colombian news magazine Semana that she last spoke to her son at 9:31pm.
‘He told me that he was at a friend’s house and that he was going to take an Uber, they were going to go to Puebla,’ Cerpa said. ‘I was following his cellphone’s GPS and they never left the sector. I was dialing him, but he didn’t answer.’
In a statement, the Popular Autonomous University of the State of Puebla said that it ‘expresses its profound indignation and concern over the escalation in crime and violence in our state and our country which condemns families to live in a constant state of fear and uncertainty’.