A 1-year-old girl who disappeared last month along with her parents, aunt and brother has been found, the Jalisco Search Commission said Thursday.
The commission said that Julia Isabella Villaseñor was found by municipal police on a vacant lot in La Barca, a municipality about 100 kilometers southeast of Guadalajara. The infant was alone, but was in good health and has been reunited with her grandfather.
Julio Alberto Villaseñor Cabrera, Jimena Romo Jiménez, their two children and Villaseñor’s sister disappeared on March 25 while traveling home to Zapopan, Jalisco, from Mexico City.
Seven police officers on the municipal police force in Acatic, Jalisco, were arrested in connection with the disappearances earlier this week. Two of the officers are suspected of involvement in another missing persons’ case.
On Thursday morning, officials from the Jalisco Search Commission and National Search Commission, as well as police, were continuing the search for the four other missing family members in Acatic, which is about 100 kilometers northwest of where Julia was found. Relatives of the family were also participating in the search.
Authorities are also searching for the deputy director of the Acatic police force, who is wanted on forced disappearance charges.
The motive for the family’s disappearance has not been determined, but there could be a connection to an armed attack which took place days earlier in Guadalajara.
“[A] person who was assaulted with a gun in the city of Guadalajara four days earlier in a direct attack has a very close relationship with two of the disappeared people. So it is very probable that the events were related, but we are still not totally sure,” the Jalisco Attorney General’s Office said earlier this week.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the Villaseñor Romo family has three children. They have two.
Source: Reforma (sp)
