Authorities comb through dirt from the home of suspected serial killer Andrés N., searching for human remains.
Investigators have found almost 4,000 bone fragments that apparently belonged to 17 women murdered and mutilated by a self-confessed serial killer.
México state prosecutors said they have found 3,787 fragments beneath the Atizapán de Zaragoza home of Andrés N., a former butcher who was arrested last month following an investigation by a police commander whose wife was the 72-year-old’s final victim.
Since the middle of May, investigators have been digging up floors of the house where the suspect lived. There is a possibility that even more human remains will be discovered as they now intend to excavate soil beneath several other rooms that Andrés N. rented out on the same property in Atizapán, part of the greater Mexico City metropolitan area.
According to some media reports, the suspect has admitted to murdering as many as 30 women over the past two decades.
Authorities have also found women’s belongings such as shoes, makeup, cell phones and voter IDs at his home as well as notebooks filled with women’s names.
The México state Attorney General’s Office (FGJEM) said in a statement that the bone fragments “are being subjected to lateralization studies, which include carefully cleaning each one, identifying what part of the body they are and then placing them in their anatomical position, providing a method for determining the approximate number of victims.”
“This analysis indicates that, up to now, the bone fragments found may possibly be those of 17 people,” the FGJEM said, adding that experts are examining the fragments to determine if DNA can be extracted from them to identify victims. It also said that it is looking at 600 missing person files from the past 30 years.
Andrés N. is in custody and has been ordered to stand trial on the murder of 34-year-old Reyna González Amador, the police commander’s wife. The suspect was a friend of the victim’s family, who considered him a kind of “charity case,” according to a report by the Associated Press.
González went to the man’s house the day she disappeared to pick him up for a shopping trip. After she failed to return home, her husband confronted the suspect and found his wife’s remains at his house. Police swooped in to arrest Andrés N., and investigators subsequently found ample evidence of his alleged crimes, including video and audio recordings of his victims and their murders.
If it is proven that he killed 17 women, the septuagenarian will become one of the most murderous serial killers ever captured in the Mexico City area, the newspaper Reforma reported.
Juana Barraza Samperio, a former professional wrestler dubbed “La Mataviejitas” (The Little Old Lady Killer), was arrested in 2006 and confirmed to have killed 17 women, although she likely murdered many more.
Three years ago, Juan Carlos Hernández Bejar and Patricia Martínez Bernal – known as the “Monsters of Ecatepec” – were arrested and convicted of nine femicides, although the couple was suspected of killing some 20 women.
With reports from the Associated Press and Reforma
