The murder of missing persons activist María del Carmen Morales and her 26-year-old son, Jaime Daniel Rodríguez Morales, in Jalisco state has sparked outrage across Mexico.
It’s the second killing this month to hit the Warrior Searchers of Jalisco search collective, which last month reported finding bone fragments and possessions belonging to missing people at Izaguirre Ranch in Teuchitlán, Jalisco, a cartel training site that has also been described as an “extermination camp.”
The mother and son were shot by two men on motorbikes at around 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the Las Villas neighborhood of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga near Guadalajara, the State Attorney General’s Office (FEJ) reported.
Morales was a well-known member of the Warrior Searchers of Jalisco (Guerreros Buscadores de Jalisco) collective and had been looking for her 19-year-old son Ernesto Julián Rodríguez Morales, who went missing in February 2024. The organization is now demanding justice for her death.
“No more violence or impunity in the state of Jalisco,” Guerreros Buscadores wrote in a post on the social platform X. “It is time for authorities to take effective measures to protect citizens and guarantee justice.”
Morales had previously received threats and intimidating messages for searching for her missing son Ernesto, Guerreros Buscadores member Raúl Servín said in an interview with the newspaper Milenio.
Nos unimos a la pena que embarga a la Familia Ramírez Morales por tan lamentable hecho de nuestra compañera y su hijo. Pedimos JUSTICIA Y DEN CON LOS RESPONSABLES DE ESTE DOBLE HOMICIDIO @PabloLemusN @FiscaliaJal @Claudiashein @CNDH @rosaicela_ pic.twitter.com/kgJhXiigTX
— Guerreros buscadores de jalisco (@GuerrerosJalisc) April 24, 2025
“Unfortunately, (Morales) had already been threatened several times,” Servín said. “It’s sad and painful that these things are happening. All we families want is to find our loved ones.”
State officials said there is no evidence tying the murders to Morales’ activism. The FEJ said that the aggressors first attacked Rodríguez and that Morales was fatally wounded after she attempted to defend her son.
The dismissal of the possibility that Morales was targeted for her activism drew the ire of some members of the search collective.
“They can’t categorically mention that because they haven’t really done the proper investigations to mention that it has nothing to do with the collective,” Servín said.
The Guerreros Buscadores and the “ranch of horror”
The Guerreros Buscadores were instrumental in bringing attention to Izaguirre Ranch in Teuchitlan, a rural area outside the state capital of Guadalajara.
Searchers found items of clothing and skeletal remains at the site. Mexican officials have since said that the site was a cartel training camp.
The deaths follow the murder earlier in the month of another member of the organization, Teresa González, who had been searching for her missing brother.
Jalisco, home to the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, is the state with the highest number of missing persons in the country.. Over 124,000 people are missing across Mexico, and most cases are never solved.
The issue has fostered mistrust of authorities’ ability or willingness to find the missing, leading search collectives like the Guerreros Buscadores to take matters into their own hands.
