http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6298211.html

Spring Break alert: Be careful in Mexico
20 years after student's death, Mexican border towns riskier than ever

By DANE SCHILLER and LISE OLSEN
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
March 6, 2009, 9:53PM


A generation after University of Texas student Mark Kilroy was ritually sacrificed by drug traffickers who snatched him off the streets of a Mexican border town, heading south for spring break is considered riskier than ever.

Though most beach resort towns are considered safe, the U.S. State Department is cautioning spring breakers to stay alert and be careful near the border, as drug cartels fighting each other and police have shot it out like small combat units.

Screaming headlines are the constant reminder that firefights come day and night, and gangsters don’t care whether civilians are in the way.

Within the past week, the Mexican government ordered more than 5,000 federal police and soldiers to Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, to reinforce the 2,500 already patrolling there.

Many students taking a break from college for the annual vacation weren’t even born when Kilroy, 21, went missing on March 14, 1989, while in Matamoros, Mexico.

Kilroy, like other students, was drawn to Mexico as part of an annual rite of passage involving drinking and partying in bars and clubs.

His disappearance made international news when his remains were found on the so-called Devil Ranch, where he was killed in a grisly ritual that members of a drug-trafficking cult are said to have believed would make them invisible and bullet-proof.

Kilroy’s parents, Jim and Helen Kilroy, were to hold a news conference today in Brownsville to thank people for their help 20 years ago, and warn parents and students alike that Mexican border towns can be dangerous.

“Mexico is a whole different place than it was back then,â€