US priest disappears in Mexican border town
© 2009 The Associated Press
April 1, 2009, 8:38PM
Share Print Email Del.icio.usDiggTechnoratiYahoo! BuzzFacebookNUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — A U.S. priest has been reported missing in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, and blood stains and a bloody knife have been found in his house, police said Wednesday.

A relative reported the priest missing after he failed to return to Texas over the weekend, police in the Gulf coast state of Tamaulipas reported. They identified the missing man as Jesse Euresti, 69.

The U.S. Embassy and consular personnel said they could not confirm the disappearance or the name. The Web site of Cristo Rey Catholic Church in Austin, Texas, lists Father Jesse E. Euresti as its pastor.

Euresti had apparently been at the house in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Laredo, Texas, but did not return to Texas on Sunday as he had planned. He had apparently been planning to live in Nuevo Laredo after retirement.

A relative whom state police would not identify filed a missing person report on Tuesday. Later that day, police went to the house and found it unlocked, in disarray and with evident blood stains. Police said in a statement that some items appear to have been stolen from the house, but did not specify what was missing.

The man's car was found at the house, as well as the bloody knife.

A Laredo, Texas man has also filed a missing-person report for his daughter and a friend who disappeared in Nuevo Laredo over the weekend. Dante Silva said his daughter Yasmin Silva, 18, and a friend, Leticia Benavides, 19, were last heard from early Sunday when they called to say they were on their way home from a disco. They did not arrive.

Police confirmed they were looking for the women.


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6354578.html