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Mexico City officials detain two alleged serial killers


By Julie Watson
ASSOCIATED PRESS

8:22 a.m. January 26, 2006


MEXICO CITY – Police had in custody Thursday two alleged serial killers – a former professional wrestler linked to the deaths of 10 elderly women and a good-looking 29-year-old man accused of luring homosexuals away bars and killing them.
The news was shocking to a city accustomed to crime, but which rarely sees serial killings.

In a news conference Thursday, Raul Osiel Marroquin coldly described killing four gay men before his arrest Monday in Mexico City. Although there had been some reports of attacks against gays increasing, Marroquin's arrest was the first confirmation of a serial killer targeting homosexuals.

"I snuffed out four homosexuals that in some way were affecting society," he said, but denied being homophobic. He told reporters he would kill again, if given the chance, but he would "refine his methods." Police said he would torture his victims before hanging them, and even carved a star into the forehead of one man.

Marroquin, a former Mexican soldier, was also accused of kidnapping two other gay men, but he let them go for a ransom of up to 120,000 pesos ($11,500).

On Wednesday, police detained a former professional wrestler captured while fleeing a house where an 82-year-old woman had been strangled with a stethoscope.

Mexico City Attorney General Bernardo Batiz said Thursday that the woman, Juana Barraza, has been linked to the deaths of at least 10 elderly women in Mexico City, raising hopes that the capital's notorious "Little Old Lady Killer" was finally in custody.

Authorities say they have enough evidence to believe that Barraza is the "Mataviejitas" who has been terrorizing elderly residents here for two years.

She was captured as she was running from a house Wednesday night where Ana Maria Reyes had just been strangled. During her arrest outside the house, she told police and reporters that she did kill Reyes, but not the others.

"Yes, I did it," she said, smiling at the television cameras. She quickly added: "Just because I'm going to pay for it, that doesn't mean they're going to hang all the crimes on me."

Batiz told the Televisa network early Thursday that Barraza admitted to killing three other women in addition to Reyes. He also said Barraza's fingerprints matched those left at the scene of 10 other murders as well as one attempted murder.

Police had suspected that the killer was a man dressed as a woman, and they spent months detaining, questioning and fingerprinting transvestites.

But now they say Barraza, a stout woman who was a professional wrestler, is their prime suspect. She resembles police composite profiles and a sculptured rendering of the suspected serial killer – including a similar haircut and facial mole.

Ismael Alvarado Ruiz, one of two policemen who made the arrest, said a neighbor alerted them to Barraza.

"My partner and I caught her by the arms and took her back to the patrol car," Alvarado Ruiz said. "We went back to the house, and everything was scattered all around."

Police said Barraza was carrying a bag with a stethoscope, pension forms and a card identifying her as a social worker. Police have long believed that the serial killer gained access to victims' homes by offering to sign them up for pensions or other programs for the elderly.

But Barraza said she went to the victim's home to ask for work doing laundry.

"That's a lie. I wasn't carrying the documents they have there," she said. She did not offer a motive, but told reporters, "You'll know why I did it when you read my statement to police."

One of Reyes' neighbors, 73-year-old Lourdes Medina, remembered the victim as a tidy, hardworking woman.

"This is very sad. It's not fair," Medina said. "This could have happened to me. I'm scared to walk on the street."