Kidnapping cases often pose challenging for authorities, investigators say

December 13, 2009 7:32 PM
Jeremy Roebuck
The Monitor

PALMVIEW — Within hours of masked gunmen abducting Roberto Bautista in October, his family told investigators that they already knew who the suspects were.

His relatives insisted that neighbors sent kidnappers after the 19-year-old as part of a long-running dispute over his noisy late-night parties, Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño said. But they could not provide names or a description of the people they said were responsible.

It was only after days of investigation that deputies uncovered Bautista’s past involvement with drug trafficking, human smuggling and a pseudo-cop home invasion ring and concluded that those were more than likely the reasons he was targeted.

Bautista remains missing two months later and authorities lost valuable time chasing down what they now believe to be a story his family fabricated to cover up his criminal activity.

“It was a really unbelievable story,â€