Overview
- The State of Mexico prosecutor’s office confirmed that the body of Father Ernesto Baltazar Hernández Vilchis was recovered from a sewage canal in Nextlalpan and identified through forensic and genetic analysis in the early hours of November 13.
- Two suspects, Brandon Jonathan “N” and María Fernanda “N”, were detained on accusations of disappearance committed by private parties and were placed in separate penitentiaries pending judicial proceedings.
- An initial hearing to validate the legal detention of the pair was held on November 14 at the oral trial courts in Cuautitlán, and authorities report an outstanding arrest warrant for a third woman.
- Investigators traced the victim’s vehicle via highway-arch cameras toward Hidalgo alongside a motorcycle, which led them to a Tultitlán apartment where they found the priest’s clothing, a stole, sharp objects and blood traces detected with a BlueStar test.
- According to the official account, the priest met with a woman and Brandon Jonathan “N” at the Tultitlán residence, where he was fatally attacked with a sharp object, after which the body was wrapped and taken on October 30 to Nextlalpan and abandoned in the canal.