US residents found dead in Mexico in bullet-riddled SUV in same area American student vanished & mass grave discovered

GUNMEN riddled a car with bullets in Mexico, killing two American women on Friday morning.

The bodies of the women, ages 72 and 82, were found in an overturned white Nissan Pathfinder around 10:30 in the morning, said the Sonora attorney general’s office.

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The women were residents of Arizona but were natives of the Sonora city of Caborca, according to a press release .

Mexican authorities held a search and found a stolen Ford F-150 believed to be linked to one of the suspects.

It was found abandoned in Quitovac with four guns, a large amount of ammo, and bulletproof vests, said the attorney general’s office.

A motive for the attack hasn’t been revealed, however, Sonora has been the site of cartel violence in recent years.

A spokesperson for the State Department confirmed the deaths and told CBS News that they are closely monitoring the situation.

HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

In June 2023, Gabriel Trujillo, a PhD student from California was found dead inside an SUV in Sonora with seven bullet wounds.

Trujillo, 31, previously went missing after driving across the border in search of a plant called the common buttonbush.

His fiancée, Roxanne Cruz-de Hoyos became concerned when Trujillo suddenly stopped responding to her text messages and flew to Mexico to search for him.

His body was discovered about 62 miles from the Airbnb he was staying at, said police .

“Evidently he was in the wrong place,” his father, Anthony Trujillo, told CBS News .

His family begged him not to go to Sonora, which recorded more than 500 homicides last year, however, Trujillo believed it was crucial to his research.

Trujillo is survived by his father, fiancée, five siblings, six nieces, and a nephew.

Back in May, an American tourist and two Australian brothers were found dead in a 50-foot well near a cliff at Punta San José in Santo Tomás.

Carter Rhoad was reported missing along with Jake and Callum Robinson by the brothers’ mom, Debra after she lost contact with her sons.

US tourist deaths in Mexico

• Carter Rhoad was killed along with his buddies, Jake and Callum Robinson, during a trip to Baja California in May 2024
• Rhoad, a US citizen, and the Robinsons, two brothers from Australia, were on vacation when they were robbed by a group who killed the men and dumped their bodies down a 50-foot well
• In April 2023, the bodies of eight people were found at a tourist resort in Cancun
• Maria del Carmen Lopez was kidnapped from her home in Pueblo Nuevo in February 2023 – she has yet to be found
• Four Americans were kidnapped at gunpoint in March
• Latavia ‘Tay’ McGee had traveled to Mexico for a tummy tuck procedure and was joined by cousin Shaeed Woodard, and friends Zindell Brown and Eric James Williams
• Woodard and Brown were later killed in a shootout

The men were on their way back to their Airbnb when they were killed by a group of thieves who set fire to the pickup truck they were driving.

Jesús Gerardo was charged with killing the tourists after allegedly bragging to his girlfriend about the crime.

In 2019, three women and six children, including eight-month-hold twins, were killed by cartel gunmen.

The victims were part of a break-away group that had been associated with the Mormon Church, according to the Sonora prosecutor’s office.

Mexican officials believe the family might have been caught in a battle between two rival gangs , however, their extended relatives believe they were deliberately targeted.

“Three vehicles with women and children in broad daylight. There was no mistaken identity,” said Taylor Langford, the nephew of one of the women killed.

“I felt this was in broad daylight and … no one could have done that not knowing what they were doing.”

The U.S. Sun has reached out to the Sonora attorney general’s office for comment.

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