Unsolved case · 2012
Also known as Killings of Arturo Barajas López and José Antonio Aguilar Mota
The short answer
Two freelance photojournalists, Arturo Barajas López and José Antonio Aguilar Mota, were kidnapped in Michoacán, Mexico, and found tortured and shot to death days later; the case remains unsolved.
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Suggest coverage for 2012 Michoacán killings of photographersIn August 2012, two freelance photographers working in the Zamora area of Michoacán, Mexico, were kidnapped and later found murdered. Arturo Barajas López, 46, and José Antonio Aguilar Mota, 26, both offered freelance photography services in the plaza of the town of Zamora and to the Zamora Valley Press Association, though they were not formal members of that organization. Barajas had also photographed accident scenes and drug-related crime scenes for the local newspaper, Diario de Zamora.
On 16 August 2012, the two men left home around 21:00 to photograph a social event and were not seen alive again. Their families reported them missing after they failed to return. On Sunday, 19 August 2012, their bodies were discovered in the trunk of an abandoned car in the rural area of Tinaja de Vargas, near the city of Ecuandureo, Michoacán, roughly 90 miles from the state capital, Morelia. Both bodies showed signs of torture, and the men had been killed by gunshot wounds to the head.
The killings are believed to have been carried out by members of the Knights Templar Cartel (Los Caballeros Templarios), which had controlled drug trafficking in Michoacán since 2011. According to available reporting, no charges have been filed and no progress has been reported in the investigation. The same weekend the photographers were killed, fifteen other people died in drug-related violence in Michoacán, reflecting broader levels of violence in the state at the time.
The murders occurred against a backdrop of high homicide rates and violence against journalists in Mexico. Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography recorded 27,199 homicides in 2011, described as the deadliest year since President Felipe Calderón took office in 2006. The press freedom organization Article 19 documented 72 journalists murdered, 13 reported missing, and 40 assaults on journalists during Calderón's presidency.
In response to the ongoing violence in Michoacán, including this case, the Mexican federal government deployed 1,000 additional troops to the state to support local police forces in operations against drug cartels.
As of the available reporting, the case remains unsolved, with no publicly reported arrests, charges, or convictions connected to the deaths of Barajas López and Aguilar Mota.
Arturo Barajas López and José Antonio Aguilar Mota leave home around 21:00 to photograph a social event and are not seen alive again.
Their bodies are found in the trunk of an abandoned car in Tinaja de Vargas, near Ecuandureo, Michoacán, showing signs of torture and gunshot wounds to the head.
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On 15 September 2008, grenades were thrown into crowds celebrating Mexican Independence Day in Morelia's Plaza Melchor Ocampo, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 100.
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Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, were murdered on February 13, 2017, while hiking the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi, Indiana. The case went unsolved for over five years until Richard M. Allen was arrested in October 2022, convicted in November 2024, and sentenced to 130 years in prison.
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Image recordEditorial useSourceSOLVEDListenMatamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico · 1989
Mark Kilroy, a University of Texas at Austin student, was abducted during spring break in Matamoros, Mexico, in March 1989 and killed at a ranch used by a drug-trafficking cult led by Adolfo Constanzo; several cult members were convicted in 1993-1994 of homicide and other charges.
