She was 21 years old and on her way home from college by bus from Autlan to Melaque. She never arrived at her home in Villa Obregon.
Anne and I have been coming to La Manzanilla for 20 years. Anne had a clothing store in Anacortes, Washington and she would buy jewelry and accessories from vendors to sell in her store. We got to know many of the beach vendors over the years and especially Sabina. She is easily recognized by her gentle manner, great smile, and her white tilly hat. She would often sit with us to share a limonada and tell us of her family. Her husband Francisco makes and sells hammocks, her daughter Ruth graduated and works in accounting and is married with a daughter, Rossy a pre-school teacher is also married and with a daughter. Dalila was within 6 months of graduating with a degree in social work, Elli graduated with a degree in nutrition and is now working in a laboratory, and Danny is doing well in college studying to be a teacher. Neither Sabina or Francisco can read or write. They are very proud of their family.
All of the children except for Dalila have worked for Juan and Rosa at Quinta Valentina.
In March of 2012 we asked Sabina about her daughters. . . she began crying and tells us of Dalila’s disappearance. She was missing and the police have done little to help find her.
We want to help.
There were suggestions that she had been kidnapped and was being trafficked in the sex trade, and there were possible sightings of her in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico City and other locations in Mexico. Sabina and Francisco traveled by bus in a frantic search hoping to locate her as rumors emerged.
A friend of ours from Anacortes learned of her disappearance from us. She had just listened to “This American Life” on US National Public Radio (NPR) by Ira Glass. It was about a young man who was about to turn 40. He was a drug dealer in the US and Mexico and realized that this lifestyle would eventually kill him. He decided to do something remarkable and try to rescue two kids who had been kidnapped by suspected murderers and taken to Mexico. He was ultimately successful in rescuing the children, and formed an organization that rescues people that have been kidnapped or disappear under suspicious circumstances in Mexico. Our friend Carol joined us at Quinta Valentina later in the day and suggested that we contact him. We did.
I’ll call this young man James. I explained the situation to him as I knew it. He asked if Dalila had a cell phone and if the family would like him to help. I quickly said yes to both, without actually knowing, and he offered to volunteer his time. His work had only been to rescue US Citizens in Mexico, but he also wanted to start working with Mexicans. He needed Sabina to call him to confirm his involvement. We gave her his phone number and coins to make the call to the US. After several days she had not made the call. As Sabina stopped to talk with us on the beach we realized that she was unable to make the call herself. We took her to a pay phone near the beach and dialed the number for her. James answered, Anne explained the situation to him, and then handed the phone to Sabina. She started telling him about Dalila’s disappearance and then started crying, as did we. She agreed to have him help. By this time about 20 beach vendors and shop owners had gathered around us hoping that there was news about Dalila. There was none, but perhaps there was now some hope.
We flew James to Mexico, and he quickly discovered what occurred. Dalila was on a bus from Autlan to Melaque that had an accident and her foot was injured. Another bus was sent and she finally arrived in Melaque, but could not walk the kilometer to her home in Villa Obregon. She talked with a friend that owned a taco stand for a ride, but he needed to work for several more hours. She then saw a delivery truck driver that she recognized from when she had worked in a store and asked him for a ride. She was observed getting into the delivery truck and was never seen alive again.
Jose Manuel Rodriguez Yanez was a Barcel snack truck driver that delivered cookies and crackers to small stores in the area. He worked for 3 days after her disappearance to collect his paycheck and then disappeared with cash receipts from the company. He was an ex-Marine, capable, and lived in a shed behind the house of his ex-wife and daughter east of Melaque on Highway 80.
James talked with Jose’s employer, his friends, family, witnesses, and the police. He also posted 2,500 missing person posters picturing Dalila and identifying Jose Yanez. James was able to discover and access his e-mail accounts, and amazingly, continued to track him through several e-mail and password changes. He also acquired cell phone records of both Dalila and Jose.
I asked James if we should be more secretive with our e-mail communication. . . he quickly said yes. I then created a new anonymous persona for myself, although James said that it was probably too late. . . and added that I was using a very old computer.
At James’ request I posted information on the LM message board, and the Tom-Zap site in Melaque. The information that I posted on the LM message board was a bit too informative about the investigation, and Daniel was very helpful in editing and directing that information.
The Tom-Zap site was pretty free-wheeling with bizarre speculations from others about her disappearance that included everything but alien abductions. Wichita, a problematic poster, was being released from jail in Cijuatlan when James was talking with the police there about the case. Wichita posted much of the conversation that he had overheard, which we then had the moderator delete, and eventually removed him from that message board.
James communicated with Jose via e-mail as his best friend, and encouraged him to return to Jalisco, as the police were not longer interested in pursuing the case, which actually was true. The police are pretty good at security, but not very good at investigations. James exerted pressure through the Mexican Consulate in San Diego, and the delivery truck was finally searched 11 months later by local police, but nothing was discovered. The police refused to issue an arrest warrant until a body was discovered. The prosecutor actually destroyed his copy of the legally questionable cell phone records.
The bad guy liked pornography and visiting strip clubs, including on the night of Dalila’s disappearance. The investigator visited the local strip clubs and determined that there was not the time or opportunity for her to be trafficked into the sex trade. James created a pornography site. . . “Lorena 24” to entice Jose to return to Jalisco to meet up with her. James sent me the link and asked me how she looked. . .
It should have worked, but unfortunately it didn’t.
James took Sabina to meet with Jose’s ex-wife. She said that Jose had arrived home that night bloody, dirty, and distraught about 5 hours after Dalila disappeared. He said that he had hit and killed a man on the highway and then drug his body into the bushes. When confronted about what had really happened, she asked “What do I tell my daughter”, and James said “Tell her that you did the right thing”. She then stopped talking, and lawyered up.
Jose had traveled throughout Mexico after leaving Melaque . . . Tijuana, Chiapas, and Mexico City, where his mother lived. He never returned back to Jalisco.
James offered 4 options to me that we could pursue.
1. We could go talk to Jose to find out what happened. I didn’t ask what “WE” meant.
2. We could get the the local police to talk with him, but without jurisdiction, that would probably not be successful. Extradition is not normal between states in Mexico.
3. We could bring him back to Jalisco where the police said that they would find out what they needed to know. . . again the “WE” reference.
4. We could have him “eliminated”, which he said was probably the cheapest and easiest option. Anne and I told him that we were not interested in that, but he should talk with the family, who were also not interested.
On April 29th 2014 there was a brush fire on Highway 80 between Melaque and Autlan, that uncovered female human remains. Sabina was brought to the site to identify clothing, as there was not much identifiable after twenty-seven months and two rainy seasons. She did recognize some of her clothing, but persisted in believing that Dalila was somehow still alive. DNA samples were taken that were to be processed in 3-6 months. It took 11 months for DNA results to be available, and it was indeed Dalila.
An arrest warrant was finally issued, but Jose became aware of that, probably through a relative of his ex-wife’s in the police department in Cihuatlan, and he went dark, closing all his e-mail and cell phone accounts.
We have no information about his current whereabouts, and the police investigation is inactive.
Anne and I never actually met James or Dalila, but our involvement with them has transformed our experience in Mexico. We spend holidays, birthdays and anniversaries with the Castro Morales family, and take trips together.
They are a very close family and seem to be successfully moving forward from this tragedy.
Sabina traveled by herself, 6 hours each way on the bus, to pick-up Dalila’s remains from the police in Guadalajara.
Dalila Castro Morales was buried 2 days later on May 23rd, 2015, 3 years and 4 months, and 11 days after her disappearance.
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