A Hispanic student from California was found dead in violent circumstances in Mexico, where his body was found riddled with bullets after his fiancée reported him missing after taking a field trip on plant research.
Gabriel Trujillo, 31, who was a botanist and fourth-year doctoral candidate in the integrative biology department, was shot seven times on June 19 in the state of Sonora, and his remains were found three days later.
The victim, who drove across the Arizona border on June 17, told Roxanne Cruz, his fiancée, that he was going to collect plants and then return to his Airbnb, the New York Post reported.
Suspicions of Trujillo’s disappearance were raised after he did not respond, and his Airbnb hosts said he had not returned, so he boarded a plane and flew to Mexico to help in his search.
However, on June 22, authorities recorded the horrifying discovery of Trujillo’s body inside a van, some 62 miles from the Airbnb, Cruz added.
After this, Anthony Trujillo, the victim’s father, flew from his home in Michigan to Mexico, and joined the victim’s fiancée, but they assured that they have received little information and are urging the governments of the United States and Mexico to give help.
“Obviously, I was in the wrong place,” Trujillo told The Associated Press last Thursday after boarding a flight home with his son’s remains.
Meanwhile, the Sonora state prosecutor’s office said in a statement that it was analyzing the evidence to try to establish the facts and causes of Trujillo’s death, which it did not classify as a homicide.
UC Berkeley, where Trujillo was studying in northern California, sent a statement mourning the death, and they learned the tragic news on June 23.
“Local police authorities are investigating. This is heartbreaking news, and campus officials have reached out to his family to offer support and assistance,” the institution said in a statement.
Trujillo has traversed the US-Mexico border for the past four years to search for a flowering shrub called the common bush.
I was investigating why it thrived in climates as varied as the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and the evolution of the species offered possibilities for fruit, conservation efforts, and habitat restoration.
Trujillo’s family begged him not to go to Sonora, as it is a drug-ridden area that has recorded 518 homicides as of last May, but Trujillo considered the trip vital to his investigation.
For its part, the US State Department has asked Americans to reconsider traveling to Sonora “due to crime and kidnapping.”
“Sonora is a key location used by international drug trafficking and people smuggling networks. Violent crime is widespread,” the department said.
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