"75% of the bodies we found were buried and 25% were burned."

In the 30 days of October, entire families from the United Collectives for the Missing Persons in Baja California held their own search brigade in Tijuana, Tecate, Rosarito, and Mexicali. The failure of the General Prosecutor's Office in these matters forced the relatives of missing people to make their own efforts to find their loved ones.

Erick Carrillo is the founder of this emerging organization. His 19-year-old son, Erick Carrillo Jr. disappeared on May 31, 2019, after visiting his family. He lived in California but went to Tijuana to celebrate Mother’s Day. On the day of his disappearance, he and four friends went to Karma, a bar in Playas de Tijuana. “At 6:10 am he uploaded a video on the beach and after that, we don’t know anything about him”, he said.

“They look at us as if we were their enemies because we’re doing their job."

Carrillo started his search in October that same year. Since that date his collective called “We’re all Erick Carrillo” has found 180 bodies, including 45 in October. This was in response to the paucity of progress on his son’s instigation by the General Prosecutor's Office.

“We do the work; they don’t. We make our research with our own money. They haven’t given us not even a shovel. The General Prosecutors Office does not care about missing people.” Carrillo said. “They look at us as if we were their enemies because we’re doing their job”.

He pointed out that the General Prosecutor's Office has not provided safety escorts to the families because they say there are not enough agents for this in the office. This is despite the United Collectives facing attacks with weapons during their searches in Tecate and Tijuana suburbs.

On top of the inefficiency and lack of employees from the prosecutor's office, there is an intimation of criminality of missing persons. Such is the case of Roselia Ramirez and her son Cesar Ruben Rodriguez who worked in the San Diego Navy Fleet Store. The prosecuting agent in charge of his case said to the mother, “Your son looks like he’s able to use more than one or two doses of crystal meth”.

“The authorities will always say the same, for them all the youngsters do drugs, and therefore it's not worthy to investigate. My son worked in the Navy. They do a drug test, they are very strict especially to work for the federal government,” she added.

Most bodies were found in Valle de San Pedro and Urbi Villas del Prado in the eastern suburbs of Tijuana.

The son and mother used to live in a house in the Altiplano neighborhood, next to the border fence in the west suburbs of the city, which was robbed; then they moved to his sister’s house. The son would frequently visit and surveil the house to prevent more break-ins, but after July 23rd he never went back to his mother’s house again.

Though the mother is going through an emotional crisis every time they find a body, she said she won’t stop. “I’m currently in Tijuana because I can't leave without finding my son. Until I find him, I won’t be able to live normally. This is being dead alive”.

According to Carrillo, most of the bodies were found in the Valle de San Pedro and Urbi Villas del Prado areas in the eastern suburbs of Tijuana. Their own investigation with residents of these neighborhoods, led them to illegal dumps where there was usually suspicious activity.

"75% of the bodies we found were buried and 25% were burned," Carrillo said. Most of the "positives", as they call them, are in terrible conditions or even in the bones, and therefore the only way to identify them is with their clothing."

In a meeting with United Collectives for the Missing Persons in Baja California, Hiram Sanchez the General State Prosecutor acknowledged issues within the institution. “The most significant issue for us is that we need more human resources. Maybe the next year we could increase the number of officers for these type of investigations.”