generalspeaking

Unimaginable Carnage, Mexico

"I ran out and grabbed that little girl and just hugged her. I said, 'it's your Uncle Kenny'. The first thing she said was, 'We've got to go back and get the others'."
"It's all a nightmare [the deaths of his family members on a remote dirt road in northern Sonora state, Mexico]."
Kenneth Miller, La Mora, Sonora, Mexico

Members of the LeBaron family mourn alongside the burned car where some of the nine murdered members of the family were killed during an attack in the Sonora mountains, Mexico, on Tuesday. (STR / AFP via Getty Images)

A three-car caravan travelled along the dirt road familiar to the Mormon communities living in northern Mexico. Three of the women driving with their children to a wedding in Chihuahua from their home in Sonora were ambushed by unknown, well-armed and deadly assassins. A barrage of gunfire hit the cars, and killed the adults, as well as six of their children of the total 14 children that had been on the trip.

Devin Langford, 13 years old, witnessed his mother, his brothers, Trevor 11, and Rogan, two years old, fatally shot by the killers. Devin survived the attack as did six of his siblings. He led them to bushes nearby, "covered them with branches to keep them safe while he went for help" according to the narrative he delivered to his relatives once he had reached safety, to report the devastating attack and to lead rescuers to where he had left his brothers and sisters.

Leaving them as he set out to return  the 22 kilometres cross country to where the Mormon community lived at the La Mora outpost in Sonora, he arrived just before sunset to relay the report of the atrocity and where he had left the surviving children. Earlier, reports had roused the community that something dreadful had happened to their community members, stirring men of the community to drive out to find for themselves whether anything had gone amiss.

The group arrived first to discover the vehicle driven by Kenneth Miller's daughter-in-law, Rhonita Miller, 30. She and four of her children were inside the vehicle, charred beyond recognition. At the scene of the massacre, reeling from the shock of their ghastly discovery of 12 year-old Howard, 10-year-old Krystal and eight-month-old twins Titus and Tiana, all dead with their mother, they were desperate to find the other two vehicles with other family members.

A relative examines the scene where 9 family members were killed in Bavispe, Mexico

All three had been late in arriving back at the community. This was the point in time when Devin had finally reached La Mora, to report the calamity he had been part of. Devin led his community members, along with police, to the location of the other two SUVs where Dawna Langford and Christina Johnson, the two mothers, were found dead, along with two of Dawna's children.

There were the six remaining children, hidden for safety, that were then rescued, but one child was missing. The 14-year-old had been shot in the foot, an 8-year-old in the jaw, and a four-year-old child shot in the back, a 9-month-old shot in the chest, while a six-year-old child was found uninjured. But nine-year-old McKenzie Langford was missing. She had gone out hours after her brother and had become lost in the remote area.

Christina's baby, Faith, seven months of age, was strapped in her car seat which had been placed on the floor of the car, when Kenneth Miller found her. "That child was miraculously protected", he said, stifling his grief in the relief of finding at least some of his grandchildren still living. Ten hours after the massacre, he had driven through the wilderness searching for the missing child.

He and other searchers discovered footprints in the sand; one foot unshod, the other still wearing a shoe. Following the tracks in the dark night they eventually saw the little girl and embraced her in sorrowful relief. Mexican police later arrested a suspect holding two hostages who were bound and gagged in the hills of Agua Prieta in northern Sonora state; with the suspect several rifles and a supply of ammunition. He was not involved in the deadly ambush. The search is on to find the perpetrators.

It is believed that an offshoot of the Sinaloa cartel was responsible for the Monday massacre.

Labels: Massacre, Mexico, Mormon Community, Sinaloa Cartel

posted by Pieface @ Friday, November 08, 2019