The Mexican authorities announced on Sunday the arrest of two men “probably responsible for the murder in August of a couple of French origin committed in Valladolid, in Yucatan (southeast)”.
Their arrest occurs “53 days after relatives” of the couple “reported their disappearance in mid-September,” added the Secretariat (Ministry) of Public Security of the state of Yucatan (southeast) in a press release.
The family is waiting to “begin their mourning”
The French authorities had confirmed on October 5 the disappearance of two French citizens in Mexico. AFP could not confirm Sunday night with the French Embassy in Mexico City if the victims are these two missing Frenchmen, Assya Madjour and Michel Amado.
The family is still awaiting official confirmation of their identities, before they can repatriate the bodies and “begin their mourning,” said Nawel Madjour, the sister of one of the victims. The couple married in May in Valladolid, settled in this city in the State of Yucatan, where she managed, for several years, two hotels and rooms for tourists.
A “vile crime committed by a trusted person”
The two bodies were found buried in the couple’s private “cenote,” a natural cave in which they had built a pool, according to Assya Madjour’s sister. “They didn’t feel threatened at all, they were taken by surprise,” she adds.
The woman had been in the camp for more than two years, while the man had lived there for fifteen years. The two alleged perpetrators, aged 34 and 41, were detained in central Mexico, in the states of Guanajuato and Querétaro, respectively.
It is said that one of the two detainees is a “former bricklayer” of the couple, who worked in their hotel, to whom they would have “lent money to set up his own business”, says Nawel Madjour, “very angry” at this “crime heinous act committed by a trustworthy person”. “It’s not revenge, just greed,” he breathes.
Thus, the cash withdrawals would have been made at the distributors, he explains, with a blue card from the couple. In addition, the accomplice arrested in Querétaro was located thanks to Assya Madjour’s phone.
By “using a cell phone of the couple”, the alleged murderers made believe that the two French “were traveling in the state of Chiapas”, also in southern Mexico, but hundreds of kilometers from Yucatan, says the press release. of the local Secretary of Public Security.
Since September 12, the 57-year-old man and the 50-year-old woman had not given any signs of life to their relatives, residents of the Basque Country. His fate had been considered “very worrying” by his families, who feared “kidnapping.” By message, before September 12, the man would have indicated looking for land in Chiapas, while his wife spoke of a spiritual center.
“It seemed strange to us, it’s not her style,” Nawel Madjour, sister of the missing woman, told AFP in early October, who also questioned the origin of the messages.
Since 1964, 106,000 people have disappeared in Mexico, according to the National Registry of Missing Persons. Some missing persons are foreigners who have been kidnapped for ransom.
Source: BFM TV
