The head of government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced on Wednesday via Twitter that “the two alleged perpetrators of femicide” of the 7-year-old girl were arrested in a village in the state of Mexico on the outskirts of the Mexican capital.
It is a couple, Mario Alberto Reyes Nájera and Gladis Giovana Cruz Hernández, who were captured with the support of the National Guard and local police, Sheinbaum said.
Charges for the murder of Fatima, which is considered a “femicide”, are expected to be charged on Thursday.
“Evidence was collected to link the two subjects to the deprivation of liberty and subsequent femicide of the child,” Citizen Security Secretary Omar Garcia said on Thursday.
“It is one of the cases where there is a great deal of evidence and evidence to obtain the arrest warrants,” the official added explaining that the couple was initially arrested for “cofabrication,” as they tried to bribe the Police of the State of Mexico .
Fatima disappeared on February 11th, what is known about the suspects?
Fatima Aldrighett disappeared on February 11 when she waited to be picked up by her mother when she left school, in the Xochimilco mayoralty of southern Mexico City.
Days later, on Saturday the 15th, his lifeless body appeared with traces of rape and torture inside a scab wrapped in a plastic bag, less than 5 km from his school.
The investigations led authorities to identify Gladis Giovana Cruz as the woman who probably took the girl from her school and took her to the house she shared with Reyes Nájera, her partner.
Security cameras recorded the woman who took Fatima.Secretary Omar García reported that due to citizen complaints and investigations the location of the house where Fatima was taken last Tuesday was determined.
The couple were no longer in the scene, but evidence was found there, such as a sweater and sneakers that matched the ones the woman wore in the videos, as well as “black plastic tapes to immobilize the girl.”
In addition, it was determined that the couple was “known” by Fatima’s family.
“The interviewees, and various complaints, agreed to recognize the woman seen in the video as a family acquaintance,” Garcia explained.
Mary Magdalene Anthon is the mother of Fatima Aldrighett.Mary Magdalene Anton, the mother of Fatima, admitted that Gladis Giovana Cruz was her friend and even lived together for a time at the end of last year.
“Apparently she was running away from her husband, because he had wanted to beat her and burn. I said, “Well, okay, don’t worry. Come to my house,'” Anton told the newspaper Millennium.
Cruz and Nájera have three children who were left in the custody of a relative, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum reported.
What is known about the motive for the crime?
The lifeless body of Fátima was found following a citizen complaint in a wasteland located about 3 kilometers from the school on February 15, four days after relatives and neighbors began looking for her.
Prosecutor Ernestina Godoy confirmed that, according to necropsy, the child suffered sexual abuse and beatings before she died.
The kidnapping and murder of Fatima has sparked a wave of protests in Mexico.Secretary Omar Garcia said early investigations indicate that the motive for the murder was not a kidnapping to demand a ransom in return.
“It was an atrocious crime, it was a femicide. It’s a truly serious tragedy. It wasn’t about money on the cell phone. Hence the intentions of the subject, at the time the Attorney General’s Office will comment on it,” he said.
Fatima’s mother believes that Gladis Cruz may have acted coerced by the violence she was living with her partner.
“You don’t see him being psychopathic or having such cold blood or an inhuman heart. She doesn’t act like that (…) Her husband is probably the killer, because I don’t think she’s capable, but she was also his accomplice. He took my daughter, didn’t he? At the end of the day, the two have to pay,” he told Millennium.
