On two consecutive mornings at the end of August 2013, two men who drove buses on the same city line in Ciudad Juárez were killed at work. The first died on Wednesday, August 28; the second on Thursday, August 29. The Chihuahua state authorities came to believe that one woman was responsible for both deaths. They drew a sketch of her from the accounts of more than 20 witnesses, put plainclothes officers on the buses and searched the city for her. Days after the second killing, media outlets in the city began to receive messages from someone who claimed the deaths as revenge for sexual violence against women passengers. The state prosecutors' office treated that claim as one working hypothesis among others and never confirmed that the messages were genuine. By late November 2013 no one had been identified, arrested or charged in either death.
The two drivers worked the same route through the city. Ciudad Juárez, a city of about 1.3 million people across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, relies heavily on buses of the old school-bus type, and the routes carry, among others, the workers of the maquiladoras, the border assembly plants that employ many residents. The first driver was killed on the Wednesday morning. The second was killed the following morning on the same line. State authorities said the same woman had apparently been responsible on both occasions, and witnesses described her afterward to investigators. Whoever killed the two men took nothing from them, according to the city's daily, Diario de Juárez.
Over the weekend of August 31 and September 1, newsrooms in Ciudad Juárez began receiving emails from an address that used a self-given name. The writer said that she and other women had suffered sexual violence at the hands of drivers on the night-shift routes that carry workers to and from the assembly plants, that no one had protected them, and that she could no longer stay silent. She presented the two deaths as revenge on behalf of those women and warned that it would continue. A Facebook page under a similar name appeared on August 31.
The authorities did not verify the emails or the page, and they did not establish that the writer and the person who killed the drivers were the same. The spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutors' office said the message sent to the media was itself under investigation, alongside the killings. He told reporters that the vigilante explanation was one of the working hypotheses.
On Tuesday, September 3, the Chihuahua state attorney general's office released a sketch of a female suspect and asked the public for help. It was based on the testimony of at least 20 witnesses. The description that went with it was of a woman of about 50, about 165 centimeters tall, with dark skin and blonde hair, pulled back under a sun visor in the drawing. The municipal police spokesman said the authorities had the sketch and were looking for her.
The city government announced that it would place undercover police on some buses and carry out checks of passengers, both to find the suspect and to prevent further killings. A citywide search for her followed, and plainclothes officers began riding the city's routes.
The attribution of both deaths to a single woman rests on the accounts of witnesses and on the judgment of the state authorities in the first week of the inquiry; it has not been tested in any court. The sketch and the description that accompanied it were the product of witness interviews and were never matched to a named person.
The revenge motive is a claim, not a finding. The emails came from an address the authorities did not verify, and the link between their author and the two deaths was not established. The state prosecutors' office kept the claim as one hypothesis among several.
By late November 2013, the authorities had still not located the woman they were seeking.
August 28, 2013: A bus driver is killed on a city line in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
August 29, 2013: A second driver on the same line is killed; state authorities later say the same woman was apparently responsible.
August 31, 2013: A Facebook page under a self-given name claiming the killings appears.
August 31 to September 1, 2013: Media outlets in Ciudad Juárez receive emails claiming the deaths as revenge for sexual violence against women passengers.
September 2, 2013: The spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutors' office says the revenge claim is one of the working hypotheses and that the messages are under investigation.
September 3, 2013: The state attorney general's office releases a sketch of a female suspect drawn from the testimony of at least 20 witnesses; undercover officers ride some buses.
Late November 2013: The woman sought by the authorities has still not been located.