Mexico City Prosecutors Say Iztacalco Femicide Suspect May Be a Serial Killer
Miguel Cortés Miranda, arrested after 17-year-old María José was killed, was ordered to stand trial as prosecutors tied evidence in his apartment to missing women.
Published
On Tuesday, April 16, 2024, a 17-year-old girl named María José was attacked inside her family's home in the Iztacalco borough of Mexico City, sexually assaulted and stabbed to death. Her mother walked in on the attack and was stabbed several times as she tried to defend her daughter. Neighbors kept the attacker from escaping, and he was arrested. He was Miguel Cortés Miranda, 39.
Three days later, on Friday, April 19, the case became something much larger. Ulises Lara, the acting head of the Mexico City Attorney General's Office, said that a search of Cortés's apartment in the La Cruz Coyuya neighborhood the night before had turned up bone remains, bloodstains and tools, along with notebooks, cell phones, compact discs, a memory stick and the identification cards of women who had been reported missing. "The evidence located at the site by ministry personnel, investigative police and experts from the femicide prosecutor's office clearly points to the existence of a possible serial femicide killer, who would be connected to the disappearance of several women," Lara said.
The same day, at a four-hour hearing in the Reclusorio Oriente, a judge ordered Cortés to stand trial for the femicide of María José and the attempted femicide of her mother. He told the court only that he was a biologist and described the work he had done; according to the victims' lawyer, Arturo González, he did not deny what had happened that Tuesday. María José's mother remained in the hospital, and her daughter's body stayed with the city's forensic institute, waiting for a funeral that would not be held until she was well enough to attend.
Investigators said they were still analyzing the bones found in the apartment to determine whose they were, and comparing the evidence with open investigations into missing women. On April 19, Cortés had been charged only in the attack on María José and her mother.