The daughter of a gas station owner disappeared at her 15th birthday party, six years later.-NTY
At his petrol station located on López Mateos Avenue, Roberto Alejandro Vázquez Hernández shut down the register.
Every night as he locked up, he recalled that his daughter Valentina had never returned home on the evening of April 15, 2017, six years after she vanished during her fifteenth birthday celebration.
Rodrigo Pérez Villanueva, the custodian, had been employed at the petrol station for two years. He discovered one of the floor tiles next to the back storage room had fallen loose that afternoon while he was cleaning the service area. He discovered a plastic bag buried underneath it when he raised it to fix it.
This is something you must see, Mr. Vázquez! From the back parking lot, Esteban yelled.
Roberto came running over. A translucent bag in Esteban’s hand held a silver bracelet inscribed with the name Valentina, a number of documents, and a pink cell phone with butterfly stickers.
“Where did this originate?” With trembling legs, Roberto inquired.
It was interred beneath this tile. Esteban handed him the bag and said, “Looks like someone hid it years ago.”
Roberto instantly recognized the phone. Two months prior to Valentina’s disappearance, he had given her the same one for her fifteenth birthday.
She had worn the bracelet at her friend Sofía Beatriz Mendoza Jiménez’s quinceañera, thus it was also hers. Valentina’s school ID, an April 14, 2017, drugstore receipt, and a handwritten note that said: were all found in the bag.
All of this is scheduled for tomorrow. Nobody will suspect. — DCR
Inspector Joaquín Gabriel Torres Saíta María, who had headed the initial inquiry into Valentina’s abduction, was contacted right away by Roberto. Thirty minutes later, Torres and a group of forensic technicians arrived at the gas station.
As he reviewed the evidence, Torres remarked, “Don Roberto, this is the first real lead we’ve had in six years.”
“Do you know why it could have been interred here?”
“My company is open around-the-clock,” Roberto said. Employees, vendors, and even patrons who use the restroom have access to the back room. However, I am aware that the night Valentina vanished, she misplaced her phone.
Every item was photographed by the inspector. The cash payment for sleeping pills and bandages made at 6:00 p.m. on April 14, 2017, the day before Valentina disappeared, was recorded on the drugstore receipt.
“What do you think the initials ‘DCR’ mean?” Torres inquired.
Esteban raised his voice as Roberto shook his head:
“A young man arrived at the party that evening as we were looking for the girl and inquired as to if we had discovered anything. He was approximately eighteen, tall, and dark-skinned. He claimed to be Valentina’s buddy.
“Can you recall his name?”
No, but he spoke with Mrs. Carmen. She found it odd that he was so anxious,” Esteban said.
Roberto contacted Valentina’s mother, Carmen Esperanza Morales de Vázquez, who came a short while later. She lost it when she saw the proof.
Through tears, Carmen remarked, “I gave her that phone for her birthday—she treated it like gold.” “How did this come to be? That night, we searched everywhere.
Torres mandated forensic analysis right away. Fingerprints were obtained from all items, the handwriting on the note was photographed and recorded, and the phone was sent to the lab for data recovery.
“Don Roberto, I’ll need the names of all Valentina’s friends, especially those who attended that party, and a complete list of everyone who has worked here since 2017,” Torres stated.
Roberto obeyed. Twenty of Valentina’s friends and classmates who attended Sofía’s quinceañera were on the list, along with six regular suppliers and twelve previous employees. Carmen remembered specifics from the evening:
Valentina and Sofía attended the party. She was angry. Valentina left the hall at approximately 11 p.m., according to Sofía’s mother, but Sofía believed she had simply gone to the restroom.
“At the time, did Valentina have a boyfriend?” Torres inquired.
“No. She gave her studies her whole attention. Carmen responded, “She always stated she wanted to graduate first, but some boys liked her.”
Torres looked over the initial file from 2017. Police had investigated a 50-kilometer radius surrounding Guadalajara, interviewed all partygoers, and examined CCTV footage. Valentina was never seen again.
The issue was that we lacked this proof at the time. We may now appropriately revisit the matter,” Torres stated.
He took the previous receipt to the pharmacy. The pharmacist verified that a young guy had bought sleeping medications and bandages at 6:30 p.m. on April 14; however, there were no camera data from 2017.
Torres compared names in the prosecutor’s office. The letters “DCR” were a fantastic fit for Sofía’s 2017 lover, Diego Armando Castillo Ríz.
Inconsistencies emerged one by one. At the party, witnesses saw Valentina conversing with Diego, despite his assertion that he didn’t really know her. Valentina’s last communication, according to data recovered from her phone, was sent at 10:43 p.m.
“I’m going now. Where are we going to meet? — sent to Diego’s phone.
Diego’s previous testimony was destroyed by the new evidence. A subsequent search of Diego’s residence and forensics from the buried bag and Valentina’s phone turned up messages with two accomplices, known minor criminals Fernando Moreno and Mauricio Guzmán, as well as pictures of Valentina taken without her consent and notes documenting her whereabouts.
The inquiry blew up.
On Mauricio’s property, forensic investigators discovered a concealed SUV with blood traces in the trunk and fabric fibers that matched Valentina’s outfit from that evening. When questioned, Mauricio became emotional:
“I just assisted in moving her, Inspector. “I didn’t murder anyone,” he declared.
Shortly after, Sofía admitted:
Diego told me that he had feelings for Valentina. I gave him her schedule. “I just wanted to meet her,” he added. I was unaware that he intended to harm her. After she vanished, he threatened me.
Diego eventually confessed after being presented with the proof, which included Valentina’s final text.
“I didn’t want her to pass away. He told Torres, “I just wanted her to be with me.”
Diego described how, after holding Valentina captive in a secret home in Tlajomulco for forty-five days, Fernando Moreno strangled her in June 2017. Then, “as a cruel joke,” Moreno made Diego and Mauricio bury her dead and conceal her possessions, including the phone and bracelet, beneath the tiles at her father’s petrol station.
Forensic teams dug out remains from a shallow grave at the Tlajomulco residence six years later. Valentina was identified via DNA. The autopsy revealed evidence of torture, abuse, and extended incarceration.
The case was widely publicized.
Inspector Torres discovered a human trafficking network that operated in Guadalajara from 2015 to 2020 using money tracking, phone data, and confessions.
Ironically, Sofía’s uncle, businessman Javier Mendoza Salinas, and former police commander Ricardo Emilio Salinas Medina were at the head of the network, protecting it and undermining inquiries.
Eight of the 32 young ladies who had been kidnapped had been killed, while the others had been trafficked throughout Mexico.
Their youngest victim was Valentina.
Jalisco was shaken by the arrests. Police officers, judges, politicians, and businesspeople were all implicated. They charged dozens. Deep corruption was revealed when Torres’ team fully disassembled the network.
The reality was painful for Roberto and Carmen Vázquez, but it provided them with closure at last.
At the public memorial, Roberto stated, “My daughter cannot return, but her case will help other families find their daughters.”
A dedicated anti-trafficking task force, cross-verification procedures to guard against corruption, compensation funds for victims’ families, and more robust witness protection programs were among the new changes that were implemented by 2023.
Seven years after Valentina vanished, on April 15, 2024, Inspector Torres paid a visit to the memorial that Roberto had erected at the gas station. There were pictures of all the victims.
“Have you located the girls who were transported to other states, Inspector?” Roberto inquired.
Torres gave a nod. Twelve people have been found and saved. There are eight back home. Four are moving to another place to start fresh lives. And we continue to look for those who are still missing.
A national monument was established by the Valentina case. It produced investigative techniques that were embraced across Mexico.
Roberto Vázquez, once a man shut down by sorrow, became a symbol of justice, change, and the struggle against human trafficking.
