Officials fear death toll, now at 18, could spiral into another Juárez

By LAURENCE ILIFF / The Dallas Morning News

MEXICO CITY – Once relatively free of the sensational slayings that fill newspapers and lead newscasts in many big cities, the Mexican capital is experiencing a growing number of serial or copycat killings aimed at elderly women with little to steal.

By media counts, the so-called mataviejitas, or "little old lady killer," has strangled or beaten to death some 18 seniors since 2003. Ten killings have come this year, including one in late October and another suspected case this week.

Most of the victims were 65 to 80 years old, lived alone and were strangled with a stocking or extension cord by someone who had gained their confidence, perhaps by posing as a nurse or social worker, according to police and media reports.

Some elected city officials say they fear the killing spree could escalate in the same manner that the slayings of young women in Ciudad Juárez have over the last decade. Those now stand at more than 300. Critics in the border city maintain that the killers remain free.

Although Mexico City has seen a steady rise in crimes such as carjackings and kidnappings over the last decade, the number of homicides has remained relatively low, at an average of three daily.

There are 8.5 million people in Mexico City and 9.5 million in the suburbs.

Mexico City council member Irma Islas, who sits on the security commission, said the slayings targeted at one of the most respected groups in Mexican society – grandmothers – show that criminal brutality has reached an alarming new level.

And she said the level of police incompetence is equally frightening.

"This shows that the criminals are capable of this and much, much more," said Ms. Islas, who is a member of the National Action Party, which is part of the opposition in Mexico City. "We run the risk" of another Juárez, she said.

She said investigators in Mexico City's attorney general's office have failed to warn the public or develop a theory on why the killings continue despite two arrests that were billed as having solved the crimes.

A 35-member task force had been working to catch the killer or killers, police have said.

"It would be adventurous of me to suggest a motive for the killings, but it seems that a serial killer would be one of the logical theories to explore," said Ms. Islas, adding that copycats are another possibility.

The official motive for some of the killings – robbery – makes little sense given the relative poverty of the elderly women, Ms. Islas said.

City Attorney General Bernardo Bátiz said in late October that two "little old lady" killers had been captured. He denied that the case of a 60-year-old woman slain days previously had anything to do with the earlier killings.

"Two people are in prison," he said. There is a recent victim "that for our times is not so old, 60. It's a different case; it has nothing to do with the others. We consider the other cases solved, with two people, a man and a woman who were detained, identified by [surviving] victims, shown guilty through evidence and imprisoned."

Police first said they had caught the "little old lady killer" in April, after a woman pretending to be a nurse, Araceli Vázquez, allegedly admitted to robbing 10 elderly women. She denied the two killings attributed to her by police. So far, she has been convicted only of the robberies.

But after Ms. Vázquez's arrest, the killings continued.