As a Mom Searches for Missing Son, a Sister Wishes She Didn't Know
Violent crime in Mexico has been much in the news lately, as efforts by authorities to combat the illegal drug industry have, at least for now, led to increased attacks on citizens and police.
Among the victims are American visitors. And, for Linda LaPorte, one of those visitors was particularly important–her 27-year-old son, Daniel, disappeared while on a trip from his home in San Diego, reports the Los Angeles Times.
Although his fate isn’t known, the situation doesn’t look good. And, in the meantime, Linda LaPorte has learned that her son apparently had a life she didn’t know about. He didn’t work as a bouncer and at a restaurant, as he had said he did; according to an investigator hired by the LaPorte family, he was a marijuana dealer who made regular trips to Mexico, the Times reports.
“Officials on both sides of the border say the American victims are rarely unlucky tourists. Some lived in Mexico and may have known their attackers,” the newspaper writes. “Others were businesspeople who crossed the border regularly and were seen as an easy source of cash. Still others were thought to be involved in drugs.”
There are worse things, however, than not knowing a loved one’s fate, another woman hundreds of miles away tells the Chicago Tribune.
Natalie Worthington’s brother, Jonathan Tihay, disappeared in 1995 in South Florida, when he was 24 years old. Earlier this month, authorities announced that one of the bodies found last year in a mass grave a little over a mile from where he lived in Ft. Myers is his.
Although the family had desperately wanted to know his fate, learning that he apparently had died violently hit them hard. Worse was the news that some wonder whether a convicted, sadistic killer who allegedly committed crimes nearby could be responsible, although he has not been named a suspect.
“That was the worst,” Worthington says, referring to this news. “I wish they had never told me.”
