SONOYTA, Sonora — On Friday evening, one Phoenix family said goodbye to not one, but three sisters.
Two of the women had been killed earlier in the week in Mexico, according to Mexican authorities. The third sister had died of cancer just before.
In the week after his mother and aunt’s death, the son of one of the victims killed in Mexico said he hasn’t fully processed what happened. 12News granted the son anonymity for his own safety.
“My mother and my aunt were taken away violently from us,” the son said. “They were great people… they were great, loving grandmothers who loved to help their family and their community.”
The Fiscalía de Sonora (Sonora’s Attorney General’s Office) confirmed that they found two Arizona women, Enedina, 72, and Ubaldina, 82, dead inside a white Nissan Pathfinder. The vehicle had been impacted by bullets and it rolled over.
The two were driving on the highway between the border town of Sonoyta and Caborca in Sonora, Mexico.
Both his mom and aunt lived in Phoenix but had homes they would travel to in Mexico. They would visit Mexico often to see friends and family, or simply to relax, the son said.
“This was so tragic, so shocking, that somebody like my mom and my aunt would be victims of such a crime,” the son said. “Because they were just completely innocent people who just happened to travel the area.”
His mom was a mother of four and a grandmother to six grandchildren, the son said.
“She was the glue of the immediate family,” the son said. “She was a loving, caring mom and grandma.”
The aunt who was with his mom was the oldest of the “matriarch” that was the son’s family, he said. She was also a great-great-grandmother.
The son said his mother, who had been the driver at the time, was shot in the head while they were traveling at highway speeds. His aunt died from the injuries she sustained when the car rolled over multiple times, he said.
“This is tragic. Graphic. It just tears at the heart,” the son said. “And not a single family member has received any information other than what they’ve actually seen on the news, and that’s also a tragic part of the story.”
His mom's partner has been in a wheelchair for nineteen years and his mom was her partner’s primary caregiver.
“She was great in her community, she was great with my extended family,” the son said. “Everyone who knew my mother would 100% agree with me that she was just a lovely lady.”
His mother had planned to go to the East Coast to visit for her granddaughter’s birthday, the son said. She was in good health and the family had plans.
“She was in good health and good spirits, just taking care of what grandmas and moms do on a daily basis,” the son said.
His mom lived with two of his brothers and a sister lived nearby, the son said. The family is fearful of talking about what happened to his aunt and mother, but the son said he wants to make sure his family is remembered.
“I see this on the news but I never thought I’d be talking about it,” the son said.
The son said he has seen news reports from both sides of the border saying that the area where his mother and aunt were killed is safe. But he does not believe that to be true.
“I’ve talked to all friends and family who have lived their entire lives in this border area and that’s simply not the case. It is dangerous,” the son said. “The drug cartels are running that area in Sonoyta.”
The son said he spoke to people with firsthand experiences of violence in the area where his mom and aunt were killed.
“The crime that is happening there, what happened to my mother and my aunt… it’s just not a recent thing, this has been going on for decades,” the son said.
The son said the crime and drugs that he believes led to his mother and aunt’s deaths are part of a vicious cycle.
“There’s been a war on drugs since I was a little kid… I’ve heard it a million times,” the son said. “But it’s still going on. It’s still killing innocent people. It’s still killing grandmas. It’s devastating to the community, to the surviving members, and we don’t have an answer.”
Since his mother and aunt’s deaths, the son said neither he nor anyone in his family has received any information about the ongoing investigation into their deaths.
“Nobody has told us what is going on with the ongoing investigation,” the son said. “We don’t know anything about the investigation. They haven’t told us any arrests or any leads.”
In fact, the son said the way he found out about the investigation was the same way the general public did: through a news report.
“I’m not here to say things are fine because they’re obviously not,” the son said. “Two loved women were murdered and we have no answers.”
The son said some people have said that the incident was a case of “wrong place, wrong time,” but he doesn’t like that viewpoint.
“I don’t like that because they lived there. They lived there, they traveled there, it’s their home,” the son said. “It’s their place where they go to rest and relax.”
The sisters were traveling during the daytime, which is one of the tips given to American tourists traveling in the area to keep themselves safe.
“My mom was just a loving, caring person. My aunt was a loving, caring person,” the son said. “She was always there for any family member. She raised many of my family members… she was always there for us.”
The son said his family is afraid of being “targeted” if they speak about what happened, but because he is not in Arizona, the son said he feels he is able to talk about his mom and his aunt.
“That’s how bad things are,” the son said. “We are victims, and the victims are afraid of speaking about it – that’s how horrible this situation is.”
“People are getting away with murder, literally,” the son said. “It’s not just a saying. People are getting away with murder.”
The son stressed that issues of violence and drugs that he believes contributed to his mother and aunt’s death are not a one-side or one-country issue, and he said he hopes both the United States and Mexico will work together to solve these problems so more families are not put in the position his family has been in this week.
“Maybe this is the wake-up call, maybe this is the last straw,” the son said. “I really hope so – we’re talking about my mother, so of course for me this is the last straw. For many of my family members, this is the last straw."
“You can’t just turn a blind eye to this.” the son said.
Family and friends of his in Arizona have told the son that deaths like mother’s and aunt’s have become normalized, and the son said he wants people to know what happened to his family is anything but normal.
“It is so frustrating to hear family members say this has been normalized,” the son said. “This is not something that should be normal to anybody.”
The son said if he could tell people one thing about what happened to his mother and aunt, it would be to make sure people are not part of the “vicious cycle” of illegal drug consumption.
“Don’t be part of that cycle,” the son said.
He hopes that through education and drug prevention programs, other families will not have to go through what he is going through, the son said.
“We don’t want to have these tragic stories. We don’t,” the son said. “So the question remains, what are we doing about it?”
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