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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2006 
Suspected Serial Killer Detained in Mexico
 Associated Press
| | Juana Barraza, 48, is presented to the media at the Mexico City police headquarters Wednesday Jan. 25, 2006. (El Universal) |
Mexico City — A suspect arrested while fleeing from a home where an elderly woman was slain is probably the serial murderer known as the "Mataviejitas," or "Little Old Lady Killer," police said.
The suspect is a woman, not a transvestite as authorities previously believed.
The suspect, identified as Juana Barraza, 48, told reporters at the scene of the latest killing Wednesday that she had killed 82-year-old Ana Maria Reyes -- but she denied involvement in at least seven similar murders of elderly women since 2003.
Barraza was held outside Reyes' home by officers who allowed the press to interview the suspect, standard practice in Mexico.
"Yes, I did it," Barraza said. She quickly added, "Just because I'm going to pay for it, that doesn't mean they're going to hang all the crimes on me."
Asked if she was the serial killer, Barraza said, "No." Asked how many murders she had committed, she replied, "This is the first."
At least seven elderly women have been strangled or beaten to death in Mexico City in recent years in crimes police say were probably committed by the same person.
Authorities have said they were unsure if 22 other similar killings in the past several years were related.
Mexico City Attorney General Bernardo Batiz told a news conference that police had acquired enough evidence to make him confident "that we have the person ... who committed the homicides."
Batiz said Barraza's fingerprints matched those left at the scene of 10 other murders, plus at the scene of an attempted murder.
"So we are certain that there are sufficient elements to arrest her" for the murders, he said.
Batiz added that Barraza admitted to killing Reyes and described her actions in some of the other killings, which he called a tacit admission of her guilt.
Police have 48 hours to charge Barraza with the murders.
Previous witnesses had described the Mataviejitas as "mannish" in appearance, leading police to spend months detaining, questioning and fingerprinting transvestites in the case.
Police Chief Joel Ortega said Barraza, a robust woman with short, dyed-reddish-blond hair, had characteristics matching those of the composite profile of the suspected serial killer, including a similar haircut and facial mole.
Police said Reyes was strangled with a stethoscope.
Ismael Alvarado Ruiz, one of two policemen who detained Barraza, said a neighbor alerted them to the suspect as she ran from Reyes' modest one-story brick house in a working-class neighborhood.
"This person started running, and my partner and I caught her by the arms and took her back to the patrol car," Alvarado Ruiz said. "We went back to the house, and everything was scattered all around."
Police said they found a stethoscope and social benefits papers in Barraza's possession, along with a card identifying her as a social worker.
Police have long believed that the serial killer gained access to victims' homes by offering to sign them up for pensions or other programs for the elderly.
But Barraza said she had come to the victim's home to ask for work as a laundress.
"That's a lie. I wasn't carrying the documents they have there," she said. She did not offer a motive for the killing, but told reporters, "You'll know why I did it when you read my statement to police."
One of Reyes' neighbors, 73-year-old Lourdes Medina, remembered the victim as a tidy, hardworking woman.
"This is very sad. It's not fair," Medina said. "This could have happened to me." |
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