The Juárez Ripper

"The Juárez Ripper" is the name given to a profilic serial killer(s) who is/are believed to have perpetrated a series of violent murders against women since the beginning of 1993.

Brief Case History
The first victim attributed to the Ripper was Alma Farel, who had been raped and strangled in the Campestre Virreyes district. Subsequently, sixteen more women were found murdered under similiar circumstances, some with slashing wounds in their breasts, a trait which would later result in the press dubbing the killer, "The Juárez Ripper". A year later, in 1994, eight women were murdered in Ciudad Juárez, all the cases ended up being unsolved. That same year, a criminologist named Oscar Maynez Grijalva told police that there was a very high chance of a serial killer or a group of serial killers active in the city, but he was not taken seriously. In 1995, even more women were murdered, with a total of nineteen victims by mid-September and twenty-nine in the remaining months. The murders continued for several years, many suspects were arrested but strangely enough, the murders seemed to escalate each time a suspect was identified. Despite the case being investigated by several professional people, such as retired FBI profiler Robert Ressler and a team of active-duty G-men, there was no success in identifying the killer and the case remains unsolved. A common theory is that the killer(s) chose Ciudad Juárez to commit the murders because of its high activity of organized crime.

Modus Operandi
The victims were usually young, dark-haired women who worked in maquiladoras as factory workers or students. They were beaten, raped and killed by a variety of ways, such as strangulation, stabbing, bludgeoning, shooting and even burning. Occasionally, the killer would mutilate or dismember their bodies, hence his nickname.

Known Victims
Note: Dates denote when victims were discovered.
 * 1993:
 * January 23: Alma Chavira Farel
 * Unspecified dates: Sixteen unnamed women 1994:


 * 1994:
 * Unspecified dates: Eight unnamed women, 11-35


 * 1995:
 * Unspecified dates: Forty-eight unnamed women
 * 1996-?: Numerous victims

Suspects

 * Ángel Maturino Reséndiz (1960-2006)
 * Serial killer and rapist who murdered at least fifteen people
 * Suspected of being the Ripper by both Robert Ressler and Candice Skrapec because of his strong family ties to Ciudad Juárez
 * Abdul Latif Sharif (1947-2006)
 * Prime suspect in the killings
 * Egyptian chemist, serial killer and rapist who fled to Ciudad Juárez to escape from deportation
 * Believed to have murdered at least three women in Ciudad Juárez
 * Accused another serial killer, Alejandro Máynez, to be the true Ripper
 * Alejandro Máynez
 * Serial killer believed to have killed at least fifth people, two of them in Ciudad Juárez
 * According to a book written by an unknown author, who is believed to be Alejandro himself, dozens of women were murdered in Ciudad Juárez by members of the organized crime, some even participated in snuff films
 * Los Rebeldes
 * Local gang of murderous drug dealers and rapists
 * Ruled by a man named Sergio Armendariz, a.k.a. "El Diablo"
 * Believed to have been paid by Abdul to commit a series of copycat crimes, with at least seventeen victims in total.
 * Los Choferes
 * Gang of serial killers and rapists convicted of murdering at least twenty women
 * Also believed to have been paid by Abdul to commit copycat crimes
 * Pedro Padilla Flores
 * Former resident of Ciudad Juárez
 * Serial killer convicted for the rape and murder of two women and a thirteen-year-old girl
 * Escaped from custody in 1991 and remains at large
 * Carlos Gardena Cruz and Jorge Garcia Paz
 * Former federal agents
 * Prime suspects in the disappearances of Silva Arce and Griselda Mares
 * Pedro Valles
 * Investigator assigned to the Juárez murders
 * Murdered his girlfriend in 1998 and remains at large
 * Dagoberto Ramirez
 * Former police officer
 * Arrested for murdering his girlfriend but was released after he claimed that she had killed herself
 * Julio Rodriguez Valenzuela
 * Former police officer
 * Attempted to rape a sixteen-year-old girl near two murder locations and remains at large
 * Sergio Hernandez Pereda
 * Former police officer
 * Prime suspect in the murder of his wife and remains at large
 * Melchor Baca
 * Former police officer
 * Murdered a friend of his wife and remains at large
 * The Mexicali Ripper
 * Unidentified serial killer believed to have murdered and dismembered at least 44 women since 2008

On Criminal Minds
The case seems to have inspired profilic serial killer Jacob DuFour, who dumped the bodies of his victims in Ciudad Juárez as a way to hide his crimes from authorities.