The Matamoros Devil Murders (Part 1)

Summary

Morbid Podcast – The Matamoros Devil Murders (Part 1)

Hosts: Ash Kelley & Alaina Urquhart
Episode Date: May 21, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this gripping two-part episode, Ash and Alaina explore the chilling case known as the Matamoros Devil Murders, focusing on the disappearance of American college student Mark Kilroy during a 1989 spring break trip to Mexico. The hosts provide deep research and signature comedic banter while unraveling the story’s complex intertwining of true crime, drug cartels, and cult rituals. This first installment sets the scene, introduces the key players, and brings listeners right up to the precipice of the investigation’s most harrowing revelations.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Setting the Scene: The Disappearance of Mark Kilroy

• Background on Mark Kilroy
  • Born March 5, 1968, Chicago, Illinois (09:23)
  • Raised in Santa Fe, Texas; described as an ideal son—churchgoer, good student, active in sports and Boy Scouts.
  • Pursued medicine at the University of Texas after experimenting with other colleges and sports scholarships.
  • Maintained close friendships; their spring break trip to South Padre Island in 1989 coincided with his 21st birthday.
• Atmosphere at South Padre/Matamoros in 1989
  • Massive influx of spring breakers: “roughly a quarter of a million students expected at South Padre.” (14:03)
  • Attractions ranged from beer company-sponsored concerts to religious groups handing out sunscreen and pamphlets.
  • Mark and his friends met other college groups, enjoying a euphoric but chaotic mix of beach, parties, and bar-hopping.

2. The Trip to Matamoros and Mark’s Disappearance

• The group traveled into Matamoros, Mexico, twice, joining crowds of up to 15,000 tourists. (17:21)
• On the night in question, they bar-hopped, ending up at Los Sombreros and later at a rebranded “Hard Rock Café.” (18:30)
• Around 2 am, as the group attempted to return to Texas, Mark vanished after separating briefly for a bathroom break. His friends searched desperately but he “vanished without a trace.” (20:19)

3. Early Investigation and Family Response

• Mark’s friends filed a missing persons report after he failed to return to the hotel—and contacted his parents after a sleepless night of searching. (26:41)
• Notable quote:
  • Alaina: "It must just not feel like real life because you're like, no, this is literally the worst case. Scen. How is it actually happening?" (31:41)
• Mark’s uncle, a U.S. customs agent, quickly escalated the case to a federal investigation, demonstrating an unusually swift and coordinated response by local and federal authorities.

4. Investigative Challenges and Border Politics

• The 1980s context: drug trafficking, organized crime, and challenging law enforcement jurisdiction at the U.S.-Mexico border. (29:20)
• Cross-border jurisdictional issues made the investigation highly complex: "Even if they did have those leads … none of them had jurisdiction to launch an investigation in Mexico." (33:43)
• Mark's family became active searchers, distributing flyers and rallying community support on both sides of the border. (35:27)

5. Escalation & Desperation: New Investigation Tactics

• Police resorted to hypnosis to jog memories; one friend recalled Mark near "a Hispanic man with a cut on his cheek" before he vanished. (37:28)
• The case aired on America’s Most Wanted, generating over 150 tips, most of which were dead ends but helped raise the profile of the search and encouraged cross-border cooperation. (39:26)

6. Link to Narco-Satanic Cults

• Turning point comes unexpectedly:
  • A drug checkpoint leads to tracking members of the notorious Hernandez family, long-involved in regional trafficking. (41:07)
  • The fading gang has allied itself with Adolfo Constanzo, leader of a group later dubbed “Los Narcos Satanicos” (the Narco-Satanists)—a cartel blended with cult ritual, whose leaders believed themselves divinely protected through human sacrifice. (43:05)
• Notable quote:
  • “They thought we couldn’t hurt them. They thought they were protected.” —Benitez on gang members’ supernatural confidence. (61:03)

7. Police Investigation Leads to Break in the Case

• Classic detective work:
  • Officers tail a suspect (Seraphine Hernandez) to the Santa Elena ranch, the suspected cult headquarters. (46:07)
  • Observations at the ranch include marijuana residue and a cement statue of Elegua, a Santeria trickster god associated with “protection” for traffickers. (53:18)
• The cult’s beliefs emboldened them to act recklessly; wiretap evidence, careless conversations, and a large drug delivery set the stage for a police raid. (58:08)

8. First Hints of the Murder

• Following a series of arrests and interrogations—including unconventional methods like threats of “hot sauce and soda water up the nostrils” (61:44)—the caretaker of the ranch, Domingo, quickly cracked.
• He described seeing an “American…tied up in the back of a blue Chevy Suburban” at the ranch, matching the description of Mark Kilroy.
• The caretaker confirmed Mark’s identity from a missing poster: “Yes, yes, that’s him. The gyro.” (66:09)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Ash on the naïveté of spring break trips:
  • "You don't think about this happening with, like, a man… You would assume nothing can touch them." (20:19)
• Alaina reflecting on parental horror:
  • "It must just not feel like real life…this is literally the worst case. Scen. How is it actually happening?" (31:41)
• On the cult’s thinking:
  • “If the proper offerings were made to Elegua, he could make you bulletproof and invisible…There was nothing too valuable to sacrifice.” (55:04)
• Benitez on gang confidence:
  • “They thought we couldn’t hurt them. They thought they were protected.” (61:03)
• Comedy amid horror:
  • Ash: “All I can think of is the sensation when you get the bubbles in your nose... Add it with hot sauce and have it shot directly into your nose.” (62:05)
• Emotional moment:
  • Mark’s father Jim, remaining at the sheriff’s station for 30 days: “He came into the sheriff’s office and he never left…He begged me to help him look for his son.” (33:19)
• Alaina:
  • “Imagine if everyone was just chilling. I can’t even picture it to be honest with you.” (35:07)

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Important Timestamps

• 08:47: Start of the main case discussion
• 09:23: Introduction of Mark Kilroy’s background
• 14:03: Describing South Padre and spring break culture
• 20:19: Mark’s disappearance in Matamoros
• 26:41: Friends file missing persons report; alert Mark's family
• 29:20: Context: drug trafficking and border crime in the 1980s
• 31:41: Family response and emotional shock
• 33:43: Law enforcement faces border jurisdiction challenges
• 35:27: Mark’s family begins grassroots search efforts
• 37:28: Use of hypnosis in the investigation
• 39:26: America’s Most Wanted coverage and its impact
• 41:07: Initial connection to the Hernandez family’s criminal activities
• 43:05: Introduction of Adolfo Constanzo and Los Narcos Satanicos
• 53:18: Investigators find evidence of cult practice at the ranch
• 55:04: Deep dive into cult ritual, including Santeria and the use of statues
• 58:08: Wiretapped calls and securing the raid
• 61:44: The “hot sauce up the nose” interrogation method
• 66:09: The caretaker identifies Mark Kilroy as the American held at the ranch

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Tone and Authentic Highlights

• Signature blend of compassionate storytelling with light-hearted banter and dark humor.
• Honest reflection on the lack of safety and crime awareness in 1980s spring break culture.
• Thoughtful reminders about cross-border travel risks—especially for young people.
• Emotional weight: hosts sympathize deeply with Mark’s friends and family, echoing the horror and heartbreak.

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Episode Close

The episode ends on the discovery that Mark was indeed the American seen at the cult’s ranch, setting up a tense transition into Part 2, where the full gruesome nature of the case—and the connection to ritual killings—will be brought to light.

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Alaina: “They just didn’t have the information. Because of the time... It’s not now.” (66:58)
Ash: “This is one of those cases that it’s like, worst case scenario. It really is.” (67:13)

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Next episode: The horrifying truth behind the cult, the fate of Mark Kilroy, and the ultimate unmasking of the Matamoros Devil Murders.

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[END OF PART 1 SUMMARY]

Transcript

[A]

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[A]

I'm Elena.

[B]

She's back.

[A]

I'm back.

[B]

And this is morbid.

[A]

This is morbid. Oh.

[B]

Are you alive?

[A]

I'm alive. I'm alive. We made it through. We just had one of those things that, you know, the stomach bug. It just rolls right through, and then

[B]

it paused and came back, which is really.

[A]

It paused before it hit the last of us, and then it hit the last of us, and then we cleared it on out.

[B]

That's bullshit.

[A]

We said goodbye.

[B]

Glad you cleared it out, though. Appreciate that we did.

[A]

We made it through. But, man, everybody wash your hands. Wash your hands. Make sure your kids are washing their hands as much as possible. I know sometimes that doesn't do it, but trust me, because we're hand washing house.

[B]

At least it's getting hot out again. Like, just. I feel like when it's hot. Viruses, they don't do as well, don't thrive.

[A]

Well, some of them do, but I don't know if this one does.

[B]

I feel like tummy bugs don't necessarily.

[A]

Yeah. This one thrives in, like, cold weather, I think, at best.

[B]

Yeah. Which, of course, it's literally about to get cold again.

[A]

Of course.

[B]

Like, hotter than Satan's butthole outside.

[A]

It's true.

[B]

I got to announce this solo, and it didn't quite feel so right. So we just want to remind you one more time that we have a game.

[A]

We have a fucking game with Hunt a Killer.

[B]

This feels so much better that you're here and we can talk about it together.

[A]

I'm really excited.

[B]

It's nuts because I was saying when I announced it, that was our first sponsor that we ever had on the pod.

[A]

They were the first ones that reached out.

[B]

Hunt a Killer.

[A]

I was always a big Hunt a killer girly. And I'm being so for real. I need. I should find the boxes somewhere. Like the early boxes. And it was when they came in those, like, black, plain boxes.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

And in the early days, me and John used to love them. Especially, like, before we had kids.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

We love that kind of thing.

[B]

That's really cute. You played games together.

[A]

Yeah, we loved games.

[B]

Me and Drew are really the only games that me and Drew play are, like, Mario Kart.

[A]

Yeah, we love Mario Kart.

[B]

We love Mario Kart.

[A]

We're an equal opportunity game.

[B]

Fan. Not like a board game house, but I would like to become a board game.

[A]

Board games are really fun with kids.

[B]

I was just playing a board game with your kid.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, I got that, like, reading board game.

[B]

Yeah, it was helping me. I was learning how to read.

[A]

There you go. Good. I'm glad.

[B]

But yeah, we're fucking stoked about the Salem Slicer.

[A]

Salem slicer. It's very 80s themed. It's very New England Salem, obviously. Salem. It's very like a fake true cry me. You're going to. There's a special exclusive podcast episode in the game from us.

[B]

How cool is that?

[A]

Which is really fun. And it was really fun to do. They've been great to work with. We had a blast. We were part of the whole thing from beginning to end.

[B]

I know, it's crazy that it's actually, like hitting stores now because it's been. It's been a while. It's been a while. And it's just like, if you ever wanted to be a detective, now you get to do so.

[A]

It is honestly, hunt a killer is so fun that way. It has. There's like real evidence in there. There's things you can touch, things you have to unlock, things like, you really have to get into it.

[B]

It's fun as hell through all the evidence. So right now it's available for pre order at Walmart. So definitely go pre order it, please. And do we have any other biz nasty?

[A]

Big Red Biz Nasty, I would say, hey, if you're looking for a signed

[B]

copy of the Butcher Legacy, Speaking of pre orders.

[A]

Speaking of pre orders, hey, go to Premier Collectibles. I have. The link is on my Instagram.

[B]

Go click it.

[A]

Premiere Collectibles. I'm sure if you type in the Butcher Legacy on there, it'll come up. Yeah, I'm signing things for them. Signing copies. And I will continue until you guys say, hey, you dumb, we don't want any more signed copies.

[B]

I doubt people will say that. I. I doubt. I doubt the True Blues will say that.

[A]

I doubt the good people will say that.

[B]

I have been reading your book all afternoon and like, all. I read, like, a little bit last week. I was reading it at a pedicure and I was like, I'm probably scaring everybody around me. You're just like. I was just like, there's just blood dripping off the COVID and people are like, what are you reading? What's going on there? Is that okay? Is that okay? I love it. Yay. Elena always has me read, like, when she's writing. So with the first two, I read a lot of chapters before the final product, but I obviously then still read the books and that was fun and I still loved them. But with this one, you didn't have me read as much as you were writing. So it's like a completely different reading experience. I love that so much. That's been really fun. Cause I forget the twist.

[A]

Yeah, that's it. I know you were like, I know there's a twist, but I don't.

[B]

I'm like, hahaha. I know.

[A]

I was like, I'm not going to tell you.

[B]

I know I was. I'm very excited about it. I'm getting very close to the end. I'm like more than halfway through.

[A]

I'm very excited. It's if you guys. I'm telling you, get into it, man.

[B]

Get into it.

[A]

Yeah, get into it, please. It's fun, I swear. And I'll love you forever.

[B]

That's nice.

[A]

Make sure you go pre order the but your legacy period. And if for some reason you're like, fuck that. I don't want a signed copy, but I would like a copy of the book. I get it. Sure. Why not? Okay. If. If you want to do that, go to butcherlegacy.com and buy it anywhere you want to and get it anywhere the you want. You can. You can pre order it anywhere you want.

[B]

The world is really your oyster.

[A]

It is. And I'll. And I'll keep making sure it's your oyster. You can't.

[B]

But we should be specific. You can't buy it at like an ihop. No. Or like. But Denny's.

[A]

Hey, that's an idea.

[B]

Okay, so there you go. See if you can talk to your literary agent about that one.

[A]

I'm gonna try to get it in anywhere.

[B]

Okay, so International House of Pancakes. Here she comes.

[A]

Here I come.

[B]

We are slop happy because this is later.

[A]

We are.

[B]

And I feel like we never record this late.

[A]

No, we don't.

[B]

But life happened.

[A]

Life sure happens.

[B]

Life has continued to happen.

[A]

Which is cool.

[B]

I like that. Life keeps happening.

[A]

Yeah, that's great.

[B]

But sometimes it gets crazy.

[A]

But sometimes it's just hard to fit everything in the day.

[B]

All right, everybody, so look at your stopwatch. The episode's about to start. Okay.

[A]

All right. You can say that it's about to start now.

[B]

Okay, There you go. There's your minute mark. Thanks so much, whoever you are. So we are going to be talking today. This is going to be a tupada.

[A]

A tupada. Tupada. It is true crime.

[B]

It's true crime. You buy. So this. This is a very tragic case. Very interesting. Though I will say I don't know this case. I didn't know this case before. Dave found this and was telling me all about it, and I said, please do that one. And we started looking into it, and I said, whoa, a lot is going on here. So we're going to go over a lot. In part one, we're going to be talking about Mark Kilroy and who he was and how he found himself to be missing. And we'll get into right when they're getting hot on the case, but not quite there yet. And then we'll pick up again in part two.

[A]

Oh, I love that.

[B]

So let's talk about Mark Kilroy first. He was born on March 5, 1968, in Chicago, Illinois.

[A]

Chicago.

[B]

He was the oldest of two children born to Jim and Helen. And not long after he was born, his parents decided they wanted to leave the city for a slower pace of life, and they ended up moving to Texas. So Santa Fe, to be specific. For his entire life, Mark Kilroy was the kind of kid that parents can only dream of. He went to church regularly with his parents. He was an active member of the community, especially the church community. His father said when he was around, he always lifted people up. He went in the right direction all the time. He was a real good guy to be around. A. He also was always a good student. He avoided drinking. He didn't do drugs. When he was in high school, he joined the Santa Fe High School baseball and the basketball team, and he was involved in student government. He was involved in Boy Scouts, but he always made sure to spend enough time on his studies at the same time. So he's, like, involved in all these different extracurriculars, but also managing to be

[A]

a good student, which is not easy.

[B]

No, it's not. Now, when he graduated from high school in 1986, he was accepted at Southwest Texas State University, and he had a brief stint there before he ended up transferring to Tarleton State University. And. And that was on a basketball scholarship. Okay. Sports had always played a really big part in his life, but after a few years, it became clear to him that this wasn't going to be his whole life. Like, he wasn't going to be in the NBA. Yeah. So he transferred to a third school, this time the University of Texas, and he ended up deciding to study medicine there. Oh, wow. Yeah.

[A]

That's a big deal.

[B]

It is now, even though their lives had led Them in separate directions. Mark and his core group of friends from high school still managed to stay in touch through their college years. And whenever they were home on school break or anything like that, they always got together. Now, in late winter of 1989, Mark and his friends, Bradley Moore, Bill Huddleston, and Brent Martin started planning details for their spring break vacation. Okay, they were stoked about this. Yeah. As soon as the semester ended, they were going to be back in. Or they were going to meet back in Santa Fe and take off together for a few days on South Padre island, which is a resort town not too far from the Mexican border. For Mark, that year was more exciting than the usual spring break trip because it also coincided with his 21st birthday.

[A]

Oh, what a. What a lucky thing.

[B]

And remember, he didn't really drink or do drugs or anything like that. So he's 21 now.

[A]

He's waiting for it to be legal.

[B]

Yeah, he can have a little drinky poo if he wants to. And what better time to have a drink than spring break? Of course, they had all attended spring break break festivities in South Padre before, but this was the first time also that Mark and his four high school best friends were going to be visiting together. So that was also, like, an exciting thing. As soon as Bradley finished up his exams around noon on March 10, he dropped. He jumped in his car and dropped into it, too. And he drove to Austin to pick up Mark, and they headed to Santa Fe to meet up with Bill and Brent. Okay, it's also very funny to me that there's Bradley, Bill, Brent, and Mark.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Now, along the way, they caught up on the things that they'd missed in each other's lives, about their plans for the future. Just boy talk, just vibing, just singing, just hanging. Bradley said, we talked about how it would probably be our last summer at home together, which is like, that's really sad. It's sad, but it's also like, okay, so, like, let's make the most of this trip. Like. Yeah, there's a. There's like a tension there almost where, you know, this is like kind of the end of a chapter.

[A]

Well, it does. It feels like one of those, like, you know those shows or movies you see where it's like the group of friends and it's their last summer at home before they all head off in different directions.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And you want it to end well, like, this is supposed to be like, you know, a summer where you get, like, you have fun and you.

[B]

You let loose.

[A]

Yeah, it's like, supposed to end with this, like, happy ending.

[B]

It's supposed to end all together.

[A]

And I. Now that you're beginning to talk. I do know this.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

I do know this. I think we talked about it on Crime countdown.

[B]

You know what? That actually makes sense because the name. I think you're right. The name sounded really familiar to me.

[A]

Yeah. And all of a sudden I was like, wait a minute.

[B]

We talked about so much on Crime Countdown. And there was, like, such little bursts of information, like snippets. Exactly. So every now and again, I'm like, did we talk about that?

[A]

Yeah. I'm like, did we do a whole episode on that? And then I'm like, no, we didn't.

[B]

I know. Exactly. So it was late by the time they reached Santa Fe, but the four boys decided they didn't want to waste any time. So they started making their way to South Padre around midnight. In total, it took about nine hours for them to get there, including two stops along the way. But there was really no time to rest. As soon as they checked into the hotel, they showered, they ate, and they hit the beach.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

This is their last trip. They got to make the most of it now. With roughly a quarter of a million students expected at South Padre that spring break, the entire area had been transformed in anticipation of all these kids arrivals. According to journalist Gary Cartwright, the weekend attractions and offerings included beer companies sponsoring an unprecedented variety of entertainment, including free movies, free concert, free calls home, which, like, please just think about that.

[A]

Yeah. Which is wild.

[B]

And surf simulator rides. Religious organizations from as far away as Madison, Wisconsin, were handing out pamphlets and free suntan lotion urging students to pray rather than to party. A beer company offered the free use of a swimming pool to students who didn't mind being filmed for part of a commercial. And the boys took advantage of it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So it's just, like all kinds of things going on.

[A]

Yeah. Again, it's just, like, let loose.

[B]

It reminds me of, like. Like just that little, like, snippet reminds me of Saved by the bell when they go on that, like, beach vacation.

[A]

Oh, my God. Yes.

[B]

Right? Yeah. I. For some reason that that episode sticks out of my head. It might have been a series of episodes.

[A]

It's like Saved by the bell. And then it made me think of Gilmore Girls when they go on spring break. I don't even remember that when they

[B]

go on, you can count on a girl. You can count on Alina. To pinpoint a specific Gilmore Girls reference. Absolutely wild.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So Mark and Brad took advantage of the free phone calls home and they let their parents know that they all had got there safely and they were just hanging out on the beach. Later that night, they met up with a group of girls who traveled from Purdue University. And they just spent the night drinking and hanging out in their adjoining hotel rooms until dawn, getting to know each other, just having a good time.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Within a couple days of their arrival, the four guys had kind of settled into a routine of waking up early, hitting the beach, going back to their hotel rooms for a little nap before ending or before starting the evening's round of drinking. Like, typical vacation.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Occasionally the routine was interrupted by an event like the daily Ms. Tan Line contest.

[A]

Ms. Tan Line.

[B]

I love it. But for the most part, it was just a lot of sun, a lot of drinking, a lot of fun. So this was pretty much what they expected. But none of them had expected it to get old quite so fast. And by Sunday, March 12, they decided they wanted to change it up a little bit. Like, they were like, okay, why don't we go, like, sightsee? Why don't we go to Matamoros, Mexico, just over the border. We're so close to Mexico. It would be so fun to travel.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So that night, Mark and his friends stopped at the Sonic Drive in in Port Isabel for dinner. There they met a group of girls from the University of Kansas who were also on their way to Matamoros. So they all decided, okay, let's go together. And the girls followed behind as Brett drove to the border. After parking their cars on the Brownsville side of the bridge, they all walked across the border into Matamoros. And they just spent the night kind of bar hopping. And they specifically landed at one bar called Sergeant Pepper's. Okay. Once they got back to their cars early the next morning, the two groups said their goodbyes, and they went their separate ways. Now, they all had so much fun in Matamoros that night. So after a day at the beach, the next day, they all decided, why don't we go back into Mexico again? Like, that was so much fun. Yeah. So they did, and they arrived a little after 10pm it turned out that Mark and his friends were not the only one with that plan, though. By the time they arrived in the small border town, the sidewalks were crammed with nearly 15,000 students.

[A]

Holy shit.

[B]

All of whom had come to party and sell, celebrate spring break. So, looking for the bar with the shortest line, they ended up at a place called Los Sombreros, described as a spot with a lot of neon and music loud enough to shatter brick. Whoa. Yeah. Sounds like my worst nightmare.

[A]

I was just gonna say I hate everything about that.

[B]

I will say, though, if I was 21, dream like, let's go.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Would have loved it now. Couldn't pay me. Couldn't.

[A]

No music loud enough to shatter brick is actually so scary to me.

[B]

Yeah, it actually is. We went to dinner together one time. I forget where we went, but I just remember sitting down at the T with you and the music was really loud, and I. You looked like you were going to crawl inside of yourself. I was.

[A]

So. I remember that vividly, and I know

[B]

exactly where it was because I think you literally looked at me and said, how are we going to get through this?

[A]

I said. I was like, I can't hear anything. Like, I don't know what's going on.

[B]

What if I agree to something crazy? Yeah.

[A]

I could not.

[B]

Yeah. Loud music is a lot, especially if it can split brick.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So after a few hours with music splitting brick at Los Sombreros, they travel deeper into the city, ending up at the Lunch London pub, which I feel like you wouldn't expect to see.

[A]

No.

[B]

It had just rebranded itself, actually, as the Hard Rock Cafe, which has no relation to the American chain.

[A]

Really?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

The group. Apparently, we all just have good ideas. All right. The group stayed there until about 2 in the morning, and then Bill decided it was probably time to head back across the bridge back into the US Technically. So by that point, the four boys had separated when they walked. And when they walked out of the bar, Mark's friends saw him leaning against a car outside, talking to a girl who he had met earlier that day at the Miss Tan Line contestant. But seeing him and getting to him were two very different things entirely at this point. Because remember, I just said there's 15, 000 people littering the streets like that.

[A]

I'm stressed out.

[B]

All I can picture now, like, just to relate this to us and maybe anybody else in Boston, is like the St. Patty's parade.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Or like pride or something. Like.

[A]

Or like. Or when it's like 4th of July on the esplanade.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Like, oh, my God, that's what I'm thinking of.

[B]

Just like shoulder to shoulder.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So getting to him was going to be tough. So rather than try to fight the movement of the crowd, Brad and Brent figured it would be easier to just go in the direction of the bridge that led back to Texas and then they could all just meet there. They figured, why wouldn't we all just do that?

[A]

Yeah, why not?

[B]

By that time, Mark had caught up with Bill, and so they assumed that they would find their friends. But as they neared the border, Mark told Bill to go ahead of him because he had to relieve himself. So he ducked behind a tree to do that. A short time later, Bill met up with Brad and Brent, and the three of them were sitting around waiting for Mark, who they figured would emerge at any second. But minutes passed, and he still wasn't showing up. And eventually, they started to get concerned. By then, nearly all the bars had closed, and all of the tourists had flowed back over the border, and there were still no signs of Mark. So they spent hours roaming the town looking for him. They went back over the border, but it was like he vanished without a trace. Damn. He was just gone.

[A]

And honestly, you don't think. And I know, like, you don't think about this happening with, like, a man. No, you know what I mean? Like, when it's not your first thought, like, when it's, like, a group of men together, you would assume nothing can touch them. Like they're invincible, essentially. You know what I mean? I know that's not true. I'm just saying that's the initial thought.

[B]

We're kind of, like, conditioned to think with these concepts of stories that, like,

[A]

a group of young men, one of them suddenly going missing is like, what?

[B]

Like, how did that happen?

[A]

He wasn't safe.

[B]

Like, it's.

[A]

It's just, like, very shocking.

[B]

It is.

[A]

It's.

[B]

And it's chilling. Yeah, it is chilling. That's the perfect way to describe it. So they spent all night searching the increasingly empty streets of Matamoros for Mark, Growing more and more concerned with every single hour that passed. Finally, when the sun came up and they still hadn't found any sign of Mark, the three decided maybe he had just gotten a ride back to south Padre with someone that he met at the. Maybe that girl that they saw him talking to earlier. They're like, hopefully we're overreacting here.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Because the alternative that their friend had now disappeared in a foreign country Was way too frightening to accept at the time.

[A]

And, like, who takes a grown man?

[B]

Well, and you don't. I don't think you initially go to that. Like, obviously, when you're looking for your friend for hours and hours and you can't find them, like, panic starts to set in. But then after a little bit, you're like, okay, let's be a little logical here. Maybe he did just get a ride. Yeah.

[A]

Like, your brain doesn't want to believe that.

[B]

The alternative scenario. Yeah, right. Chime is changing the way people bank with fee free banking built for you. No overdraft in monthly fees, thousands of fee free ATMs and members can benefit from up to $1,150 in annual rewards. With a Chime card you get 5% cash back in a category of your choice like gas or groceries and you get savings that grow faster with a 3.7% APY that's nine times higher than the national average. Chime is not just smarter banking, it is the most rewarding way to bank. Join the millions who are already banking fee free today. Head to chime.commorbid that is chime.commorbid it only takes a few minutes to sign up. Chime is a fintech not a bank. Banking Services for Chime Card provided by Chimes Bank Partners. Optional products and services may have fees or charges. Stated annual percentage yield and cash back for Chime prime only. No minimum balance required. For More information on APY rates go to chime.com disclosures

[A]

do you know that feeling when working out finally clicks? When you finally feel like you get in a routine when you can see the results not just physically, also like emotionally, mentally, all of it.

[B]

I don't know. Tell me about it.

[A]

I'm going to tell you about it because finally when it clicks for me is when I get that clear headed feeling I can. I actually look forward to my workouts cuz I feel like they're kind of like a reset for me.

[B]

Oh heck yeah.

[A]

Heck yeah. It's honestly it's worth it. You're.

[B]

It's worth it.

[A]

It's an investment in yourself, in every way that it can be. So I'm telling you one way you can do this is with Peloton Pel Peloton helps you unlock all the expansive joyful feelings somebody gets through movement with the Peloton Cross Training Tread plus Powered by Peloton iq Peloton IQ builds a workout road map that's completely yours so you can stop overthinking and just move. Which is the hardest part.

[B]

I love that.

[A]

Peloton IQ provides intelligent strength coaching so you can stay in the moment. You can track every single rep. You can read every movement and guiding form in real time so there's no second guessing because that's always my thing is I'm like, like am I doing this right?

[B]

And they're like no you're not.

[A]

This is how you do it.

[B]

Don't second guess yourself girl.

[A]

Don't do it. So spin the swivel screen too and feel what's possible. Moving from running to strength seamlessly without breaking any flow because we don't want

[B]

to break that flow state there.

[A]

Honestly, the clarity that comes when you stop negotiating with yourself. I'll just do it tomorrow. I'll. I'll start it next week. Maybe if I get in this routine, I'll feel better.

[B]

Don't talk about it. Just do it. Don't talk about it. Be about it.

[A]

And take it from me, because I'm the person who will continue negotiating with myself until I'm 80 years old that I've yet to step on any single exercise equipment. So finally when I stopped and I just got on my peloton, I'm telling you, it's an investment. It's a worthwhile investment in yourself. So let yourself run, lift, fail. Try and go explore the new peloton. Cross training Tread [e-mail] period.

[B]

Chilling crime cases are mysterious, but finding coverage shouldn't be. With the State Farm personal price plan, you have options and can personalize your plan to help create an affordable price so you can get back to cracking all of life's bigger cases. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Head to statefarm.com to get a quote. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer, availability, amount of discounts, and savings and eligibility vary by state. Unfortunately, though, when they got back to the Sheridan later that morning back in Texas, they discovered Mark's bed was empty. It didn't look like it had been slept in, and there was nothing in the room to indicate that he returned. Exhausted though, from their night of partying and searching, they went to bed hoping that when they woke back up, he would be back. Remember, this is the 80s. Like, we're not all super well informed in how to respond to a situation like this. And honestly, I think what you were just saying as men, they just weren't thinking. They're not thinking like that.

[A]

Yeah, because they're not conditioned to think like this. And again, remember, like back then, it's not like they were listening to true crime podcasts or watching documentaries on the Dateline and seeing this kind of shit happening all the time.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

This was not something that anybody was thinking about, you know?

[B]

But here's the thing. When they woke up several hours later, Mark still wasn't back. And they decided that under the circumstances, it didn't seem wise Just to keep waiting for him to show back up. So that afternoon, March 15, they all together went to the South Padre Island Police department and they filed a missing persons report, including every relevant detail that they could remember from the night before. Now, during spring break, the usually quiet South Padre community had learned to brace itself for an increase in everything that comes with the increase in the number of visitors, from hotel bookings to also reports of criminal activity. So Mark wasn't necessarily the first person to be reported missing during spring break. He wasn't even the first person actually reported missing that week.

[A]

That's wild.

[B]

It's. Yeah.

[A]

Spring break scares the shit out of me.

[B]

I never was allowed to go on spring break.

[A]

I never was either.

[B]

And I will not allow my children to go on spring break. And I know that. I know that there's, like, all these things that you say before you have kids that you're not like, I'm not going to do this, and I'm not going to do that. That's one I know I will be stand 10 toes down on as someone with kids. No, I'm not either. So it's just not happening. But we can take a family vacation. So while the police took the report seriously, they still was. They still were confident that he would show back up. Yeah, they probably thought he was, like,

[A]

drunk and, like, passed out somewhere.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But when Mark's friends mentioned Mexico, the detectives did become somewhat more concerned. Author Jim Shoots, and we will link his book in the show note, show notes. He said, no matter how casually the kids themselves took this business of crossing into Mexico to raise hell, no one in law enforcement in South Texas took Mexico cases lightly because they're in a completely different jurisdiction.

[A]

Yeah, of course. Yeah.

[B]

A completely different area. Now, throughout the 1980s, specifically, drug trafficking and organized crime had spiked in Mexico due mostly to a massive economic crisis that put a lot of people out of work and led to few options for legitimate employment. Criminal gangs that were once very poorly organized and focused mostly on petty crime had become a lot more formal. And now there were lots of different networks for trafficking. Guns, drugs, people, you name it. Gang violence was a problem all over the country, but it was particularly challenging at the American border. Oh, I'm sure, because large amounts of drugs and other illicit substances were flowing into the country there. So it wasn't that uncommon for tourists or unlucky American workers to get kidnapped and ransom back to their families. So this is what the investigators in South Padre had been thinking when they got the report about Mark going missing in Matamoros. And if that was what happened to Mark, the small police department in South Padre did lack the resources to deal with a case like this.

[A]

I mean, that's a big deal.

[B]

Yeah. So that afternoon, the case was forwarded to Cameron County Sheriff Alex Perez in Brownsville, Texas, which was. You do have to respect how quickly these police forces moved. Yeah, that doesn't always happen. No, definitely not. It's not often that a small police department realizes that they don't have the resources and reaches out. So when they do, like, you gotta snap on them. Yeah. Now, if Mark had been kidnapped for ransom, the county sheriff would have had the resources and the regional knowledge necessary to resolve everything, hopefully without getting on the wrong side of Mexican authorities. So Perez assigned the case to his most reliable deputy, George Gavito, who immediately recruited the help of Deputy Lupe Limas, a formal Brownsville police officer who had recently started working with the sheriff's department. And he had a lot of experience working on cases that crossed over into the border. So this was kind of. That's who you need, a perfect duo, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So Gavito and Limas were aware of the potential implications of Mark having gone missing, especially over the border. He was one of 60Americans to have been reported missing in Mexico in just three months.

[A]

Whoa. Yeah.

[B]

However, they were also familiar, like we were just saying, with the chaos and, you know, just the drunken vibes going around on spring break. So neither of them were ready to assume the complete worst.

[A]

Yeah. Because this could just be debauchery.

[B]

Exactly. And honestly, I'm sure you're hoping it was.

[A]

Yeah, that's the thing. You're hoping. This is just a lesson learned.

[B]

Exactly. You know, so instead of going to worst case scenario, they decided to proceed as they would with any other missing person's case, operating on the assumption and the hope that Mark had simply caught a ride with a girl that he met at a bar and he would turn back up soon enough. That's how they planned to approach the case. But before the day was over, that plan changed dramatically. After Mark's friends filed the report with the South Padre police, they returned to the hotel and they called Mark's parents, obviously, to let them know that he was missing.

[A]

The. The call no parent wants and the

[B]

call, like, it's got to be so stressful to send your kids on spring break. Like. And also, here's the other thing. These aren't kids. He's a 21 year old. So they didn't have a lot of say in if you went or if

[A]

you didn't, it's their kid. And it's like, you go, you sit there and you're like, it won't happen to my kid.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And then when you. The worst happens, I don't even know how you brain. You wrap your brain around it.

[B]

It must just not feel like real

[A]

life because you're like, no, this is literally the worst case. Scen. How is it actually happening?

[B]

Right. So they had heard the news reports of people going missing along the Mexican border as it was all happening, and they immediately worried that something bad had happened to their son once they realized he was one of those missing people. So rather than wait to hear from the police, Jim called his brother Ken, who was a U.S. customs agent, which, like, great contact to him. He was based in la, and he asked for his help. Now, Ken knew his nephew pretty well, and he knew that, well, Mark might have had a few beers now and again and, you know, maybe partied too hard every now and again. He wasn't a drug user, and there wasn't anything else on that side of the border that he would have gotten caught up in. Plus his car was still on the American side of the border and all of his belongings were inside. And they were. They knew that he wouldn't have just abandoned all of that. So in just a few hours, the missing person's case had escalated from a local matter to now a federal investigation. Damn. Yeah.

[A]

Fast.

[B]

By the time. Which is honestly a good thing. Yeah.

[A]

That it got leveled this high.

[B]

Yeah. By the time Ken Kilroy and his partner and neck got in touch with George Govito, several calls had already been made to the Cameron County Sheriff's Department, and a large team of law enforcement officials was assembled to search for Mark. At the same time, Mark's father Jim was on his way to Brownsville to help in. In the search however he could. Gabito remembered later about Mark's father. He came into the sheriff's office and he never left the sheriff's office. He was there for 30 days each single day, Saturdays and Sundays, too. He begged me to help him look for his son.

[A]

Oh, my God. That just destroys my heart. I know that's a parent right there.

[B]

That's a full blown parent. The problem was, while Gavito and the rest of the investigators assigned to the case obviously desperately wanted to find Mark Kilroy, they had no evidence and there were no leads to work with. And even if they did have those leads and did have that evidence, none of them had jurisdiction to launch an investigation. In Mexico.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So that's really weird complicated things and you're not thinking that as a 21 year old on spring break crossing over the border.

[A]

No.

[B]

But now that we have that information it is something that you have to consider.

[A]

Yeah you do.

[B]

If something happens to me it's not

[A]

that easy for people to get the resources and the jurisdiction and the warrants and the this and the that and the share information and that's why I

[B]

think it's so important that we share stories like this.

[A]

Yeah. Because you need to know that you have to at least be aware of these things. It's scary cuz this get this is anywhere. Anywhere that's not where you're based and

[B]

where your all your is well just

[A]

like to find you.

[B]

Yeah just like when we were talking about the Amy Bradley case like in international waters it just becomes more complex

[A]

the web becomes tighter and that's hard.

[B]

It's awful and it sucks because people should be able to go on vacation should be able to let loose monster

[A]

preying upon why can't people just stop beings.

[B]

It's never happened in all of humanity. I don't think so sick.

[A]

If we could all just agree to stop being it would.

[B]

I would love that everyone I would love that.

[A]

I would what it Peace on earth is a real. I'm like damn that is. You just. You wish somebody would get that that wish and actually have it happen honestly. Because it would be real nice nice if everyone was just chilling.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Imagine if everyone was just chilling.

[B]

I can't even picture it to be

[A]

honest with you that everybody was just minding their own business.

[B]

No.

[A]

Helping out their brethren when they could.

[B]

Yeah. I mean that's how I try to live my life. I obviously everybody can be an sometimes but like to this degree no at

[A]

this point in my life I'm just trying to chill.

[B]

Yeah. She just threw up. I'm just trying to chill.

[A]

I am just trying to chill so

[B]

but no that's like I said I really do think that that's why we should be telling these stories so aware of the restrictions on law enforcement in an international case the Kilroys turned to the nearby communities for help. In the early days Jim went down to the bridge that crossed into Matamoros and handed out missing flyers from morning until night just hoping that somebody he was going to run into and hand that flyer to would know something and give them some kind of lead they could work with.

[A]

That truly breaks my heart.

[B]

It's awful. Family friends also joined the search Mark's former Basketball coach Joe Rodriguez spent the first week traveling back and forth to Matamoros, interviewing what are called veladores, and those are the men who provided security for local businesses and bars. Kind of like a bouncer. Jim said of the Rio Grande Valley communities that helped search for Mark. They were just absolutely wonderful how they coddled us and took care of us, which is really sweet. Like, it's. This case does not end up.

[A]

No.

[B]

In a.

[A]

In a.

[B]

This is not a happy ending, which I obviously hate. But at the very least, it's nice that these communities were able to work together.

[A]

Oh, yeah, for sure.

[B]

And people were supported in the search.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Now, while the family and the community continued to search on both sides of the border for Mark, the sheriff's department took to more atypical methods of investigation. A few days into the search, Gavito brought Brad Moore into the sheriff's office to be hypnotized, hoping that it might jog his memory and reveal some critical clue about the night that Mark went missing. Now, when I first read that, I was like, okay, maybe that'll.

[A]

Yeah. You're like, sure.

[B]

But, you know, sometimes these things work.

[A]

Hey, we don't know everything there is to know. We really don't have the human mind about what this happens. So if something could potentially help, and especially I would, as a parent, I would do anything.

[B]

Absolutely nothing would be off the table. Absolutely. So Willie Cannon of the U.S. customs Service said, it's kind of an unusual situation because there's really nothing to go on.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So when Brad was unable to come up with anything new, they moved on to Bill Huddleston. And while he was under hypnosis, he described seeing Mark walking near a, quote, Hispanic man with a cut on his cheek right before he disappeared. Which is, like, pretty to have the cut on the cheek to go on. That's a little more than just your typical description of somebody, you know. So Bill said he didn't recall Mark talking to the man, but when he looked back, he said he saw the strange man motion towards Mark. Okay. Interesting, right? Yeah. So when more than a week passed and there was still no sign of Mark, the CO ROs were getting desperate, and they turned to another outlet for help that. That was kind of a newer outlet. Just one year earlier, the TV program America's Most Wanted made its debut, which, like, wow, isn't that crazy?

[A]

You just feel like that's always been a thing, even though, you know, in

[B]

my life, it always has been. Yeah. And pretty much your life, too.

[A]

Like. Yeah.

[B]

For most of Our life and all of mine. It has. Yeah. So. And the thing was, it had debuted a year earlier, before this case, and it had already led to the capture of many violent criminals.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So the producers of America's Most Wanted agreed to feature the story on the program. And they immediately traveled out to Brownsville to record a recreation of the night that everything happened and Mark went missing to air on the show. Okay. While they were taking a break from filming the segment, a woman staggered up to one of the cameramen. Scott Judy. She was clutching a crumpled missing person's poster in her hand. And she told him, he's dead. You know, they found him shot in the head. What the fuck? Out of completely nowhere.

[A]

That's horrifying.

[B]

And just like what? What? It turned out that rumors had already started circulating among the spring breakers in South Padre that Mark had been found dead. Moments later, one of the producers angrily escorted the women out of the area and made sure she didn't come back. But it got everybody thinking.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Now, the segment was rushed to completion and it aired on the show a few nights later along with a 22nd PSA recorded both in Spanish and in English, telling viewers how they could help. Help. The episode did result in more than 150 tips called in by viewers claiming everything from Mark was dead to Mark was seen working in a convenience store in California. Not true. None of the tips really led to anything. But according to Jim Shoots, it allowed investigators to see into the Mexican side by tracking what the Mexicans were doing with tips from the show. So they didn't have jurisdiction there. But now that community is able to kind of talk to them a little bit. So there's. It's giving them something.

[A]

Yeah. For sure.

[B]

They really hadn't made any more progress on the case than the American counterparts. But detectives in Texas could see that the Mexican investigators were taking Mark's disappearance very seriously. And they also were running all these tips down. So that was nice.

[A]

Yeah. So things are in motion.

[B]

They are. But by the end of the month, investigators on both sides of the border weren't much closer to finding Mark Kilroy than they had on the day he went missing. And it was starting to feel like he was never going to be found. In order to feel like they were doing something productive and proactive, Jim and Helen withdrew Mark from school. Jim told reporters, we're trying to find out what things we can do because we don't really know we're holding up well. But it's a matter of what you can do, how much can you do? And you start to run out of things you can do to try to find Mark?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

It's just awful.

[A]

It is.

[B]

Now, just as everybody was starting to lose hope that Mark would ever be found, there was a break in the case. And it came in one of the most unexpected and innocuous forms. On the end, this is where we really take a hard left. So bear with me, everybody.

[A]

All right, I'm here.

[B]

We're going into a completely different area here. So on the afternoon of April 1, Mexican police were conducting a checkpoint on Highway 2. That's the main road that connects Matamoros to Texas.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

The setup was a simple drug checkpoint, like countless others along the border, basically attempting to stop drugs from coming into or out of Mexico.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Now, they're sitting there on this. On this stop, and they spot. Police spot a red truck they recognize coming down the highway, and they quickly ran the plate and discovered that it belonged to Seraphine Hernandez Garcia. Now, at the time, the Hernandez family was well known to the police in Matamoros. For decades, they had been one of the better organized gangs in the region, responsible for a lot of drug trafficking and smuggling. In more recent years, though, the organization had expanded to include several members of the family living across the border in Brownsville, Texas. So they were kind of, like, working dual sides of the border.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Now, unlike more of the hardcore gangs that had been recently established in the region, the Hernandez family mostly just ran marijuana back and forth from Texas to Mexico. So the police, they had run into the police a lot, but they weren't like, super dangerous or anything like that. That. Despite that, they had been successful for many years due in large part to their charismatic leader, Saul Hernandez. But when Saul was killed by machine gun fire in 1986, the family business started to fall apart. Now, Paul's. Paul's brother, Seraphine tried to step into his brother's role and keep everything together, but within a month, he was arrested by US Officials, which left their entire operation in disarray.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Now, without the charisma of their former leader, the Hernandez business wasn't just in danger of losing money, but they were also in danger of being taken over by one of the other organizations in the region, because that was happening, too. They would just walk in and be like, well, you're part of us now, and you're going to be paying us everything that you're making, and that's it.

[A]

Deal with it.

[B]

Like, otherwise, we can just shoot you.

[A]

Oof.

[B]

Yeah. So in order to fend off any potential takeovers which would have inevitably ended in the murder of those higher up in the family. Like I just said.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

What remained of the Hernandez leadership turned to Adolfo Constanzo, the Cuban American leader of the criminal organization that was dubbed Los Narcos Satanicos. The Narco Satanists. Yeah. As one of the more feared and dangerous gangs in the region, Adolfo Constanzo's group operated less like a criminal syndicate and more like a religious cult. Okay. Yeah. And it was all oriented around Constanzo, who was the known as the Godfather, and his quote unquote, high priestess, Sarah Maria Aldrete V. Ariel. I really hope I'm saying these pronunciations correctly. I looked them up. So. Yeah, Interesting.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Now, at first, the deal that was struck between Constanzo and the remaining Hernandez family members was just for simple protection. But before long, the remaining Hernandez family members basically were absorbed into the narco satanists.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

So as soon as they received the report about Mark Kilroy, who had disappeared in Matamoros, it occurred to investigators that he could have been kidnapped by one of the local gangs. That was one of the first things on everybody's radar.

[A]

Absolutely.

[B]

Publicly, Mexican authorities, quote, tried to claim that that Kilroy must have vanished in Brownsville because they were aware that news of another kidnapped tourists was going to hurt the local economy, which was already hurting. But behind closed doors, more than a few people brought up Adolfo Constanzo and the Hernandez family. And sadly, they knew that if Mark had been kidnapped by the narco satanists, there was very little hope that they would get him back alive, if they ever even got him back at all.

[A]

That's worst case scenario. It really is like, truly worst case

[B]

scenario to not even get to think that you wouldn't even get his body. You'll just never get him back. Like, that's like, oh, God, I can't. So now back to the afternoon of April 1st. Agent Raul Morales had been stationed at the checkpoint on Highway 2. He'd been an agent in the area for many years, and he was familiar with the various members of all the gangs, especially the Hernandez family. So when he saw the compact red pickup coming down the highway, he knew right away that he would find little Seraphine behind the wheel. And that was confirmed when they managed to check the plate. And since little Seraphine had blown through the checkpoint without stopping, they also knew that they had ample reason to stop him and even arrest him if they needed to. But Morales and all the other officers had been through that before. They'd stop one of the gang members as they came across the border. They'd try to get information. Inevitably, the gang members would stay silent. And the whole thing was kind of just a pointless exercise in frustration.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So instead he had a better idea. And the way that this all works out, I was like, there's some kind of divine intervention here. Because the fact that he was like, you know what? I'm not gonna do that today. Yeah, it all worked out.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Not any kind of way, but it worked. Guys, if you haven't heard this story before, I still get freaked out by this. It was a few years ago, probably like five or six at this point, and it was a crazy snowstorm in the middle of the night. We got this knocking or this ring on our doorbell. I can't remember which one, but it was freaking us out. An hour later, same thing happens. And we didn't have a security system. And that night I said, I need to know who's out the door. And that's why we're getting a Simply safe system tomorrow. Next time you hear a bump in the night, Feel confident knowing that your home is protected. SimpliSafe offers 24. 7 effective, affordable professional monitoring with no long term contracts. Get a fully customizable system that's easy to set up with features like comprehensive sensors and indoor and outdoor cameras protecting against not only intruders, but also fires and floods. Plus, you're backed by SimpliSafe's 24. 7 professional monitoring agents who dispatch emergency help when you need it. It. Over 5 million people trust Simply safe with their home security, and I'm one of them. I absolutely love my Simplisafe system. Like I said, after that freaky experience, we got one the very next day. Drew, set it up. Now we have indoor cameras, outdoor cameras. We have window sensors. We have a panic button. We have an extra alarm that screams really loud if you're too close to it. And we have that doorbell camera. So literally, people before they're even walking up the steps, I know who's at my house. And that peace of mind is priceless. Trust Simply safe. Our listeners will get 50 off a new system when you sign up for professional monitoring. And your first month is free by visiting simplisafe.commorbid that's half [e-mail]. there's no safe like Simply Safe. This is a paid ad by BetterHelp. If you've been feeling overwhelmed, stuck, anxious, or unsure, that's okay. Those feelings are more common than we think. Whatever you're going through. You do not have to go through it all alone. Having someone with you to listen to, understand it can make all the difference. Whatever's keeping you up at night, therapy and better Help can provide you with tools to help you check in with yourself and gain support from experienced professionals. I think it's that time of year, like the seasons are changing over and we're trying to be more productive and we can really get hard on ourselves during these times. I know I feel that way and I know therapy is a great outlet to talk about that. BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform. Just take a short questionnaire to identify your needs and Preferences and BetterHelp will handle the initial therapist matching work for you. You can also feel confident knowing betterhelp therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and they are fully qualified. You don't have to be on this journey alone. Find someone and have someone with you in therapy. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.commorbid that's better. H-E-L-P.commorbid One thing that I have just been back on my BS with, honey is my smoothie. I've been making a smoothie a day and I am loving how good I feel. And the summer is coming up and I really want to stay on track with my, you know, my healthy eating, my good vibes. So no matter how packed your schedule is, here's the good news. Kachava delivers clean, wholesome nutrition to keep you energized for whatever your day throws at you. And now Kachava is available in travel packs. I'm obsessed with that. I'm literally so excited because all the nutrition that your body craves is in one deliciously simple shake. Packed to go. Just one packet provides complete nutrition for life on the go with protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals, greens, probiotics, omegas, electrolytes, and even more. There's no fillers, no nonsense and they come in six fan favorite flavors. There's chocolate, vanilla, chai, there's matcha, coconut, acai and strawberry. I recently tried the strawberry flavor. I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. Do half of the strawberry scoop and half of the vanilla scoop and that tastes like a strawberry milkshake. You're welcome. I love throwing together a Cachava smoothie, especially if I'm on the go. If I need like a breakfast that I know is going to satiate me until lunch, I whip up a smoothie in the morning. It's super simple I just throw in a little bit of, like, whatever milk that you drink, a little ice, and the cachava scoop, maybe a scoop of peanut butter if you want to, and you have such a delicious shake on the go that's going to satiate you. You guys are gonna love cachava. Take your daily ritual with you. Go to kachava.com and use code morbidpod for 15 off your first order. That's Kachava. K-A C-H-A-A.com code morbidpod. So rather than hitting the sirens and forcing Hernandez to pull over, he and his partner jumped in an unmarked Ford Bronco. And they followed Seraphine at a safe distance, hoping that he would lead them somewhere or give them a lead on whatever it was this family was up to. So they ended up following him to the Santa Elena ranch, which was, by the way, Elena, that's me. It was an old farm about 20 miles outside of Matamoros. Morales and the other investigators had figured Constanzo's organization had been headquartered somewhere to the just outside of the city. And later that would be confirmed by a raid and information that they obtained from U.S. customs officials. In their report, customs agents estimated that there were up to 24 people smuggling drugs for Constanzo, and they were all coming and going at the ranch. But they wrote that no more than 12 were involved in the kidnappings and the slayings that eventually took place at the ranch. Oh, Jesus. So at the time, Morales and the other investigators had no proof of what they suspected was going on between this gang here. Yeah, they had only really just learned about the location of the ranch when they followed Seraphine. So rather than risk losing valuable evidence, Morella's chose to hang back and stake out the ranch, hoping that they could gather some kind of compelling evidence to justify a search warrant for the property. This is great detective work. So the next day, he returned to the ranch, pretending that he was a lost traveler, looking for directions back into town. Wow.

[A]

Which, like, brave, I was just going to say. That's terrifying.

[B]

Yeah. So he spoke with an elderly man who said that he was the caretaker. And the man did seem to be tending to the animals that day. So he was like, maybe you are a caretaker.

[A]

What the.

[B]

The man said his name was Domingo, but he said he didn't know who owned the ranch. He just showed up every day to do his job, and he didn't ask questions.

[A]

I mean, hey, I don't blame him. Yeah.

[B]

So Morales could tell the man was lying to him. He was Like, I definitely think he knew more than he was letting on, but he also didn't want to blow his cover, so he didn't. He didn't push. Also, his job that afternoon was to keep the caretaker busy while his partner poked around the property, trying to stay out of sight. This is.

[A]

This is scary. Terrifying, but a lot of police work happening here.

[B]

Yeah, and really good police work.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So as the other agent crept around the property, he spotted what looked like a brand new Chevy Suburban, which was not exactly the type one would expect to find on a farm in the middle of nowhere.

[A]

Probably not.

[B]

Now, peering into the back of the car, he could see a layer of dark dust covering almost the entire back seat, which he immediately recognized as the resin dust that shakes off of dried marijuana plants. So it's, like, caked on in that car.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And as he started to turn away from the truck, though, something else caught his eye. On the floor in the back seat of the car was a gray cement statue of what looked to the agent like some kind of demonic figure. Not wanting to raise any alarms, he just went back to the car and waited for his partner, Morales, who came back a short time later.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Now, back at the station, the two agents checked in with their supervisor, Commander Juan Benitez, and gave him an update on what they had all seen at the ranch. Now, Benitez had been raised in the traditional. I hope I say this correctly. Oaxacan community, and he was more familiar with folk religions than the other agents were.

[A]

Oh, wow.

[B]

That.

[A]

That's good that they had somebody that actually knew.

[B]

It really worked out, because we're pulling

[A]

on a thread here right now for sure.

[B]

So when Benitez heard the description of the statue in the back of the car, he immediately recognized it as the statue of Alagua, who's a trickster God in Santeria. And this God is recognized as the messenger to the supreme creator, Ala Wufi. Oh, again, I really hope I'm saying all that right. So Benitez explained that the trickster was a favorite among the drug traffickers to kind of worship and, like, ask for protection, especially those who wanted to curse their enemies. According to author Edward Humes, among the legends was the belief that if the proper offerings were made to Alagua, he could make you bulletproof and invisible. Whoa. So that being the case, the promise of those powers would have made some of the greatest criminals in the world?

[A]

Yeah, I would say so.

[B]

And for that, those criminals felt like there was nothing too valuable to sacrifice.

[A]

Oh.

[B]

So it was obvious that there was drug smuggling going on at the ranch. But they needed something a little bit more, and they. Because they knew something much worse was going on.

[A]

Yeah, this is not looking good right now.

[B]

So, Benitez himself had overseen the downfall of the Hernandez family in the last few years. So he knew that whatever was happening at the farm, they weren't working alone. And they probably weren't running the show anymore, either. Which meant that another cartel was involved. And that's a big deal.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So he ordered that the ranch be monitored day and night. And in the meantime, he placed a call to his contact at the DEA to find out whether they knew anything about the operation at the ranch. Now, the DEA had also been monitoring the Hernandez family since before they expanded beyond the border. But that focus became more intense when the family expanded into Brownsville, Texas. It was as Benitez had expected. Something had changed. Changed in the family's fortune since the elder leaders had died. So, for decades, like I said, Hernandez, the Hernandez family had been trafficking small amounts of marijuana back and forth. But their operation was not that impressive, especially compared to the newer cartels. And after the death of Saul and the failure of his brother, it was expected that they would kind of just be on their way out. But that was hardly what the DEA had seen. Edward Humes wrote, the Hernandez boys were living in a fine home, driving a fleet of brand new trucks and walking the streets like swaggering feudal lords. Whoa.

[A]

Yeah, what a description.

[B]

Exactly. And they said obviously that kind of money and confidence didn't come from selling small amounts of weed or even cocaine at that point. To tourists. Yeah, there was something a lot bigger going on here. So the agent pretty much confirmed what Benitez already knew. The remaining Hernandez family must have hooked up with a more powerful cartel. But he mentioned one more thing that Benitez didn't know. According to the DEA agent, there had been rumors circulating lately about the Hernandez boys. Talking about how they had all the protection they needed and that they had bought off the local cops. All of which they attributed to some weird religion that made them invincible. Okay. Yeah, okay. So it was the comment about the religion that started to bring everything into focus for all of these agents here. The statue of the trickster God that Morales partner had found in the back of the Suburban, the fact that little Seraphine had just blown through the police checkpoint without the slightest hesitation, and the fact that he didn't even seem to think about being followed when he led them directly to the ranch. Like that wasn't on his radar. Yeah, it all started to make sense. Now, little Seraphine had never been the brightest member of the family, but even he wasn't so stupid as to openly defy the police that brazenly unless he thought he was untouchable and protected. Oh, yeah. You see what I'm saying?

[A]

Oh, my God. That makes so much sense.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Damn.

[B]

And that means they're making the ultimate sacrifice in their mind to this God.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

So by the morning of April 8, 1989, Commander Benitez had gathered enough information from his agents and from all his other sources to confirm pretty much every suspicion he had. Now, fortunately for him and the other agents, whatever religious beliefs that the family had and their connections had, it had made them confident to the point of carelessness. After getting a warrant for a wiretap a few days earlier, agents started listening in on the phone calls that were coming and going out of the ranch, during which one of the Jenna Hernandez boys and their contacts didn't even bother to use code names or obscure the subject of their conversation at all. That's how brazen they were.

[A]

They're invincible.

[B]

They're protected. Yeah, so they think. That morning, little Seraphine was to receive a very big amount of marijuana at the ranch. And that was exactly the kind of information that Benitez needed to justify a raid on the compound. Holy shit. So before little Serafine hung up the call, he also said something about El Padrino. Benitez didn't know what or to whom Serafine was referring because it was the first time he'd heard the reference. But for the time being, that had to wait. But that will come back later.

[A]

Okay?

[B]

So later that day, several agents descended on Seraphine's house in Matamoros, where they found him with another known drug dealer, Sergio Martinez. Upon searching the house, they didn't actually find any drugs, but they found more than enough evidence of a drug operation.

[A]

Yeah, something's afoot.

[B]

Yeah, it was resin dust everywhere. There was guns. There's paraphernalia. There's a lot going on. So when he was questioned about the large quantity of marijuana that they just received, Serafine was silent. But rather than continue to press him, Benitez threw them both in the back of a police car and drove them both out to the ranch, the bigger ranch. Now, after breaking a lock on one of the large sheds, the agents discovered 60 pounds of marijuana, along with a significant cache of weapons and the Chevy Suburban that Morales and his partner had seen earlier that week.

[A]

Whoa.

[B]

Now, back in Matamoros, agents watching Seraphine's house managed to grab a Few more members of the gang as they arrived, including one of the older members, Elio Hernandez. Like Seraphine and Martinez, none of the men really seemed to be too concerned about having just been arrested. They all kind of presented with like, cocky certainty that this was all going to be fine. Yeah, because they're divinely protected.

[A]

Exactly. Something's going to happen here.

[B]

It was. Is deeply frustrating for the investigators because

[A]

it must have been the freaky. Because it's like, oh, they genuinely believe that this trickster God is protecting them.

[B]

And what sacrifice must they have made to him? For them, for them, they are so protected here.

[A]

That honestly would be the thing that would send chills down.

[B]

Like, they believe that they're invisible, not just invincible, invisible.

[A]

So they had to have felt pretty confident with the sacrifice they had made.

[B]

Yeah. Or sacrifices. Yeah. Benita said later, they weren't worried at all. They thought we couldn't hurt them. They thought they were protected. Damn. Now, although they were pretty profoundly irritated by the confidence, they also knew that they'd eventually got a confession one way or the other. Yeah. So here's the thing we've told case. We've told stories before. There's been cases where officers resort to violence to get answers.

[A]

Of course, we've seen those.

[B]

And that was especially common in this area in the 1980s. I'm sure there were the more common tactics, like we've talked about, beatings, threats. But there were also more extreme tactics, and Dave found one that I said. Excuse me. What? Hold the phone.

[A]

Oh, Lord.

[B]

One of the most effective techniques at this time involved adding large quantities of hot sauce to soda water. The which was then shaken up and shot up the suspect's nostrils.

[A]

Oh, my God.

[B]

Hot sauce and soda water shoved into your nostrils.

[A]

All I can think of is the sensation when you get the bubbles in your nose. If you're like. Drinks it and you're like, oh, that hurts.

[B]

That hot and spicy.

[A]

Add it with hot sauce and have it shot directly into your nose.

[B]

Yeah. Holy. Yeah. Yeah. Edward Humes wrote as you're thinking about that. He described it. First comes a hideous sensation of drowning as the foaming liquid floods breathing passages, followed by an indescribable searing pain as the peppery liquid scores sensitive nasal nasal tissue.

[A]

Oh, my God.

[B]

Yeah. So not too shocking. This one was particularly effective.

[A]

Oh, I. Yeah, that I'd tell you.

[B]

I'd sell you shit I didn't do properly.

[A]

I would make up stuff that you didn't even know about.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Oh, my God, that hurts. My nose hurts.

[B]

Like, can you even.

[A]

No.

[B]

So in this case, it turned out that the hot sauce soda technique would not be necessary.

[A]

Okay?

[B]

The rumors of it alone would suffice. When it came to Domingo Bustamante, the caretaker at the ranch, he was like, you know what?

[A]

I heard that that's a thing, and I'm not gonna deal with it.

[B]

I think they were like, we could do that. And he was like, you know what? Let's just chat.

[A]

Why don't I just tell you what's going on?

[B]

And remember, he was the one who had already talked to one of the officers.

[A]

And he said, I don't know nothing about nothing. I just came into my job.

[B]

Precisely. Now, he had been picked up by the feds when he got to work on the morning of April 9th. And a short time later, he was sitting across from Benitez in the interrogation room. Now, from the moment they met, Benitez could tell that he wasn't a drug smuggler or some hardened criminal. He was clearly just a man trying to make enough money to support his family. And he had gotten caught up in something much bigger than him. More importantly, he didn't believe in witchcraft or the trickster gods. So he didn't have any of the confidence and the smug cockiness that kept the others from talking.

[A]

He said, I know I'm not invisible.

[B]

So he said, I know you can see me right here, right now. Yeah. Basically, he would be easy to break. Yeah, just easy to get information out of. So it turned out that Benitez's assessment of the caretaker was right. Within just a few minutes of the interrogation, he was telling agents everything he knew. He confirmed that the ranch was the headquarters of the Hernandez smuggling operation. And then he began rattling off all the names of the smugglers at the ranch, at least all the ones he knew. He told them people come and go all the time at the ranch. Some are friends of the bosses or workers, but there are others. They're treated very badly.

[A]

Oh.

[B]

He began to say something about an American who he had seen at the ranch recently. And then he kind of trailed off, almost seeming to realize that he said something he shouldn't have.

[A]

No, keep talking.

[B]

So the other agents and Benitez were aware of the disappearance of Mark Kilroy. And several of them had been involved in the case on the Mexican side. But it wasn't until that moment that they all assumed the case they were working on was a separate matter entirely. Oh, they had thought that. And then they were like, oh, this is. Damn, this is not so. It was when the Caretaker brought up the American that it occurred to all of the agents that this case could be related. So Benita is pressed further. Domingo, the caretaker, hesitated, and then he started talking about a day a month earlier when he saw a young man tied up in the back of the blue Chevy Suburban at the ranch. The men at the ranch had left him tied up like that in the truck overnight. Domingo said, I felt very sorry for him. I made him something to eat. I brought him some eggs and water for breakfast. And then the bosses came and took him away.

[A]

Oh, my God. This, like, makes my stomach hurt.

[B]

It's horrific. He estimated that this had occurred two or three weeks earlier. And he said the young man was white with blonde hair, which matched the description of Mark Kilroy. But that was all he knew, he said. So Benitez, thinking quickly, went back to his desk and rummaged through the drawers until he found the glossy black and white photo of Mark Kilroy that was being used in all the missing posters. He slapped the photo down on the table in front of Domingo. And Domingo immediately recognized the man in the picture. He told the detectives, yes, yes, that's him. The gyro. And gyro is. Is, like slang in Mexico. Talking about, like, a white blonde person.

[A]

Oh, man.

[B]

And that is where we are going to end for part one. Holy. Yeah.

[A]

So I took you a week.

[B]

Probably felt like on a hard left, but then we. We kind of got back to our original. Sure did.

[A]

Oh, man.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That's really sad.

[B]

Part 2 guys gets even sadder. I feel so hard for this family and this group of friends, what they've

[A]

had to go through.

[B]

That all just started from a celebratory time in their lives.

[A]

Spring break, man. Like what? Like, Jesus, they weren't even doing anything wrong.

[B]

No, they were just not, like, they

[A]

were, like, getting into trouble. You know what I mean?

[B]

No, they were just. They crossed over the border. They had a fun night. And.

[A]

Yeah, like, they just didn't. I think they just didn't have the information.

[B]

No.

[A]

You know, like, they were just. Just lacking information.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

Because of the time.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

I mean, again, remember, this was the 80s. It's not now.

[B]

No.

[A]

So we can't judge it off of now, where you. Where, you know, certain things.

[B]

And even judging off of now, how many millions of kids go on spring break to Mexico? Still true, you know?

[A]

Yeah. Like, it's not like, this is.

[B]

You should be able to.

[A]

And this is like a. This is one of those cases that it's like, worst case scenario. It is you know, it really is.

[B]

It's the cases that you get warned about when you go on spring break. It's awful.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So we will be back with part two, and we will get a lot deeper into this, and it's jarring. So fun fact.

[A]

Apparently in Japan, if you're found drunk and violent, police will physically roll you up in a giant plastic sheet and carry you away like a burrito.

[B]

That's iconic. They said, we don't have time for this, given the burrito wrap.

[A]

Burrito him like that. So don't get drunk and violent in Japan. Okay?

[B]

I won't.

[A]

I mean, don't get drunk and violent anywhere. But.

[B]

But definitely don't.

[A]

You don't want to become a burrito.

[B]

Wrap you up and take you away.

[A]

Yeah, they'll just throw you over their shoulder.

[B]

You heard it here first. Maybe not, but you heard it here, that's for sure.

[A]

Maybe.

[B]

All right, heads. We love you. We hope you keep listening, and we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that you get crazy and violent in Japan or in Mexico or in the US or anywhere.

[A]

Don't be crazy, especially anywhere you're unfamiliar. Be careful. Careful, everybody. Everywhere.

[B]

Sa. Sam. Early birds always rise to the occasion for summer vacation planning, because early gets you closer to the action. So don't be late. Book your next vacation early on VRBO and save over $120. Rise and shine. Average savings, $141. Select homes only. Ondeck is built to back small businesses like yours. Whether you're buying equipment, expanding your team, or bridging cash flow gaps, Ondeck's loans up to $400,000 help make it happen fast. Rated A by the Better Business Bureau and earning thousands of five star Trustpilot reviews, OnDeck delivers funding you can count on. Apply in [e-mail] depending on certain loan attributes. Your business loan may be issued by Ondeck or Celtic Bank. Ondeck does not lend in North Dakota. All loans in amount subject to LE approval.