By Marinee Zavala
A 39-year-old man and a 43-year-old woman are under arrest after they attempted to cross into Tijuana with the body of a 2-year-old girl through the San Ysidro Port of Entry this past Tuesday at 11:30 a.m.
San Diego police indicated that Mexican Federal law enforcement authorities reported the incident at about noon, disclosing that the man had tried to enter Mexico through the pedestrian facilities; he was sent to secondary inspection, where officers detected the lifeless body of the little girl inside a duffel bag.
The Homicide Unit, together with the Mexican government and the San Diego Medical Examiner, are looking into the motive and the place where the infant died. Agents state it is unlikely that she died of natural causes. “It has been determined that this incident may have occurred in Whittier, California”, stated San Diego Police in a press release, a city near downtown Los Angeles and about 120 miles north of the border, where both of the suspects are from.
SDPD also indicated that they are working closely with the police in said area. “We are working with everyone to determine exactly what happened, and we will perform an in-depth, methodic, and careful investigation until we know what exactly happened,” assured San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman.
County investigators reported that the male suspect’s name is John Lewis Hartley, and his purported accomplice, who was with him at the time of his arrest, is Maria Mercedes Becerra.
The couple are not the girl’s parents, but may have known her biological parents. They also assure having many children in their social media accounts: Mercedes says she has nine children, and Lewis eight.
The San Diego District Attorney’s Office said these are unscrupulous individuals and expressed their concern as to how they transported the body in a duffel bag and attempted to enter Mexico with her. Their greatest concern, however, is what they intended to do with the little girl’s body.
“Whether they wanted to get rid of the evidence or whether they were involved, like other murderers have been, in selling children’s organs,” stated District Attrouney spokesperson Jesse Navarro.
Hartley and Becerra have both since been booked in San Diego. Lewis was booked at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday into San Diego Central Jail, while Becerra was booked into the Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility in Santee at 7:45 a.m. the same day, both on suspicion of first-degree murder and child cruelty. Their arraignments are scheduled for Friday, August 12th.
The police are asking anyone with information that will shed light on this murder to contact the Homicide Unit or Crime Prevention at 888-580-8477.
The incident has led law enforcement to wonder how many more similar crimes have been committed at the San Diego-Tijuana Border, how many citizens have managed to cross from the U.S. into Mexico – and vice-versa – with illegal items, substances, or bodies.
The Consul of Mexico in San Diego said that these regrettable incidents illustrate the need for greater collaboration among agencies in order to lower binational crime rates. “It is an example of the coordination that has to happen among authorities on both sides of the border. We cannot be successful without effective coordination, and this case shows us that we need to enhance it.”