Mark Kilroy, Adolfo Constanzo: Missing Texas American Student Found Dead In Matamoros, Mexico, Was Human Sacrifice For Drug, Satanic Cult On ‘Passport To Murder’


Mark Kilroy, the University of Texas at Austin student who was kidnapped and murdered in Matamoros, Mexico, almost 20 years ago, will be the feature story for Friday’s Passport To Murder on Investigation Discovery (ID). The episode based on Mark Kilroy’s case titled, “South Of The Border Sins,” will show the haunting last hours of an American college student who is separated from his group of friends and abducted off of the streets of a Mexican border town while on Spring Break, leaving his friends frantically trying to find him. When his body is finally found, the case takes police on a satanic journey through a dangerous voodoo cult led by a drug leader who is looking for human blood.

March 1989: Spring Break Texas-Mexico Border

Mark J. Kilroy had traveled to Mexico with his friends, Bill Huddleston, Bradley Moore, and Brent Martin to enjoy a day across the border, where they expected to soak up the sun and have a bit of fun. But then everything went all wrong after Kilroy became separated from his friends and disappeared off of the dark streets of Mexico.

According to Bill Huddleston, the last person to see Mark Kilroy alive, they went to a frat party in South Padre Island, then headed to Matamoros, Mexico, to hit the bars for some drinks and dancing. After the group left the bar, they headed back across the border. Huddleston skipped ahead of the line to go to the bathroom, believing that Mark Kilroy was still behind him in line with the other guys. When the young man returned from the restroom, he asked about Mark, but no one had seen him. Bill Huddleston gave the following account to the Washington Post.

“The four had gone on a drinking excursion in Matamoros where liquor is cheaper and the drinking age not an issue. As they were leaving a bar at about 2 a.m. March 14, Huddleston was walking ahead of his friends to get to a restroom, and caught a quick glimpse of a man saying to Kilroy, ” ‘Hey, don’t I know you from somewhere?’ ” “It was just a glimpse; I don’t even know if Mark answered him,” Huddleston said. “When I joined up with them again, Mark wasn’t there.” They looked until 4:30 a.m., and when he still had not appeared the next morning, they got worried and called police.”

Bill Huddleston, center, greets Keith Kilroy, left, and Helen Kilroy, right, at the Houston Hobby airport, April 14, 1989, after returning from Brownsville. Huddleston was Mark Kilroy’s best friend and was one of the three boys with Kilroy the night he was abducted. (AP Photo/Pam McDonald)

Mark Kilroy Disappears From The Streets Of A Mexican Border Town

As it turned out, one person thought they remembered seeing Mark Kilroy talking to a Mexican man who motioned him toward his truck. Authorities say the Texas student was not only motioned to the car but was kidnapped. In the days after his disappearance, his worried parents went to Mexico to try to find him. There was a massive search for him and pressure mounted as Texas officials got involved, demanding that the Mexican authorities find the missing American student.

The Investigation

Due to the intense media pressure, which threatened the Mexico tourist industry, someone finally directed police to an underground cult that may be involved. About a month after his disappearance, Mark Kilroy’s body was found on a ranch just outside of Matamoros where ritualistic human sacrifices were made. Kilroy was one of 15 bodies that were found buried on the ranch’s grounds.

The leader of the cult was a man named Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo. His high priestess was Sara Maria Aldrete. Adolfo Constanzo was a charismatic Miami-born man who believed his psychic powers and satanic sacrifices would help bring good luck to the drug cartels. At least one of the kidnappers gave a detailed account of what finally happened to Mark Kilroy during the human sacrifice.

The Satanic Drug Lord Cast Spells For Good Luck

  • Adolfo Constanzo ordered his henchman to find a superior brain from a white male to cast a spell.
  • Several Mexican men abducted Mark Kilroy and transported him to the ranch of horrors.
  • Mark Kilroy’s head was wrapped in heavy tape.
  • He was given bread and water to keep him alive.
  • The Texas student was tortured and sodomized, according to the New York Post.
  • Kilroy eventually tried to make a run for it but was hit in the back of the neck with a machete.
  • The killers dismembered Kilroy’s body, drained the blood, ripped out his heart, and placed his brains, a horseshoe, a turtle, a goat’s foot, and a spinal column in a boiling cauldron over a fire for the sacrifice.

This bizarre ritualistic practice was part of a religion made up of Cuban Santeria, African Voodoo, Palo Mayombe, and Mexican Brujería.

In all, five men were arrested in connection with the kidnapping and murder of Mark Kilroy. Drug lord and cult leader, Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, AKA El Padrino, killed himself when police arrived at a property in Mexico City where Constanzo was hiding out after the murder.

Movies Related To This Case

The Believers came out two years before Mark Kilroy’s murder but told of the kidnappings and secret human sacrifices that were going on in Mexico at the time. This movie was said to have inspired Adolfo Constanzo’s cult.

Bordertown is a 2007 movie that is based on the Mark Kilroy, Adolfo Constanzo case.

Mexico: A Dangerous Place For Many American Tourists

Even after the arrests of the members of the cult, Mexico is still a very dangerous place to visit. American tourists are still kidnapped and killed. Even some Mexican-Americans who visit Mexico go missing and are never heard from again. Here are just a few examples.

  1. In 2011, a senior Mexican American citizen from Texas vanished in Matamoros, Mexico, after making a trip there. He was last seen leaving his girlfriend’s home, headed to meet with an acquaintance but never arrived. His car also vanished.
  2. In 2013, Malcolm Latif Shabazz, the grandson of Malcolm X, was beaten to death in Mexico city after a dispute over a bar bill and a girl. His body was found on the street in a tourist district. Shabazz had traveled to Mexico to help Mexican construction workers obtain some rights.
  3. In 2014, 22-year-old Craig Taylor of Kissimmee, Florida, was killed after visiting a gay bar in Cancun. His dead body was found in some brush on a remote road. The cause of death was strangulation.

To see this story dramatized, tune into Passport To Murder this Friday at 9/8 p.m. Central on Investigation Discovery (ID).

[Photo by Delcia Lopez/AP]

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