13-Year-Old Girl Beheaded After Seeing Grandma Killed In Alabama Cemetery


According to KIRO-TV, 13-year-old Mariah Lopez was beheaded by cartel members after witnessing the death of her grandmother, Oralia Mendoza, in an Alabama cemetery. The assailants, Yoni Martinez Aguilar and Israel Gonzalez Palomino, were charged with two counts of capital murder in their preliminary hearing on Monday.

Aguilar reportedly told investigators that Mendoza, his now deceased girlfriend, had been affiliated with the Sinaloa cartel. In his statement, Aguilar said that he, Mendoza, Palomino, and another woman went to Norcross, Georgia, to pick up a kilogram of methamphetamine on June 2. During their journey, Aguilar claims that something went wrong. Palomino suddenly became suspicious of Mendoza and the other woman, Leticia Garcia, and was afraid the pair were attempting to set him up.

After returning home, Palomino reportedly discovered that Mendoza had removed the SIM card from her cellphone.

“He also found a text she sent during the drug run to Georgia, in which she asked an unknown woman to pick up her granddaughter, who was with Palomino’s wife, because she feared that she and her granddaughter were in danger,” according to Investigator Stacy Rutherford.

Two days later, Palomino and Aguilar took Mendoza and her granddaughter, who was disabled, to Moon Cemetery under the guise that they were being taken someplace safe. Aguilar claims that after Palomino and Mendoza argued for a while about the previous drug deal, he stabbed her several times.

Lopez was then apparently taken to a new location “where Aguilar said Palomino forced him to kill the girl.”

“Aguilar told investigators he was holding the knife when Palomino grabbed his arm and moved it back and forth in a ‘sawing motion,’ with which the girl was beheaded,” according to Rutherford’s testimony.

In addition to Aguilar’s confession, investigators have since found the suspected murder weapons stashed under the mattresses of Aguilar and Palomino.

“Despite the men’s cleanup efforts, blood was also found in Palomino’s car,” one investigator reported.

Lieutenant Donny Shaw, the spokesperson for the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, released a statement thanking the community for its help and cooperation with the murder investigation.

“For a murder where there were no indications, no witnesses, nothing to lean on when we began with it, the Hispanic community, the partners, the media, we’ve been able to do a phenomenal thing in just a little over seven days by coming to the arrests of two individuals.”

Aguilar and Palomino are currently being held in Madison County Jail without bail.

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