Officials verified the identity of the bodies as Jose Gutierrez's fiancée A dual Mexico-United States citizen has been formally identified as one of four people whose remains were found in a rural area of Zacatecas last week The Zacatecas Attorney General’s Office (FGJEZ) confirmed Tuesday that the remains of José Melesio Gutiérrez Padilla were among those found in Tepetongo a municipality in southwestern Zacatecas that borders Jalisco a 36-year-old architect who lived in Ohio but was originally from León 25 along with his fiancée Daniela Márquez Pichardo her sister Viviana Márquez Pichardo and Irma Paola Vargas Montoya The remains of the three women were found along with those of Gutiérrez The four victims disappeared on Christmas Day as they were returning to Colotlán Jalisco — where the three women lived — from Jerez a tourism-oriented “magical town” where they spent time at a bar The pickup truck in which they were traveling was later located in Tepetongo on Jan indicating that they came under fire while traveling through the municipality Authorities are investigating the apparent murder of the four victims, who were in their 20s and 30s. Zacatecas is currently the scene of a turf war between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel DNA testing of family members of Gutiérrez and an analysis of his remains allowed the FGJEZ to confirm the victim’s identity The other remains were previously identified as belonging to the Márquez sisters and Vargas Gutiérrez’s family members underwent DNA testing in Guanajuato because they were too afraid to travel to Zacatecas “Out of fear of everything that’s happening [we didn’t go to Zacatecas],” said Enrique Gutiérrez He said that his son lived in the United States from the age of 12 and had a successful life “It’s not fair that good people doing good things go through this,” Gutiérrez said told Cincinnati television station WCPO that her brother completed a master’s degree in architecture at Miami University in Oxford and had been working at the firm Champlin Architecture in downtown Cincinnati She said that her brother and Daniela Márquez had been engaged since last Valentine’s Day and planned to get married in September 2023 her sister was a fashion designer and their cousin was a makeup artist Funerals for the three women were held on Jan ADVERTISE WITH MND COMMUNITY GUIDELINES Subscription FAQ's Privacy Policy Mexico News Daily - Property of Tavana LLC This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page If you want to know which stretches of highway to avoid in Jalisco you’d be better served checking social media than looking at the United States government’s Mexico travel advisory although doing the former might put you off travel altogether The U.S. Department of State’s current advisory says that violent crime and gang activity are common in parts of Jalisco and advises U.S government employees that they must not travel within 12 miles (19 kilometers) of the Jalisco-Michoacán border on Federal Highway 80 south of Cocula and on State Highway 544 between Mascota and San Sebastián del Oeste According to a report by the newspaper Informador social media users have identified 14 other dangerous stretches of highway in Jalisco A map published by Informador shows all 17 high risk stretches of highway — JALISCO (@informador_JAL) July 1, 2022 Informador also published the accounts of several motorists who have had frightening experiences on Jalisco highways Josue’s pickup truck was stolen by armed men who cut him off with two vehicles when he was traveling to Michoacán from La Barca “Eight men got out with AK-47s and handguns,” he said adding that he was forced into one of their vehicles and taken to La Barca “We saw two police vehicles [on the way to La Barca] and I thought there would be a shootout but … [the police] just let us pass.” Tomás was traveling on State Highway 604 with his family when he was cut off by armed men “Pointing their weapons at us they approached and asked us to identify ourselves One of them recognized us and shouted that we were acquaintances was traveling toward Yahualica when he was cut off by two pickup trucks on a bridge The archbishop of Guadalajara and the bishop of Zacatecas also recently found themselves in scary situations while traveling in Jalisco. Both men were stopped at organized crime roadblocks in the north of the state “They demand you say where you’re coming from what you’re doing,” said Cardinal José Francisco Robles Ortega Zacatecas Bishop Sigifredo Noriega Barceló said it was the first time he had encountered an organized crime checkpoint “We were going from Huejuquilla to Tenzompa … What struck me was that it wasn’t the National Guard or the army [who stopped us] They were people from one of the crime groups We take the [safety] measures that everyone takes [but] there’s no special protection [for bishops],” he said Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro asserted Tuesday that there are no organized crime checkpoints on the state’s highways “Freedom of passage is guaranteed in this state,” he said “There is no … roadblock on any highway in Jalisco Alfaro said he was surprised that Cardinal Robles chose to recount his experience to reporters rather than file a complaint with authorities “We have profound respect [for the archbishop but] we’re very surprised he made a media statement and not a formal complaint,” the governor said a University of Guadalajara security researcher described Alfaro’s remarks as “unfortunate,” saying that he demonstrated a lack of empathy with Robles and other victims of highway violence who often don’t report their experiences due to fear of repercussions The academic said the governor needs to acknowledge that a problem exists and work with federal authorities to stop it Villarreal noted that criminal groups set up roadblocks both to demonstrate they have control of a particular area and to stop undesirables from entering Unofficial checkpoints can be found in many other states including Sinaloa, where reporters and officials were stopped by armed men while traveling to one of President López Obrador’s events during his tour of the northern state in May With reports from Informador and Proceso