THE SERIAL KILLER OF ATIZAPÁN

Andrés Filomeno Mendoza Celis (Oaxaca; November 29, 1947), nicknamed El

Feminicide de Atizapán, is a Mexican serial killer. He was captured in the
municipality of Atizapán de Zaragoza, in the State of Mexico

BACKGROUND
In 2015 he worked as president of the citizen participation council of his
neighborhood during the administration of the policy and, at that time, municipal
president, Ana María Balderas Trejo. The information about this affiliation cannot be
consulted within the IPOMEX portal (Official Public Information of the Obligated
Subjects of the State of Mexico and Municipalities)

EVENTS
The Atizapán serial killer pleaded guilty before the judge this Thursday. Andrés, 72,
has remained in prison since Monday, after the police discovered that his house, on
Margaritas Street in the Mexican town, was a cemetery where he has buried
women for two decades. Reyna González was the last victim of whom the
prosecution accuses this man. The husband went to Andrés' house on two
occasions when he saw that she did not appear and that the girls were alone at
home, last weekend. On the second occasion he was able to enter and discovered
the remains of his wife, dismembered, according to some police versions cited by
the media. But there was more, a basement and other rooms where judicial
specialists continue to collect evidence.
“All I want is to tell the truth, I have done it, there is no way,” were the criminal's
words before the judge this morning, in a hearing that lasted more than four hours.
“Her husband is there [to corroborate it],” she added, according to television station
Milenio. In fact, the husband has attended this court hearing denying with his
presence the first information from the neighbors in which they claimed that the
victim, 34 years old, was a single mother. Andrés constantly visited her at the cell
phone store she ran in Atizapán, but according to her husband, he was nothing
more than a family friend, whom she had adopted out of pity.
A serial killer who had been killing women since 1991, with the same procedure, a
stab in the heart and subsequent dismemberment. Some media have reported that
he murdered 30 women, many of whose names appear in a notebook. Numerous
personal objects of the victims have also appeared in his house, as well as
credentials that identified them. The Public Ministry has called on the population to
report any cases of disappearance that they consider may be related to this man,
now imprisoned.
“I don't deny, I blame myself,” Andrés, El Chino, said before Judge, despite the fact
that his lawyers have recommended a more cautious profile. But the man seems to
be clear about what his future is going to be. The evidence is unequivocal, dozens
of bones and credentials of women found in the excavations carried out in the
house do not leave room for many doubts. From the first hour, investigators
considered it feasible that the case referred to a serial killer. And every day the
names of more women come to light, once relatives identify the objects found. An
excavator machine has supported the exhumation tasks in the house. And the
house is a dumping ground for old junk both inside and on a small roof terrace. A
kind of Diogenes syndrome. Police and relatives will try to relate many of these
belongings to the victims.
The judge has set a period of three months for complementary investigation and a
precautionary measure of imprisonment. Andrés will no longer be able to greet his
neighbors cordially, as was his custom. He was a neighborhood representative and
was now campaigning for a political party, so he maintained relationships with the
neighborhood. The businesses that shared the street with the cell phone store of
the last victim, Reyna, show the friendship that united them. He was always visiting
the store, always, daily, they told this newspaper. Some have wanted to understand
that they had a romantic relationship or that he killed her for refusing to do so. The
husband has denied it. The couple had two daughters.
Andrés, who was never known to have a partner, but had several tenants in
adjoining rooms, turned the house on Margaritas Street into a crime sanctuary for
years.

HOW WAS HIS DETENTION?

The arrest of an alleged serial killer from Mexico who committed crimes for years
was achieved only because his latest dismembered victim was the wife of a police
commander, who was able to conduct her own investigation.
Without adequate funding, training or professionalism, prosecutors in Mexico often
fail to apprehend killers until the bodies pile up so high that they are almost
unavoidable. For example, in 2018, a Mexico City serial killer was arrested when he
was discovered transporting a dismembered body down a street in a baby stroller.
A suspect authorities have identified as 'Andrés' is accused of killing and
dismembering a 34-year-old woman named Reyna, who ran a small phone store,
on May 14. Authorities cannot provide the full names of suspects or victims under
Mexican law.
Investigators found women's shoes, makeup and lists of names in the 72-year-old
man's home. They also found thousands of pieces of bones buried under the floor
of his house, located in Atizapán, a municipality in the State of Mexico that is part of
the metropolitan area of Mexico City.
In addition, they found several identification cards that belonged to women who had
been reported missing for five years, as well as carefully sectioned parts of Reyna's
body, a bloody saw and a knife on a table in the basement of the house.
Sergio Baltazar, a lawyer for the victim's family, said Reyna's husband, Bruno, went
through the same frustrating experience as many Mexicans when he went to the
prosecutor's office after his wife disappeared.
“The truth is that the public ministry fell short,” commented Baltazar. “They didn't
want to help him.”
But as a police commander, Bruno had means at his disposal that most Mexicans
do not have. Since the prosecutors were not willing to help him, Bruno accessed
the surveillance cameras.
“Bruno does a lot of research work,” said Baltazar.
Reyna had agreed to take Andrés, who was a family friend, to a wholesale market
in the center of the Mexican capital to buy supplies for his store.
Andrés, whom the family called 'The Old Man', was considered a work of charity by
the couple and their children. They invited him to their home and fed him. And he
was supposed to help Reyna carry the groceries from the market.
When Reyna did not return home, Bruno called Andrés, who said he had not seen
her and that she had not shown up for the shopping trip.
But police cameras showed Reyna arriving at the street where Andrés lived, and
never leaving there.
Two days later, increasingly worried, Bruno went to Andrés' house accompanied by
Reyna's brother. There were some police officers stationed near the site.
Andrés became nervous, but he allowed Bruno to enter his home, telling him that
he was not going to find anything. And at first it was like that.
But then Bruno called Reyna's phone and heard it ringing downstairs, in what
turned out to be a makeshift basement with a small entrance. He found what was
left of his wife's body.
Andrés tried to run, but the police officers who were waiting appeared at the scene.
Baltazar said Andrés admitted to some homicides at first, but then fell silent.
“He says he remembers five, but when they put the notebooks (with lists of names)
in front of him, he says he doesn't remember how many,” Baltazar commented. But
“he says that he made recordings” of the murders.
Although prosecutors have not dared to speculate on the number of victims,
identification cards, names found in handwritten notes in the home and bone
fragments show that there could be 15 or more.
Baltazar, the family's lawyer, wants prosecutors to investigate whether there were
accomplices, given the suspect's age and physical condition. “It's hard to believe
that the man had the strength to do that, there probably could have been
accomplices,” he said.
There's not much chance of that happening. In the few cases in which the killer is
apprehended, prosecutors in Mexico seem content to pin as many deaths as they
can on a single suspect. For victim advocate activists, like María de la Luz Estrada,
who is coordinator of the National Citizen Observatory of Femicide, it seems that, at
times, investigators favor lone serial killer theories as an easy way out of not
investigating further.
“Talking about serial crime in a context of impunity worries me because what we
see is that it is not investigated,” Estada said.
Prosecutors may be slow, but inmates at one overcrowded prison came close to
solving the matter: Andrés had to be transferred to another prison this week after
inmates at the first facility tried to kill him.

INVESTIGATION PROCESS
The Attorney General's Office of the State of Mexico (FGJEM) reported that the
ministerial proceedings in the property in the Lomas de San Miguel neighborhood,
where Andrés “N”, the alleged feminicide, lived, probably up to 20 women, will
continue indefinitely. with the aim of finding skeletal remains and other evidence
that leads to the identification of the victims.
In these works, investigative police, public ministries, as well as anthropologist and
forensic archaeologist specialists, geneticists, experts in criminology, dentistry,
legal medicine and photography, as well as firefighters, municipal police and staff of
the Atizapán City Council work.
According to Delia García, Prosecutor for Gender Crimes of the State of Mexico,
the search that is being carried out in what was the home of Andrés “N”, will be in
three stages and a comprehensive expert investigation team is participating.
“The search that is being carried out at the home of Andrés “N” (feminicide from
Atizapán) is being carried out in three different stages, which is a methodological
aspect, which the Coordination of Expert Services of this Attorney General's Office
respects very much, precisely to be able to have complete clarity and success in all
their expert practices,” he indicated.
Phase 1 includes the excavation of the patio and kitchen area with a wooden cover
and sheets, which is what is currently being carried out, and consists of an area of
20 square meters.
Phase 2 Corresponds to the main room and a basement, this area is on two levels,
connected by an access and a wooden staircase. This area is approximately 30
square meters.
Phase 3 Patio area and two bathrooms; with an area of around 68 square meters.
Andrés “N”, 72 years old, was linked to proceedings this May 20, until now, for the
alleged femicide of Reyna González, 34 years old, who disappeared since May 14
and whose remains were found at the home of the accused, located in the
municipality of Atizapán de Zaragoza, in the State of Mexico.
Although in a first statement he would have accepted not only being responsible for
this murder, but for four others, over 20 years, when he was in front of the control
judge, he reserved his right to testify and remained silent. Until the investigation
proceedings are completed, a trial is carried out and his guilt is determined, he will
remain in preventive detention in the Barrientos prison, in the State of Mexico.
According to data provided by Prosecutor Delia García, at the time of the subject's
capture and the inspection of his home, it was immediately thought that he was a
serial killer, since they were found, along with Reyna's dismembered remains, bone
remains and personal objects of other people, as well as a notebook with women's
names, the last being Reyna's, which suggests that it is a list, but this will have to
be verified by the investigations carried out.
The Prosecutor's Office reached Andrés “N”, because Reyna's relatives reported
her disappearance since May 14, indicating that the last time they saw her, she was
going to buy telephone items for her business, accompanied by Andrés “N”. , who,
for several years, had been a “friend” of the family and whom they never suspected
of being a murderer.
According to the victim's relatives, they had already gone to Andrés “N”'s home to
ask him if he had accompanied her shopping, but he told them no, that he had not
seen her, but after the disappearance report, the husband de Reyna returned to
ask him in detail and when the subject refused, he forced his way into his house,
discovering the remains of his wife there, so he immediately arrested him and
witnesses called the Prosecutor's Office.
Prosecutor Delia García reported that, upon notifying them of this atrocious
discovery, a search warrant was requested, so as not to err in the legal procedures,
and the property where they certified that Reyna's remains were unfortunately
located and apparently of other victims, along with personal belongings and
credentials of women reported missing for some years.
The investigation of the case and the exhaustive analysis that is being carried out at
the house of the accused has no end date, because they want to do everything
very carefully to identify the victims, whose relatives, at least two Women, whose
voter credentials were found at the scene, have already come forward for
identification.

“Important evidence”
In the images, released by Carlos Jiménez , you can see the fragment of a
notebook page in which you can read “December 17, 94. At 5 in the morning he
passed into another life" and the record appears of what would have been the
dismemberment of a 28-year-old woman residing in Cuautepec, in the State of
Mexico
Inside the house they also found 12 cell phones and 12 chips, 29 Cassettes with
recordings and 20 video cassettes in Beta format, as well as a camera of the same
format and a tripod, which are analyzed by experts from the Mexican prosecutor's
office, in which The man of Oaxacan origin recorded the murders and
dismemberment of the victims' bodies
 FIRST STATEMENTS OF ANDRÉS “N” (TO THE SERIAL KILLER OF
ATIZAPÁN)
Yes, I killed Reyna and I did it because after almost three years of having a
romantic relationship, she threatened to leave me to return and live well with her
husband.
This was stated in his first statements before the agent of the Public Ministry,
Andrés “N”, alleged serial feminicide from the municipality of Atizapán
During the initial hearing in Room Six of Oral Trials of the Barrientos prison in the
municipality of Tlalnepantla, the MP read Andrés' statement in full, which is
recorded in the Investigation Folder, in which he added
“ After we had sex in the kitchen of my house, Reyna told me that it was the
last time she was with me, so blinded by jealousy and rage, I took a sharp
knife and stabbed her deeply in the neck, almost killing her. cut her throat, “I
put her on the table and even though she was still alive, I cut off one of her
legs and began to dismember her; I took it down to the basement and there I
finished butchering it, I cut off the head, the scalp and the skin as if they were
steaks, because I knew about this, since at some time he was a butcher: I put
the intestines and its organs in two buckets." .
After that, the alleged feminicide explained that he closed the basement door of his
house perfectly and then continued with his life as if nothing had happened. He
explained that he met Reyna “N” three years ago, because she had a business. of
cell phones and phone accessories and he regularly visited her for recharges
From that moment, he added, a great friendship began with Reyna and she had
great trust in him to the point that she confessed that her husband was cheating on
her with another man and that she wanted revenge and that was how the
relationship with him began.
In the investigation folder that consists of almost 100 pages, the alleged feminicide
said that that same night of Thursday, May 14, when he deprived Reyna of her
life, around 8 p.m., her husband arrived home. , located on Margaritas Street, in
the Lomas de San Miguel neighborhood, to ask him about her, because before he
disappeared his wife spoke to him on the phone to let him know that she was going
to Mexico City to buy merchandise for her business and that he was going to
accompany her.
However, he indicated, although he had already killed her, at all times he told her
husband that he knew nothing about her and that he had not even seen her.
However, since there were several people who saw Reyna accompanied by him
and enter his home between 11 in the morning and one in the afternoon, before he
disappeared, among whom were two of his tenants and one of the sisters of the
deceased, the husband returned to the house again and on this occasion
demanded that she let him in to look for her and make sure that she was really not
there, which he did together with Reyna's sister.
The alleged feminicide said that the first woman he murdered was 20 years ago
and that her name was Karen or Perla, whom he deprived of her life and
dismembered because she took a lot of money from him and did not comply
with his demands.
Ten years later , he added, he similarly murdered and dismembered a woman,
whom he identified as Berenice “S”, whom he took out of a bar known as
Marinela and took her to his house to have sexual relations.
The same thing, he pointed out, happened with two other women, whom he
identified as Alín and Flor and who he took out of a bar known as El Barrigón
and whom he also murdered and dismembered, these women, he said,
because they made fun of him and questioned him. his manhood, in addition
to the fact that they tried to leave him, even though he had already paid them
“for their services.”
“He said that he buried all these women in his house, some in the kitchen and
others in the bedrooms.”
The alleged serial feminicide said that at the time he murdered and
dismembered his victims, he videotaped them and indicated that he kept their
clothes, bags and shoes and left their names written in notebooks “to
remember them.”
VICTIMS ALREADY RECOGNIZED
1. Reyna González Amador: 34-year-old married woman and mother of two
daughters who disappeared on Friday, May 14, 2021. She worked in a place
where she sold cell phones and had stayed with her husband to go to the
center of Mexico City and buy merchandise, but first she would go to Andrés
Mendoza's house. The man gained the woman's trust when little by little he
brought her cell phones to repair, as well as offering to help her do certain
jobs. Her husband was a police officer and it was he who found his wife's
dismembered body when he forcibly entered Mendoza's home.
2. Flor Ninive Vizcaíno Mejía: 38-year-old woman and single mother of two
daughters who she left as an orphan. Originally from the State of Mexico,
she worked as a hostess (profession in the hospitality and gastronomy
sector that is responsible for welcoming clients) in Tlalnepantla. She
disappeared on October 16, 2016 and was last seen in that city.
3. Rubicela Gallegos Castillo: 32-year-old woman and single mother of a child.
Originally from Monterrey, Nuevo León, she moved to the State of Mexico in
search of a better life for her son. She worked as an Uber Eats delivery girl
in Tlalnepantla. She disappeared on July 20, 2019 and was last seen in a
 restaurant.
4. Norma Jiménez Carreon: disappeared on August 6, 2011 in Tlalnepantla.
5. Berenice Sánchez Olvera: woman around 20 years old who worked in a bar
called "El Marinero."
6. Alyn and Gardenia: two women he met in a bar called "El Barrigón" that he
courted, but both rejected him to have a romantic relationship with him, there
is no record to identify either of them.