With allegations of coerced confessions and inept, apathetic investigators, the ongoing search for the person or persons responsible for the nearly 100 dead women in and around Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, would be comical if it were not also so tragic. The industrial city, which lies across the border from El Paso, Texas, has become perhaps the single most fertile hunting ground in the world for murderous predators that target women.

While police have been busy reinforcing every negative stereotype of Mexican law enforcement, the killings have continued virtually unabated since 1993. In that time detectives have announced the killings solved after the arrest of a suspect or suspects, only to have fresh bodies turn up soon afterwards. Some have appeared so obviously innocent that even their alleged victims families expressed doubt as to their guilt. The lead forensic scientist in the case has even given up his position after being told by two detectives to plant evidence in a suspects vehicle. Even more incredibly, authorities reportedly have only recently attempted to use DNA testing to help solve the murders.

Public outcry concerning the slayings recently reached an all-time high when eight women's bodies were found in a mass grave in November 2001. All eight were reportedly strangled and some were bound (a long-standing signature element in many of the previous killings). It is not known if these newest victims showed any evidence of mutilation or sexual assault. Since the gruesome find two more women have turned up dead in the desert outside of the city.

8/2/2002-Progress could be made in the killings in Ciudad Juarez, but I wouldn't recommend holding your breath quite yet. The FBI has finally been tentatively brought into the investigations. Mexican authorities have invited the head of the El Paso, Texas, FBI field office to begin discussions about forming a binational task force. It would not suprise me to see this venture fail since it would be extremely unlikely that Mexican investigators are going to want to open the door and expose all the past ineptitude and corruption that has marked the case thus far.

2/23/2003-There have been some recent developements in the serial murder case of Juarez. Confined suspect Gustavo Meza died in jail in early February following a hernia operation. Also, the bodies of four young women were discovered in the desert outside Juarez on February 17. In a typical twist, authorities denied there were four bodies, insisting the total was three, though the citizens who discovered the remains claim there were four. The identities of three of the young women have been discovered and all disappeared at different times.

2/27/2003-Abel Sharif was resentenced to twenty years in the murder of Elizabeth Castro Garcia, 17. Prosecutors still insist he is responsible for twenty or more slayings and plan to bring more murder charges against him in the future.

6/1/2004-Though the killings continue, authorities in Mexico seem to be making tentative steps toward conducting an actual investigation. Police recently announced that they have opened up a mass pauper's grave in Februrary in order to retrieve two or three women who were among the earliest victims of the sex slayings. The remains are being subjected to forensic and DNA testing in the hope that some useful evidence remains.

10/18/2004-Victor Garcia Uribe has been convicted in eight slayings and sentenced to fifty years in prison on each count. Uribe still claims to be innocent and that he was tortured into confessing. His co-defendant, Gustavo Meza, died in police custody last year.

1/22/2005-Ten more men have been sentenced for murdering twelve women in Juarez. Jesus Guardado was sentenced to 113 years while four members of his gang of bus drivers, "El Tolteca", were sentenced to 40 years for six of the killings. One was found not guilty and released. Six of another gang, "Los Rebeldes", were also convicted and sentenced to between 24 and 40 years for six seperate murders. Guardado and his cohorts were originally charged in a staggering 190 slayings and have charged that they were tortured during interrogations.

3/31/2005-More ineptitude in this sadly botched case. Yesterday it reported that 23 unused arrest warrants were found in a desk in a prosecutor's office. The warrants, some of which were more than ten years old, were discovered by investigators that were looking at files related to the Juarez murders.

Already, four of the men named in the lost warrants have been arrested. And not that suprisingly, one of the men has already died in custody. David Osuna Soto died shortly after being jailed last week. Authorities originally claimed Soto died of natural causes but it was subseuqently revealed he passed away as a result of a blow to his stomach that caused a rupture in an internal organ.

The circus continues.

6/23/2005-The discovery of the body of Airis Estrella Rodriguez Pando, 7, has drawn the ire of child welfare agency UNICEF. The organization is calling for Mexican authorities to stop the murders of young girls in Juarez. Pando's body was found about 20 miles south of Juarez after she was reported missing on May 2. She had been sexually assaulted, bludgeoned to death, then placed in a barrel and covered with cement. Of course, authorities have already claimed to have identified the three men responsible for the slaying, though they have not been arrested. The supposed suspects allegedly crossed the border from the United States to committ the murder.

UNICEF claims that four girls have been slain in the city already this year including a ten-year-old who was found in May raped, strangled, and burned.

7/22/2005-Three men have been arrested for the slaying of little Airis Estrella Rodriguez Pando. Luis García Villalbazo, 62, was originally detained for questioning on June 24 and on July 13 Eustacio Aleman, 49, and Juan Alvarado, 24, were also arrested after being named by Villalbazo. Villalbazo originally became a suspect when he was identified by three other girls as the man that raped them and witnesses report they saw Airis in Villalbazo's truck the day after her disappearance.

Abel Sharif-The beginning of the circus. In 1995 was the first to be arrested. Egyptian initially confessed to five kills and then recanted his confesions. Judge threw out six murder charges but Sharif was thrown back in jail the same day in connection with another killing. Eventually sentenced to thirty years in that killing but the sentence was eventually overturned. Police still insist he is guilty of almost twenty slayings.

Sergio Armendariz and 'The Rebels'-This small gang of thugs, with Armendariz as the leader, was supposedly hired by Sharif to continue killing women while he sat in prison, hoping that authorities would believe the real killer was still on the loose and see fit to release him. The Rebels were arrested in 1996 and charged with seventeen murders. Several more men associated with the gang were also arrested in 1998 and charged in an additional fifty slayings.

Jesus Manuel Guardado Marquez-Bus driver arrested on April 1, 1999, and charged in the murders of six women. Immediately fingered several other bus drivers who along with Marquez were eventually charged with a ludicrous total of 190 killings. The accused later claimed they were tortured in police custody and showed off numerous injuries at a press conference that they claimed were inflicted by police during interrogations.

Jose Rosales-Arrested on unrelated charges on February 23, 2001. this was his second arrest in relation to murders in Ciudad Juarez. He was incarcerated for a year during 1996 and 1997 but was eventually released for a lack of evidence. A new judge reversed the decision and Rosales was re-arrested at his sister's home in El Paso, Texas.

Victor Garcia Uribe and Gustavo Gonzales Mesa-Two more bus drivers that were arrested after the discovery of the eight women in November of 2001. Reportedly confessed to eleven killings but soon claimed the confessions were coerced and recanted. Also, showed off injuries they claim were inflicted during interrogations with police, including numerous burn marks. Even victim's families seem skeptical of the two bus drivers guilt and allegations that police have attempted to plant evidence in the case were made by a former Two new bodies were found soon after Uribe and Mesa's arrests.