Recently, a group of American citizens on a church trip in Mexico were brutally murdered. 

A bus full of children and supervisors from a community of Mormons near the border were shot and burned by a Mexican cartel north of Mexico City, in a town called La Mora. The van convoy they were in was traveling to Chihuahua from a Mormon church located in La Mora.  Nine people died, including six children and three of their mothers, who were their supervisors on the trip. No particular suspects have been named, but a local drug cartel are suspected to be involved, according to a Fox news article.

“The Mexico Massacre was awful. A van full of kids shot and lit on fire is a real tragedy, and it should be talked about more. It’s amazing that some of the older kids going over to find help is amazing, especially because they were by themselves,” senior Brett Brosnan said.

One of the children ran four hours and 23 miles in the dark Mexico desert to search for help after escaping the massacre. He ended up running back to the city of La Mora, where more of his family was located. The boys sister also ran to seek help, but ended up getting lost in the Sonoran desert, and needed to be found and rescued by local law enforcement. The rest of the children were taken back into the United States and treated at an Arizona hospital for their injuries. 

“It’s crazy to think about how dangerous people’s lives are in other parts of the world, that are not even that far away. It’s really sad,” senior Jonas Boyle said. 

There is no clear motive on who the suspected cartel were targeting, or why. It is also unclear if the Mormon Church group was the target of the attack. The suspected cartels whereabouts are currently unknown as well. The Mormons of the area have been said to always live with threats of the drug cartels of the area, according to an interview that CNN held with locals. Most of the time, said they did the best they could to ignore it and live on with their lives. 

The funerals for those who died have already been held, but no clear resolution is near, though one person has been arrested who local law enforcement believe was involved.