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Body Of 2-Year-Old Child Found In Bag At The Mexican Border
The border at San Ysidro. (Photo by Phil Konstantin via the Creative Commons on Flickr)
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The body of a 2-year-old girl was found in a duffle bag belonging to two people who were trying to cross the border to get to Mexico, reports ABC 10 San Diego.
According to a release by the San Diego Police Department, at noontime on Tuesday the department received a phone call from Mexican law enforcement regarding the apprehension of 39-year-old Johnny Lewis Hartley and 43-year-old Mercy Mary Becerra. The pair was trying to cross the border at San Ysidro when they were stopped by Mexican Customs agents. Hartley was taken into custody along with a duffle bag, and an x-ray later revealed that a deceased child—determined to be approximately 2-years-old—was contained in the luggage.
According to San Diego's Fox 5, Hartley and Becerra are not the child's parents.
Becerra had fled the scene when Hartley was stopped, but she was arrested shortly after and taken into custody, according to City News Service. The two were then handed over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and then to the San Diego Police, who are investigating the case.
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The pair are reported to be residents of Whittier, and authorities believe that the crime had possibly been committed there. According to online jail records, Hartley and Becerra have been booked on suspicion of first-degree murder and child cruelty.
Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to call the San Diego Police Department's Homicide Unit or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
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