The Daughters of Juarez

A veteran, award-winning journalist and a former New York Times correspondent and true crime writer team up to create the first major nonfiction work based on the ongoing, international phenomenon of over 300 confirmed female homicides—and hundreds more missin—in the bordertown of Juarez, Mexico. Despite the fact that Juarez is a Mexican border city just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, most Americans are unaware that for decades this city has been the center of an epidemic of horrific crimes against women and girls, consisting of kidnappings, rape, mutilation, and murder, with most of the victims conforming to a specific profile: young, slender, and poor, fueling the premise that the murders are not random. While some leading members of the American media have reported on the situation, prompting the U.S. government to send in top criminal profilers from the FBI, little real information about this international atrocity has emerged. According to Amnesty International, as of 2006 more than 400 bodies have been recovered, with hundreds still missing. As for who is behind the murders themselves, the answer remains unknown, although many have argued that the killings have become a sort of blood sport, due to the lawlessness of the city itself. Among the theories being considered are illegal trafficking in human organs, ritualistic satanic sacrifices, copycat killers, and a conspiracy between members of the powerful Juárez drug cartel and some corrupt Mexican officials who have turned a blind eye to the felonies, all the while lining their pockets with money drenched in blood. The Daughters of Juárez is an eye-opening, authoritative nonfiction work that unflinchingly examines the brutal killings and draws attention to these atrocities on the border. The end result will shock readers and become required reading on the subject for years to come.