American golf pro's Mexican girlfriend may have been target of broad daylight killings, motive still unclear
Mexican authorities are still stumped over the brutal slayings of an American pro golfer and his Mexican school teacher girlfriend who were shot to death in broad daylight last week.
MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) previously reported that Patrick Landers, 32, a father, from New York, and Karla Baca Chavez, a physical education teacher, were killed in a hail of bullets in eastern Juárez, Mexico on Monday, April 20.
Anywhere between 20 and 30 shots were fired by the unknown assailants, with the couple ambushed shortly after they exited a cellphone store and entered Landers' Jeep. The shooting took place near Lopez Mateos, one of the city's main avenues.
While it has now been a week, Chihuahua state Deputy Attorney General Jorge Nava told Border Report that investigators have not yet established a motive for the double-homicide. He said his office is in close communication with the US consulate in Juarez.
There was one oddity in the shooting, however. Of the two dozen rounds emptied into the Jeep, which had New York Plates, most struck the passenger seat, where Baca was seated. Just three impacts were visible on the driver's side.
Baca's murder is also being investigated by officers from the Crimes Against Women Unit of the Chihuahua state police, but Mexican authorities have refused to confirm if she was the target of the shooting.
She had reportedly been hired as a physical education teacher at the local Federal Primary School 28 in October and had just returned to the country on April 9 after a six-month leave out of the country because her visa had expired, a regional federal education administrator said.
Landers, on the other hand, was the owner of a real estate development company and an avid golfer. The couple is said to have been quarantining themselves in Mexico amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic when they were killed.
The 32-year-old father's friends expressed shock at his murder and are mourning his loss. Speaking to Spectrum News, his friend Adam Howe said he was a "good man" and a "great father" to his son Cameron, and loved him dearly.
"I want people to know he was a great father and loved his son Cameron. He loved him more than anything in the world," he said, adding that Landers was an avid golfer, quick-witted, and loved to travel with his dog.
Howe revealed that Landers had been in Mexico for close to three weeks and that he had spoken to him just a few days ago. At the time, he said the dad told him he was trying to learn more Spanish and had joked that if he ate any more Churros, he would become fatter than him.
He also shared that he was planning to hold a golf tournament in honor of his friend and would donate all proceeds to his son.
Dave LaBarge, another friend of Landers, told Syracuse that he had met the golfer seven years ago while hanging out with mutual friends at Cobblestone Ale House and that they had bonded over their mutual love of fishing and motorcycles.
"He was a good dude," he said. "He had an extraordinary life."