Lizbeth Flores: Texan mom found dead in Mexico was lured across border by sex offender who knew her family
A mother-of-two from Texas, who was found beaten to death with her teeth pulled out in Mexico, had reportedly been lured across the border by her killer. The suspect, identified as 39-year-old Braulio Trevino Martínez, had reportedly told 23-year-old Lizbeth Flores that her boyfriend had been kidnapped, according to investigators.
Authorities arrested Trevino Martínez on Tuesday, August 18, at his home in the subdivision of Molinos del Rey, Mexico, for Flores murder. A law enforcement official confirmed the arrest and said that the motive for the brutal crime was robbery, according to the Daily Mail. The 23-year-old was found dead, with part of her scalp removed, on August 11 in Mexico.
Flores and her family reportedly were acquainted with Trevino Martínez, a convicted child sex offender. Although the exact nature of their relationship is not yet clear. A source, familiar with the investigation in the case, reportedly told the outlet that Trevino Martinez allegedly lured Flores across the border, asking her to pay ransom for her kidnapped boyfriend. Nearly two days after she traveled from Brownsville, Texas, to Matamoros, Mexico — where her boyfriend lived — she was found dead. Her boyfriend is also the father of her two young children, reports stated. Flores reportedly died from blunt-force trauma to the head after being struck with a rock that was found next to her body.
The day Flores left her home to cross the border, she spoke to her mother, María Rubio, on the phone and told her she would be returning home that night. Her mother, however, never heard from Flores again. Rubio alerted the Brownsville Police Department the next day, on August 10, and reported her daughter missing. Flores was found dead the next day.
Flores' semi-naked, lifeless body was found in a grass field next to a construction site, a Mexican government official told the outlet. They added that the region where Flores was killed is notorious for robberies. Law enforcement, meanwhile, reported that a part of Flores' scalp had been removed and that all her teeth had been taken out by force.
Rubio, while speaking to Mexican outlet Telemundo, said that the tragic news of her daughter's brutal death is like having her heart "ripped out." She said: "I feel very sad for what they did to my daughter. How they left her is what pains me. The pain that my daughter went through there at that time is what pains me."
"She was young, she had many things ahead of her and more because she had two children," Rubio said. "And I want those who did that to my daughter, each one who participated in her death, I want them to pay."
Trevino Martínez is a registered sex offender in Texas and was convicted in 2006 of child sex offenses, according to Texas jail records. The 39-year-old also served four years in prison between 2006 and 2010 on one charge of child sexual assault and one count of indecency with a child. He was subsequently released from prison in 2010. During this period, his address was also Brownsville, the same as the victim's.