Mexico Mormon massacre: Hundreds of community members flee the area after brutal cartel attack, doubt they'll ever go back
The massacre of nine American Mormons has spread fear and panic among the small Christian community living on the Mexico border and New York Post reported that over 100 of them have fled in fear for their lives.
According to the Post, the members packed up their belongings and stuffed them into vehicles and left for good to the United States. “I went down there to get my mother and get my family out, my brothers and sisters and lots of kids,” Mike Hafen, one of the family members said, "They’ve been down there for 47 years. They left with the bare minimum, whatever they could fit in the back of my pickup,” he said, whose family lived in La Mora also known as Colonia LeBaron in Mexico. Most of the families fled to Arizona.
“What the cartels doing what they’re doing, it’s not safe,” said Hafen, We have found that out. It’s getting worse. Some of my family say they don’t think they will ever be going back," he said. He also added that there were more families in the community who would be fleeing in the near future.
The deadly attack occurred as the women traveled with their children to visit relatives. Eight children, some mere infants, survived the ambush. The spread-out community traces its origins to the end of polygamy more than a century ago by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, forcing Mormon families in the U.S. with multiple wives to establish offshoots elsewhere.
The authorities are still investigating whether this hit by the cartel gunmen was a case of mistaken identity or a deliberate one. Three SUVs filled with women and children were hit by gunmen and one bullet hit the gas tank, making the vehicle explode.
The victims were shot at point-blank range, an American official had revealed to the Post. “They were taken out of their cars and shot,” an American federal investigator said, “It’s kind of disturbing that the FBI has had no access to the crime scene, which is probably a disaster already because the Mexicans have allowed families to remove the bodies. Any evidence that could have been gathered is probably destroyed.”