LA MORA, Mexico – A family member in Mexico sent voice messages to their family in the United States as they tried to understand what had happened, just hours after the attacks that killed nine women and children.
“Dear God everybody pray,” Kendra Lee Miller can be heard saying in an audio message, with panic in her voice. “Officers just came and said my mom's suburban is blown up, up on the -- by the hill, everybody please pray!”
Kendra Lee Miller was in Mexico when her family members were killed. In the hours after the incident, she used a WhatsApp cousin group chat to relay information back to their other family members in the United States.
The frantic moments paint a vivid picture just hours after the brutal and deadly attack.
“Her children are gone, they've been burned inside the vehicle,” she continued in another message. “Uncle Jeff verified, counted all 5 bodies -- their bones are burned, their bodies are burned to a crisp… dear God, pray for us all.”
Three women and 14 children were split up into three cars, caravanning to a nearby town to visit family when they were ambushed.
In totalnine woman and children were killed in a hail of gunfire.
“Aunt Donna and Christina are gone, they are not ... they are dead," Miller continued in an update as a woman can be heard sobbing in the background.
In the wake of the tragedy, the surrounding area is on lockdown. Soldiers are conducting check points, and the military has taken over the roadways and Mexican investigators have flooded the scene.
“There was no way we could ever predicted it,” said family member, Julian LeBaron, who lives in the small town of La Mora. “We see the armed people all the time and they kind of just leave us alone."
Julian LeBaron was the first one to come across some of the bodies.
“Right now we are just sad, just sober, we are just devastated … I mean they were just beautiful women, beautiful mothers, just exemplary people that were just murdered,” LeBaron said.
Days later, all that’s left behind is charred road, rubble and more questions than answers.
“What kind of man opens fire on women and children?” LeBaron said. “We want the truth, we want to know who did it, we want to know why and we want it brought to justice.”
A fundraising page has been set up for the family, you can find it here.
