Lizbeth Flores was found dead on August 11, two days after she traveled from Texas to visit the father of her two young children.
A suspect has been arrested over the murder of an American mom-of-two who was found beaten to death with all of her teeth pulled out and part of her scalp removed in Mexico.
Braulio Martínez was arrested at his home in the subdivision of Molinos del Rey on Tuesday for the murder of 23-year-old Lizbeth Flores, a law enforcement official confirmed to DailyMail.com.
The official said the motive for the brutally violent crime was a robbery.
Flores was found dead on August 11, two days after she traveled from Texas to the town of Matamoros to visit the father of her two young children.
A Mexican government official told DailyMail.com that Flores’ semi-naked, lifeless body was located on a grass field next to a construction site.
She reportedly died from a blunt-force trauma to the head after being struck with a rock that was found next to her body.
Braulio Martínez was arrested at his home in the subdivision of Molinos del Rey on Tuesday for the murder of 23-year-old Flores
The official said the motive for the brutally violent crime was a robbery (pictured: Braulio Martínez is seen being led out of a police station by cops with his head down)
Flores reportedly died from a blunt-force trauma to the head after being struck with a rock that was found next to her body
Officials say the stretch of land where Flores was killed, a vacant lot in the Emilio Portes Gil bypass, is notorious for robberies.
Crime scene images leaked on social media showed her body lying face up, with her shirt off, wearing just her bra, pants and shoes.
Law enforcement investigators reported that a part of Flores’ scalp had been removed and that all of her teeth had been taken out by force.
Two days earlier on August 9, she had reportedly crossed the border between Mexico and the US, walking across the Veterans International Bridge to Matamoros to visit her boyfriend. The couple share two young children together, a four-year-old girl and three-year-old boy.
Later the same day she spoke to her mother, María Rubio, on the phone and said she would be returning home to Brownsville that night, however she never returned.
Less than 24 hours later, Rubio called the Brownsville Police Department on August 10 to report her daughter missing. She was found dead the following day.
Lizbeth Flores, a mother of two children from Brownsville, Texas, was killed last week while visiting the Mexican border city of Matamoros. She walked across the Veterans International Bridge to allegedly visit her boyfriend August 9 and was found next to a construction site August 11
María Rubio has said learning of her daughter’s brutal murder has been like having her heart ‘ripped out’
Rubio has said learning of her daughter’s brutal murder has been like having her heart ‘ripped out’, she told Telemundo.
‘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.’
Flores’ mother said she is trying to repatriate her daughter’s body with the help of a Texas funeral home.
Officials say the stretch of land where Flores was killed, a vacant lot in the Emilio Portes Gil bypass, is notorious for robberies
Juan Carlos Cué Vega, Mexico’s Consul in Brownsville, Texas told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that the Mexican government had previously offered María Rubio assistance in returning Flores back before a local funeral parlor stepped in to help the grieving family.
Vega also said that the funeral home was awaiting clearance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection to bring back the body.
It is unknown if a local criminal group or cartel was involved with Flores’ killing.
In recent years, Matamoros and other neighboring border cities in the state of Tamaulipas has been subjected to a spike in violent incidents involving the Cartel del Noreste [Northeast Cartel] and its murder squadron, the notorious Tropa del Infierno [Gang from Hell].