Alleged cannibal serial killer, Andrés Mendoza El Feminicida de Atizapán, arrested in Atizapan, Mexico City

April 02, 2022

Warning: Disturbing details to follow. Reader discretion is advised.

Andrés Mendoza, a 72-year-old man recently arrested at his home in an Atizapan slum on the outskirts of Mexico City, has confessed to the murder of a female acquaintance, 34-year-old Reyna González, as well as multiple other women. Harrowing details involving serial murder and cannibalism have been detailed across media outlets since Mendoza's arrest, and videos of him peeling off the scalps and faces of his victims and eating their body parts have allegedly been recovered. 

The alleged serial killer was arrested at his home in the Lomas de San Miguel neighborhood in the municipality of Atizapán de Zaragoza on Saturday 15 May 2021, after police discovered the decapitated body of 34-year-old Reyna González in a makeshift basement at his home.

González, a mother of two, married to a local police officer named Bruno Portillo, had been reported missing the previous day. She had left to go to Andrés Mendoza’s house at around midday to buy parts for cell phones but failed to return home. Mendoza was a friend and had gotten to know González through her cell phone business. He had gained her trust by bringing her cell phones to fix. When she did not come home Bruno Portillo made his way to Mendoza’s house to question him about her whereabouts. The officer became suspicious when Mendoza refused to let him come inside and returned to the city to report his wife missing and rally together more officers who soon showed up to the residence and gained access. Surveillance footage showed that González entered Mendoza’s residence but did not leave.

Bruno Portillo watched in horror as his fellow officers drilled into the floor to reveal a small basement area with a table that was saturated in his wife’s blood and dismembered body parts.

Police would later discover that Mendoza had stabbed her in the chest before hacking up her body with a butchers saw and knifes and packing her decapitated remains into a series of bags that he left out on a table in his home. The killer was a former butcher in a shop supplying meat to Tlalnepantla de Baz, a municipality located north of Mexico City, which is where he picked up his skills in dissection. Articles state that he was also involved in local politics at one time.

Forensic officers have, so far, unearthed 3,787 pieces of bone from the basement of the killer’s residence, which they believe belong to 17 of Andrés Mendoza's victims. Investigators also discovered possessions belonging to the victims, including necklaces, bracelets, purses, bottles of nail polish, a hair dryer, 8 cell phones, photos and identification cards. The items, which included voter cards from known missing women, were dated years apart, leading police to believe that Mendoza has been killing for at least two decades. 32-year-old Rubicela Castillo and 38-year-old Flor Vizcaino's voter cards were amongst the recovered effects. Castillo was reported missing in the summer of 2019 and Vizcaino was reported missing in the fall of 2016. The house was reportedly messy with trash and items strewn about the place.

The video tapes of the crimes suggested that the killer may have started murdering women as early as 2007. Some of the tapes were recorded on 8mm film and others on VHS.

A notebook was also found in Andrés Mendoza’s home, in it, he had penned the names of 29 women, whom police fear may be victims.

The excavation of the basement has now moved to other rooms in the home as forensic officers consider the serial killer may have buried victims in other parts of the property, including rooms that he rented out to lodgers. Forensic agents have a laborious job ahead of them in terms of identifying which small bone fragment belongs to which of the 17 estimated victims.

“I removed the skin from her face because she was very pretty,” Mendoza, now known by his media moniker El Feminicida de Atizapán, told the court at a recent hearing. Police officers who interviewed the alleged serial killer described him as appearing remorseless for his crimes and said he stated that he “just wanted to tell the truth.”

“What has been done has been done,” he said, adding: “the husband was there, he saw everything.” Mendoza and Portillo knew each other personally.

He went on to explain that he usually met his female victims in Tlalnepantla bars and killed them when they rejected his sexual advances. He was known in the local community for his inappropriate behavior towards women and was described as a drunk by neighbors.

Reports state that Andrés Mendoza has, so far, confessed to the killing of five women. As well as Reyna González, Mexican newspapers have identified the victims so far as:

Flor Ninive Vizcaíno Mejía, a single mother of two children who was working as a hostess in Tlalnepantla when she went missing in late 2016.

Rubicela Gallegos Castillo, a single mother of one from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, who had been working as an Uber Eats driver in Tlalnepantla and went missing in the summer of 2019.

Norma Jiménez Carreón who disappeared from Tlalnepantla in 2011.

Berenice Sánchez Olvera a young bar worker and two women known only as Alyn and Gardenia whom he met at a local bar and allegedly murdered after being rejected.

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