Story By: Maja Mishevksa, Sub Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash

The butcher suspected of the brutal murder of this teenage girl who was raped and found disembowelled inside a butcher’s shop has been arrested two years after the crime.

Mariana Joselin Baltierra Valenzuela, 18, was reported as missing on 27th July 2017 when she left her home to go to the shops and never returned.

The following day, her body was found with signs of having suffered extreme violence inside a butcher’s shop located only a few meters away from the place she was last seen in the municipality of Ecatepec, in the city of Mexico City, the Mexican capital.

Local media reported her body showed signs of having been raped and her entrails were out of her body.

Authorities confirmed that the main suspect of the murder was Juan de la Cruz Quintero Martinez, a man who was working in the butcher’s and lived close to the shop. He is said to have convinced her to go with him into the shop where he allegedly raped and murdered her.

Police released an arrest warrant in his name but Martinez managed to flee. However, two years after the crime the authorities managed to track him down to the colony of Benito Juarez, in Oaxaca state, central Mexico.

The suspect was taken to the state of Mexico where he was jailed in Chiconautla prison until the beginning of his trial.

Victim Mariana Joselin reportedly wanted to be a vet and was always taking care of others. According to her mum, Saira Valenzuela, “my daughter, even if she was 18 years old, she did not look like it. She looked like a 13- or 14-year-old girl.

“She was small, she only was 1.45 metres tall (four feet nine inches), and was very thin. She had a lot of health issues which is why we also tended to protect her a lot. At six years old, she was diagnosed with epilepsy, but it was under control.

“She had a normal life. She liked dancing. She was good, she was never a rebel. She was unable to have a bad feeling against anybody. She was tender. She was naive about bad things in the world. Her family was the most important thing for her. Everybody loved her a lot.”

It is unclear if a date for the trial has been set.

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