Mexican and American Officials Fail To Investigate Death
http://Mediafilter.org/guest/Pages/January.09.1997.19.08.21
tburkett.clark.net.
http://Mediafilter.org/guest/Pages/January.09.1997.19.08.21
tburkett.clark.net.
By Terri Kelly, Mother of Patrick Sean Kelly
My son disappeared from the USC campus on the morning of May 4. He was reported missing to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD)by campus security and myself on May 7. The LAPD were of little to no help. They didn't interview his friends; they didn't check his room at the University. In fact, the only thing they did was put his car on the NCIC list. I discovered on May 7th through my son's bank that there were ATM transactions in Mexico on the weekend he disappeared. The bank wouldn't tell me where in Mexico, however, without a court order. I asked the LAPD to get the information and they refused.
My son was a Canadian citizen, a permanent resident of California. I therefore also reported my son missing to the Canadian Embassies in Mexico and to Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa. During the weeks of searching, I never heard back from either one of them.
On May 12th I hired Investigative Resources out of Long Beach,California. On May 15th I traveled from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, to Los Angeles to look for Patrick myself. When I was in Los Angeles, I was finally able to convince the bank to provide information on exactly what cities the ATM transactions were from. On May 17th, I learned that one transaction was in San Clemente and the others were in Tijuana,Mexico. On May 18th we located a videotape of my son at a 7-11 in San Clemente. There was another person in the store at the time who was either with my son or at the very least, interested in my son. He tried at several points to communicate with Patrick and eventually followed him out of the store. We have some leads on who this second person may be but to-date have received no help from U.S. or Canadian authorities in locating this person.
On May 20th, Doug Roth of Investigative Resources located my son's car at a parking lot on the U.S. side of the border in San Ysidro. My son's car had supposedly been parked there on May 4th. However, from there the mystery only deepened. The parking lot has 24-hour surveillance cameras. The video tape from a four-hour period, the time period my son's car was parked, cannot be located. Additionally, the car logs show that someone paid the accumulated fees and removed my son's car from the parking lot on May 15th several days after my son was dead and returned the car to the lot 24 hours later. However, the car lot video tapes don't show his car moving during those two days. There was fresh damage to his car, and whoever last drove the car was several inches shorter than my son. His car was locked and had a security bar across the steering wheel. Whoever took his car had to know the location of the car and had to have the keys.
On May 25th, Roth found my son's body in a Tijuana morgue under the false name Luis Rodriguez. All of his possessions his ATM card, his Canadian passport, his car keys, his clothing were missing. We have never been able to get a satisfactory explanation as to why he was called Luis Rodriguez. We were given half-a-dozen different stories about how he died. He was either hit by a car, was a passenger on a motorcycle which struck a pedestrian and was then thrown into the path of an on-coming car, he was a passenger on a motorcycle which hit a pothole and was thrown off the motorcycle, he was a pedestrian hit by a motorcycle. All of the documents we were provided from the Municipal Police, the Fire and Rescue squads, the hospital and the morgue conflicted with each other on such basic issues as his physical description, his age, his name, how he came to be there, etc. We were given three different causes of death -- head trauma, multiple trauma,septic shock.
After transporting my son's body back to Los Angeles, I attempted to get the L.A. Coroner to conduct an autopsy on my son. They refused. They said it was no longer their case since he was no longer missing. They said it was not their jurisdiction. I finally paid for a private autopsy which concluded that my son did not die as the result of a motor vehicle accident as claimed by the Mexican authorities.
The Canadian Government was finally forced by public pressure into asking the Government of Mexico for an investigation. None has occurred to-date and the Canadians continue to insist there's nothing they can do.
After much pressure, the LAPD finally agreed to do limited forensics work on my son's car and discovered what they said is "probably" blood spatters on the driver's side door. However, they refuse to test that blood to see if it is my son's. They claim they have no jurisdiction since my son's body was discovered in Tijuana. There is no evidence that my son's car ever left the State of California, yet they refuse to investigate the theft of his car from a California parking lot after my son was already dead.
The LAPD advised me that only the bank could request an investigation into the banking activity. At least three of the transactions-those that wiped out my son's bank account-occurred after he was already lying comatose in a Tijuana hospital. The bank advised me that only a law enforcement agency can request such an investigation. Again,nobody is prepared to investigate what happened to my son's bank account.
The L.A. Coroner's office finally agreed to conduct a private autopsy if I would pay for it. I just received the results this week. That autopsy said my son's injuries could have been caused by a motor vehicle accident but without accompanying accident scene reports, they couldn't be definitive. However, the autopsy also stated that results found in the Mexican autopsy were inaccurate. My son did not have a ruptured spleen, his ribs were not broken, his skull was not fractured,he did not die of septic shock, he did not die of a subdural hematoma. In fact, the L.A. coroner agreed with the private autopsy that none of my son's injuries were fatal. I still don't know what in fact killed him.
Mexico's National Human Rights Commission agreed to look into the case. They concluded that there was no investigation into my son's death,there was no "accident" scene investigation, there was no conclusive evidence that "Luis Rodriguez" was the same person as my son and that evidence was not preserved. They recommended a complete investigation be undertaken and that the police officers involved be administratively and perhaps "penally" disciplined. Since that report was issued,the author of the report has been appointed as Mexico's new Attorney General. To my knowledge, nothing has happened with the report's recommendations.
At one point I was advised by an LAPD officer that I wouldn't receive any official assistance because of NAFTA. I suspect that is in fact at least part of the problem. Our governments are not prepared to upset a U.S./Canadian trading partner over the life of a 22-year with no political or economic importance.
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Dear Terri Kelly, I skimmed your article and found it interesting. My report is titled "Honest Witnesses Sought..." I fell in love with a 20-year-old woman in July 1996 and found out soon afterward that she is very heavily addicted to heroin. Please accept my condolences on your son's death. I never thought much about the heroin/cocaine cartels until I met up with Courtney. I learned the hard way how the hard drugs destroy peoples' lives. There's a link called WormScan which details police corruption in the hard drug trafficking industry, mostly in Kentucky. This stuff is all over the map... I am currently investigating (informally) the police corruption and involvement in Colorado. I have suspicions that the recent JonBenet Ramsey killing is somehow tied to heroin/cocaine but nothing is definite on that yet. I am not saying your son was trafficking in this stuff! He may have simply been attacked for his money, by people who needed a fix fast. The heroin problem is growing all the time. Once people try it they never stop (only about 2% of heroin addicts quit--most develop a larger and larger habit and are forced into burglary and/or prostitution to support it). Very few people have the spiritual and moral stamina to get away from heroin. The heroin industry has more money than the United States government. (?) I am very interested in learning more about your case... You can e-mail me at jcfdillon@hotmail.com Very best wishes, and again, my deepest condolences... Jay Dillon
Heart wrenching story. I hope you keep pushing all the authorities to do what they should be doing. The problem with Mexico is that there's so much corruption in all the reaches of government.
Terri, you and I met telephonically when Doug Roth was trying to find a relative of mine. I am sorry that this has happened to such a nice person, cinthiasingleton@hotmail.com
This should be followed up through the San Diego County Police Department, not LAPD, in Los Angeles County. It is a know fact that the LAPD is one of the most corrupt and irresponsible police departments in the country. Since your the vehicle was parked at the border in San Diego County, it is San Diego Police Departments jurisdiction. Also, the San Diego County of ACLU should be contacted to file a law suit to force the investigation and Mexican accontability for this incident. This is an outrage and is not a new story, but, one that should be pursued to a conclusion of accountability. A Border demonstration against Mexico should be arranged and Mexican authorities should be advised of the demonstration.
And our "all-knowing" leaders want to remove the international border and join hands with such a corrupt and inept country like Mexico! How many more murders like your sons' will there be before we wake up and realize that the U.S. and Canada gets screwed with such treaties like NAFTA?
Terri, My deepest condolences on your loss. It is now 2004 so I must assume that most people know that NAFTA has nothing to do with this. Terri, you are so correct. If you are not politically or economically connected you have no rights in our countries. It all has to do with money. If you have the means you will get or have gotten to the bottom of this horrible crime. Again, sorry for your loss. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Spider, you must be trying to instigate something or you must be an idiot if you state that our governments have no power over "a corrupt and inept country like Mexico!" Our countries have all the power in the world. They choose not to use it.
I first encountered the story of your son on "Unsolved Mysteries", and the blatant cover-up upset me greatly. I offer my uttermost condolences on your loss. I, however am a social commentator. I've constructed my own web-page concerning your son's death, but I have constructed it as an attack against the Los Angeles, San Diego county, and Mexican Authorities. My hope is that by embarrassing them, they may eventually find a need to address your loss in a more satisfactory manner, and at least give you the satisfaction of seeing your son's killer brought to justice. It won't help you as much as you think it will. I know this from hard experience. It may, however, allow you to close this most grim and gruesome chapter of your life, and perhaps move on to happier times in the future. It is possible to be happy again. I know that, too, from experience. I wish I could tell you that the pain goes away, but it never does. You just learn to bear it, even when it becomes more than you thought you could possibly bear.
From your story, your son was kidnapped in LA, why do you blame Mexico? Who kidnapped your child? that is what you have to investigate in the USA side with your son's peirs. What if the body, only the body of your child was dumped in a highway of Tijuana?
Keep fighting,I am behind you 100 percent and , thank you