Uriel González Chona, an aeronautical engineer from the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), was heading to work at Mexico City International Airport (AICM) on August 17th. It was a normal morning; the 65-year-old man had breakfast at home with his wife, Lizbeth, and their nine-year-old daughter. Before leaving, he said goodbye to them and told them he would see them later. However, that was the last day they heard from him because he went missing from that day onwards and was found dead on Sunday, October 15th.
On August 17th, Lizbeth stayed at home as she was going to take her nine-year-old daughter to therapy due to her hearing disability. Her husband called her around 9:30 AM to ask if everything was alright with their daughter and to say that he had already arrived at work and would call her later, but he didn’t contact her throughout the day.
Uriel González Chona had a daughter from a previous marriage, and it was her birthday that day, and they had plans to celebrate. According to his wife, the engineer usually returned home between 7:30 PM and 8:00 PM. At first, Lizbeth thought he might be spending time with his daughter, but he never met up with her.
“I started calling his cell phone, and it was already turned off; it sent me to voicemail. I tried again later, and it still sent me to voicemail. At first, I thought maybe he went to have dinner with his daughter or something like that and would be back in a while,” Uriel’s wife told MILENIO.
The next day, Lizbeth woke up at 5:00 AM and noticed that her husband had not returned, and his car was not parked at the house. She called him again, but he did not answer. So, on August 18th, she contacted his workplace, and they assured her that the engineer was at work because, according to his secretary, his belongings were in the office. However, his wife had a feeling that something was wrong.
Uriel had been working at the Mexican Airspace Navigation Services for over 35 years. According to his coworkers, on August 17th, he left the office between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM and got into his white Astra car with license plate NLW 7946, model 2001, but no one knew if he was alone or where he was heading.
Concerned for her husband, Lizbeth spoke to Uriel’s older daughter, who told her that she had not seen her father and did not know anything about him, as they never met to celebrate her birthday.
In Uriel’s office, his lunch, glasses, and computer were found on his desk, which led his coworkers to believe that he had indeed gone to work on August 18th, but he had been missing since the day before.
Staff from Uriel’s workplace later called Lizbeth to inform her that her husband had not gone to work. So, she went to the Attorney General’s Office in Mexico City to report what had happened.
The institution took her statement and issued a search bulletin, AYO/2697/2023, describing that the man went missing in the San Juan de Aragón neighborhood in the Venustiano Carranza borough.
On August 19th, Lizbeth accessed her husband’s email and noticed that withdrawals had been made from his bank card on the day Uriel went missing, including the money from his last paycheck. According to her, two bank withdrawals from her husband’s card occurred in different locations. One was in Niza Street, Juárez neighborhood, and the other in Palma Street, Centro neighborhood, both in the Cuauhtémoc borough.
After returning to the Attorney General’s Office to check on the progress of the search, Lizbeth was informed that they were investigating the phone calls and location of her husband’s phone, as well as who had withdrawn the money and analyzing the company’s surveillance videos to determine if he left alone, was followed, or his route.
Uriel’s absence caused uncertainty in his family because, according to his wife, he always informed them of his whereabouts or if he would be going somewhere else. Even though his workplace has provided videos from cameras that may have captured his route, Uriel’s wife claims she has not seen them.
According to a video from a C5 camera, Uriel’s wife said, “The last location the car was detected was around Santa Martha Acatitla, heading towards the State of Mexico, on Friday at 5 AM.”
“They say that in the C5 camera, you can’t see who was driving, and all they detect is the car and the license plate, but you can’t see who was driving, how many people were in the car, or anything else except the car moving, and it was located by the license plate,” she explained.
Both Uriel González Chona’s bank cards and his car were reported as stolen. The location of the man’s phone indicates that it was in various parts of Mexico City, with the last registered movement on August 18th at 1:22 AM in the Anzures neighborhood in the Miguel Hidalgo borough.
Uriel González Chona was found on Sunday, October 15th, in the municipality of Chimalhuacán in the State of Mexico, confirmed his wife, Lizbeth, who told MILENIO that she recognized her partner’s body, while the car he was in was not located.
“We went to the Chimalhuacán Attorney General’s Office yesterday to identify the body (…) I found him, and he will rest where he wanted to be,” she said.
The Attorney General’s Office of Mexico City reported that detectives from the Investigation Police (PDI) arrested two men for their alleged involvement in the forced disappearance of people committed by private individuals.
They are Hilario “N” and Agustín “N,” who were transferred to the Northern Penitentiary, where they were made available to the judge who required them. MILENIO confirmed that Agustín “N” was a coworker of the victim.
The agents, assigned to the Investigation of Disappearances Committed by Private Individuals, located both individuals in the streets of the Anzures neighborhood, Miguel Hidalgo borough—where Uriel’s phone was last located—and San Vicente Chicoloapan Centro, in the State of Mexico, respectively.
According to the investigation, the suspects allegedly withdrew money from the victim’s bank cards and used a vehicle identified at the location where the aggrieved person was last seen.
TYT Newsroom
