Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders

Raquel and Ivon stand at a levee looking at the polluted Río Grande River, where Irene swam the night before. Inside Paco’s house, Ivon questions his purple-haired wife, Ariel, about what happened. Ariel brushes off her questions, and Ivon is livid when Ariel reveals Raquel took the girls there so she could buy drugs. 

Ariel hands over Irene’s backpack, which was found in the outhouse. Inside are Irene’s Mickey Mouse wallet, her purchases from the fair, and a Tori Amos CD. Ivon, disgusted by the dirty conditions of the kitchen and fearful for her sister, throws up in the sink. Ariel makes some phone calls to try to locate Irene, while Paco gives Ivon a soda and tells her they will find her.

A missing person advertisement for Irene is released, stating that Irene Feliciana Villa is a 16-year-old girl from El Paso who has been missing since Thursday morning. It explains that she went to the Juárez Expo Fair and then joined her friends at a party in Colonia La Soledad. It describes what she was wearing and the metal stud in her tongue, and it asks that “[a]nyone with information […] contact the nearest law enforcement agency” (146).