Later, three Peruvians, Elders Manuel Hidalgo, Cristian Ugarte, and Oscar Zapata were killed in Peru for similar reasons on August 22, 1990, and March 6, 1991.
Their names "will be engraved forever in the history of this Church as those who lived as faithful servants of God and died as martyrs to His eternal work[s].
He had been an honor student at Carbon High School, and had begun attending the College of Eastern Utah, while working as the night manager at Wendy's Restaurant in Price.
[12][13] When Jeffrey Ball and Todd Wilson arrived in Bolivia in 1988, they entered an environment of severe political unrest and anti-Mormon antagonism in the nation and in Latin America generally.
At one point, not long before the assassinations, it bombed the Villa Victoria chapel in Jeffrey Ball and Todd Wilson's area, which sustained severe damage to the entrance and exterior facade.
[28][37] Within half an hour of the slayings, a note from FAL Zarate Willka was received at the newspaper offices of El Matutino Ultima Hora de La Paz.
One former sister missionary reports being accosted by groups of students demanding to know why Bolivia should change its coca culture because the United States had a drug problem.
[14][18][20][22][29][38][39][41][42][43][44] However, this drug theory later became seen as only part of a larger problem as officials discovered FAL Zarate Willka's Marxist ideology, which was mixed with the philosophies of an Indian Rights movement known as Katarismo.
[45] Thus, Bolivian Marxist ideologues and politicians such as FAL Zarate Willka considered United States anti-drug and military aid programs as violating their national sovereignty.
Their idea of imperialism is not limited to territorial expansion, but "involves a whole series of political, cultural, and religious means,"[14] including the LDS Church.
Jeffrey Ball and Todd Wilson worked in a particularly poor, rough section of La Paz that was "well known for its brothels and bars, and the fact that most of the people in that part of town wouldn't say anything about what they saw.
[42] Finally, while some have speculated that Jeffrey Ball and Todd Wilson were not the intended targets, that "the group made a mistake and then decided to run with it" and the assassination was "nothing but a tragic error," [37] the evidence suggesting that the missionaries were staked out, might have been lured from their apartment, as well as the fact that the group particularly targeted the LDS Church, and had even bombed a chapel in the area, combined with the assertion of the U.S. Consul in Bolivia that the terrorists could have assassinated practically any member of the U.S. diplomatic mission had they merely desired an American target[14] overwhelmingly suggests that Jeffrey Ball and Todd Wilson were specifically marked by the terrorists for assassination.
[6] The next day, the First Presidency issued a statement reading in part: We are grieved to learn of the assassination of two of our missionaries .... We regret that anyone would think that these ..., who have been sent to preach the gospel of peace, would be characterized as enemies of any group.
Ballard told reporters at the airport, "These missionaries returned to us today in these caskets have fulfilled a noble service ... we pray that hearts will be softened and tragedies like this will never occur again to such wonderful, good men who have devoted their lives to preaching the gospel of peace.
Ball's funeral was attended by President Ezra Taft Benson and his counselor Thomas S. Monson, as well as Ballard and Monte J. Brough of the Seventy and over one thousand guests.
[56][57] President Wright may have shared a dream he had which Ballard later quoted in General Conference: I saw these two elders dressed in white, standing at the doors of a beautiful building.
Elders Wilson and Ball were ushering those they had prepared to receive the gospel in the spirit world into the temple to witness the vicarious ordinances being performed in their behalf.
During this visit, they "gave instructions to the missionaries concerning safety precautions they need to observe, including returning to their apartments by 9:30 p.m. and how to travel and conduct themselves in the present climate."
Missionaries were pulled out over the Fourth of July in Huanuni, Oruro, a "hot spot," where in an unreported incident in the mid- 1970s the Elders' home was blown up in their absence, killing the members who were staying there.
While he asserted that "a bomb is not going to scare any of us," the First Presidency responded to the general political unrest by reassigning some American missionaries in Bolivia and Peru to other countries and sending others home early.
Utah's senior senator, Jake Garn (R) expressed, "Such wanton and cowardly acts are among the most disgusting and callous actions of which human beings are capable.
McPheters hit the streets with a Bolivian policeman, where they "went through it with a fine-tooth comb and developed witnesses who saw and heard things," in an effort to reconstruct the chronology of the crime.
Yujra declared that the police "approached me and told me 'I have an arrest warrant,' whereupon I resisted and even tried to escape, so they grabbed me and started to hit me brutally until they had me on the ground.
[17][18] By Wednesday, June 28, police had also arrested Dr. Gabriel Rojas Bilbao, alleged ideological leader of FAL Zarate Willka, and Tema Salazar Mamani.
[17] These arrests led to the naming of brothers Nelson and Félix Encinas Laguna as prime suspects of the bomb on Parliament, and according to Information Minister Hermán Antelo, there were also "indications of their participation in the murders" of Elders Jeffrey Ball and Todd Wilson.
The trial began soon after Ambassador Gelbard declared to officials of the LDs Church during a Salt Lake City visit that "I have made it crystal clear to the president of Bolivia that this is of the greatest importance to us and we want to bring this to the end of the investigation.
[69](107) By February 8, 1990, the trial seemed to be entering into its final phases, when Judge David Rivas Gradin felt that the key testimonies of two women would enable him to reach a verdict.
[70] However, after the resignation of the first two judges, Rivas ordered the five suspects (Yujra, the Encinas brothers, Dr. Rojas, and Simón Tema Mamani) to remain in prison without bail.
Rivas (who was not allowed to rule on the case), along with the prosecuting attorney, José Rivero, sent a plea to the Justice Court of La Paz to appoint a new judge.
[15] As a result of this tragedy and a subsequent sickness, where he allegedly "thought he was dying," Johnny Peralta returned to his mother's home, where police promptly arrested him.