Adolfo Constanzo, the leader of the cult, told his followers that human sacrifice granted them immunity from law enforcement for their drug smuggling operations.
He then decided to give up his athletics and transferred to the University of Texas at Austin to become a pre-med student and prepare for his Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).
[11] His charisma, physical attractiveness (he previously worked as a male model), and claimed psychic talent granted him the opportunity to mingle with Mexico City's upper class.
[21] Because of her contradictory lifestyle, law enforcement believed that Aldrete was living a double life and showed signs and symptoms of having a multiple personality disorder.
[26] The sudden death of Saul Hernandez in a shooting prompted his family, including Elio and his brothers Serafín Sr. and Ovidio, to grow closer to rituals and eventually become members of Constanzo's cult.
Beer sponsors were staging a variety of entertainment events, including free movies, music concerts, calls home, surf-simulator activities, and opportunities to appear on TV commercials.
They left South Padre Island that evening and stopped for dinner at a Sonic Drive-In in Port Isabel, Texas, where they met a group of female students from University of Kansas who were planning to party in Mexico as well.
[12] Under hypnosis, Moore stated that he saw a young Hispanic man wearing a blue plaid shirt and with a visible scar across his face talking to Kilroy before he disappeared.
[42] During the investigation, Kilroy's parents headed to the Rio Grande Valley and circulated more than 20,000 handouts throughout the region, and offered a $15,000 reward to anyone who could help locate their son.
[21] Texan officials told Kilroy's parents that they were planning to talk to Tamaulipas Governor Américo Villarreal Guerra [es] and get people from Matamoros more involved in their son's disappearance.
[3][46] Police determined that the driver of the truck was Serafín Hernández García, the nephew of a local drug lord whose operations were based around the ranch area.
[3][46] Hernández García said that the slayings had been ordered by Adolfo Constanzo, a cult leader who practiced a ritual form of human sacrifice in the belief that it provided supernatural protection for the drug gang.
[3][46] On April 11, the police took Hernández García and the four other suspects to Santa Elena ranch, and forced them at gunpoint to spend several hours digging up the graves.
[5] At Santa Elena, the Mexican police also seized 110 kg (243 lb) of marijuana, 108 grams of cocaine, 12 firearms including three submachine guns, and 11 vehicles, some equipped with telephones.
[51] Inside an iron pot, investigators discovered remains of human brain, a goat's head, chicken feet, a turtle, several herbs, a horseshoe, and coins mixed with animal blood.
[75] On April 13, a religious ceremony initially intended to revive hope for Kilroy's safe return turned into a memorial service a day after his body was discovered.
Several of the attendees wore yellow ribbons with "Miss you Mark" written on them, and waited in line after the service was over to express their condolences to Kilroy's parents.
[3] On April 15, Kilroy's parents met with U.S. President George H. W. Bush and William Bennett, who headed the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
[77] Two weeks after the bodies were exhumed from Santa Elena, the Mexican Federal Police returned to the ranch early in the morning to burn down the shack and lay a wooden cross above the ashes.
[79] On April 11, 1989, the day the bodies were exhumed from Santa Elena, Constanzo fled to a Holiday Inn in Brownsville before flying from McAllen, Texas, to Mexico City, where he had an apartment.
[80][81] He escaped with Sara Aldrete, Martín Quintana Rodríguez, Omar Francisco Orea Ochoa, and Álvaro de León Valdés ("El Duby").
[88] In the Cameron County sheriff's office, authorities released a wanted poster of Constanzo stating that he was "extremely dangerous",[89] and indicted him and Aldrete for aggravated kidnapping.
[71] On April 24, the police arrested Víctor Manuel Antúnez Flores and Salvador Antonio Villaluz, who were hiding in one of Constanzo's properties in the Juárez neighborhood.
Constanzo then hugged Quintana Rodríguez, and De León stood in front of them before he opened fire and killed the two with a machine gun inside a closet.
The Mexican federal judge explained that the reason Aldrete received fewer years in prison than the rest was because she was not charged with using weapons that were military-exclusive, which carries a five-year maximum sentence.
Both of them partner with the Santa Fe local government, its school system, and the ones nearby, and with businesses and private donors, to provide programs for the entire year.
The full-time and part-time counselors visit school campuses during the academic year in Santa Fe and Hitchcock to hold programs for approximately 800 students regularly.
[132] Besides counseling children and teenagers with drug advice, Kilroy's parents also advise young people who plan to travel for spring break, suggesting to stay in groups, keep an eye on each other and not wander off on their own.
[7][133] For the most part, the U.S. media labeled the group as Satanist and gave little mention to the drug-related violence that was widespread in northern Mexico, thus failing to provide a wider picture of what happened at Matamoros.
They argued that Constanzo used Palo Mayombe for his own financial, illicit, and psychological needs by convincing his cult members to help further his drug trafficking operations.