Topics: Crime, Drugs, Mexico, Parenting, World News, Gun Crime, True crime
A mom hunted down 10 members of a Mexican drug cartel after her daughter was kidnapped.
Miriam Rodríguez's 20-year-old daughter Karen was abducted back in 2014.
And when authorities did little to look into the crime, Miriam decided to take matters into her own hands.
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Miriam's goal wasn't to avenge her daughter by drawing blood, but to simply find answers to the many questions she had surrounding her child's disappearance. And in carrying out the work that authorities didn't, she went to some seriously courageous lengths.
Miriam's search ended up leading her to members of one of Mexico's most dangerous drug cartels, Los Zetas.
After narrowing down one of the men who was involved in her daughter's kidnapping, Miriam then launched her mission, disguising herself as a healthcare worker and saying she was conducting a local survey in the area.
Eventually, she gathered enough information for police to arrest the man she suspected was involved in her daughter's kidnapping.
With the help of her son Luis, Miriam managed to get this gang member behind bars, and once he was, he was more than willing to give up the names of other gang members.
One of the members named was just 18 years old at the time - a detail that Miriam used to her advantage, relying on her motherly compassion to convince him to give up her daughter's location.
Unfortunately, this led her to one devastating discovery - he confirmed Karen had been killed.
Not only did this further fuel Miriam's mission to take down the notorious gang members responsible, but it led to the mass excavation of dozens more dead bodies.
Over the next three years, Miriam adopted lots of different disguises; changing up her hair, impersonating election officials, getting close to unsuspecting family members for information, all so she could learn every last detail about the people responsible for her daughter's abduction and death.
Within that time, Miriam was responsible for taking down 10 different gang members who had tried to make a run for it and start new lives.
Her mission made her a figure of hope and admiration among other mourning families in San Fernando who had lost their loved ones to the cartel, however it also put her in a seriously dangerous position.
In 2017, her life came to a tragically abrupt end when she was shot dead outside her home on May 10 - Mother's Day in Mexico - when gunmen broke into her home and shot her 12 times.
Although Miriam had requested armed protection in the years after her cartel takedown, she once said, as reported by the New York Times: "I don’t care if they kill me. I died the day they killed my daughter.
"I want to end this. I’m going to take out the people who hurt my daughter and they can do whatever they want to me."
Miriam's son Luis continues his mom's mission, helping to find cartel members responsible for the abduction and murder of families' loved ones through the San Fernando Missing Persons Activists Collective.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact The Compassionate Friends on (877) 969-0010.
