Ep 27. South Of The Border

In this episode of Forensic Files, titled "South of the Border," viewers are taken to Mexico to investigate the murder of 25-year-old American citizen, Brendan Mess. Mess resided in Waltham, Massachusetts, but often traveled to Mexico to visit his childhood friend, Daniel Abreu.

On the night of September 12, 2007, Mess and two other men were found brutally murdered inside Abreu's apartment in Mexico City. The murders were discovered when a friend of Abreu's came to check on him after he failed to show up to work. When he arrived at the apartment, he found the door slightly open and all three men inside, lifeless.

Due to the nature of the crime scene, the Mexican authorities struggled to maintain and collect evidence. It was also difficult for them to identify any witnesses, as the crime took place in a gated community where no one claimed to have seen or heard anything. The detectives on the case soon discovered that Mess and his friends were involved in the drug trade, and they began to investigate potential ties between the murders and the drug cartels in Mexico.

However, the investigation quickly hit a dead end. The case remained unsolved for several years until the FBI joined the investigation in 2011. They soon discovered a connection between the murders in Mexico and a triple homicide in Waltham, Massachusetts, where Mess and the other two victims were originally from.

The police in Waltham had never solved the case, which had occurred on the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The FBI believed that the killings in Mexico may have been a retaliatory measure against Mess and his friends for their involvement in the Waltham murders, which had remained unsolved for four years.

Using ballistic evidence, the FBI was able to link the gun used in the Waltham murders to the gun used in the Mexican murders. They were also able to identify one of the suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed during a shootout with police in 2013 after he and his brother carried out the Boston Marathon bombings.

The investigation into the Waltham murders allowed the Mexican authorities to track down additional suspects in the Mexican murders. Through DNA evidence and witness testimony, three men were eventually charged with the murders in Mexico.

The forensic evidence obtained from the scene of the crime, along with advancements in technology and international cooperation between law enforcement agencies, allowed the killers to be brought to justice. This episode of Forensic Files highlights the importance of forensic evidence in solving difficult crimes.