Ciudad Juarez, Mexico-
Gregorio Castro rides the desert, searching the sunbaked dunes for signs of trouble.
In the last 2½ weeks, police have found the bodies of six young women in Lomas de Poleo, a community in the hills of Cuidad Juarez. So now the young cowboy has taken it upon himself to get on his horn and patrol among the few homes scattered over this rugged region studded with cactus and thorny bush.
"I know all the people who live here," Castro said. "Anyone I see that I don't know, I will stop them. If I see a light in the middle of the night, I will saddle my horse and find out what it is."
Wariness abounds, in part because the bodies of nine women were found dumped in another part of the city last year. Investigators, however, doubt those slayings are connected to the latest ones.
Police found the first body March 13th and have since discovered five more, four in the last week, including one Friday. Authorities have yet to identify any of them.
The first five all appear to have been in their late teens, State Judicial Police Spokesman Ernesto Garcia said Friday. Police had no immediate information on the sixth victim.
One girl was strangled, another stabbed, he said. Autopsies and other tests are still being performed on the others, but all are believed to have been slain.
Residents suspect a serial killer is on the loose.
"We don't know if there is one killer, or two or five or 20," Garcia said.
Chihuahua Gov. Francisco Barrio said Friday, he is ordering the attorney general's office to create a task force to investigate the killings.
"It is of utmost importance for us to resolve these assassinations and we are giving these cases the highest priority," Barrio said.
Authorities eventually arrested an Egyptian immigrant, Sharif Sharif, in connection with some of last year's slayings. He is in prison while a judge determines whether there is enough evidence to prosecute him.
Garcia said investigators have not identified any link between those slayings, which occurred in southern Juarez, and the recet string of killings in Lomas de Poleo, in the northwest part of the city.
State and municipal police are searching the desert for more clues. Municipal police spokesman Ramon Valdez said officers have also intensified their patrols around Lomas de Poleo, or Pollen Hills.
Residents complain the police aren't doing enough. Some are petitioning to be deputized so they will have the law behind them when they challenge intruders in the sandy hills overlooking Juarez and adjacent Sunland Park, New Mexico. Others talk of arming themselves with iron bars or wooden staffs.
"We're very worried," said Gonzalo Diaz, a teacher at the small community school.
But many of the area's roughly 100 residents seem content with ensuring their children are escorted to school.
Earlier this week, Diaz and other comminuty leaders convened a meeting to warn parents to keep their children close. "Don't let them go out beyond their own yards," he said.
Besides going out on patrol, Castro accompanies his three young sisters to and from school.
The eldest, 12 year old Maria, sat huddled against her borther on the horse on a recent day.
"I'm a little scared," she said, "but only at night."
Copyright 1996, The Detroit News
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