THE BORDER REPORT

This story and photos probably should have run with this week's earlier package but the victim photos tell the story far better than I ever could. They come courtesy of TijuanaPress.com.

The victims were three young women from Mexicali. Nataly Medrano, 17, and her older sister Ivon Denisse Medrano, 20. Both worked at a Mexicali strip club, La Taberna. Laura Gabriela Mejia, 22, was a hairstylist. They disappeared in August 2008; Milenio gives the most detailed account I've seen yet of what happened to them.

The three had gone to Tijuana, a party hosted by men working for El Ingeniero, Fernando Sanchez Arellano. Somewhere along the way, they hooked up with Fidel Abraham "Chiricua" Barajas, Antonio "Negro" Grajeda Mendoza and Javier "Javo" Hernández Olguín.

Ivon Denisse and Negro have some type of argument outside a bar and Chiricua steps in, calming things down and offers to take the three back to Mexicali. As he drives them back home, Negro calls him and tells him Javo wants the three taken back to a safe house in Tijuana.

The three men choked the women out then dissolved the bodies in acid. A few weeks ago, the Mexican Army arrested Chiricua and Negro (pictured above left to right) who've confessed to the murders (and blamed Javo). Javo is still on the run.

The three murders managed to generate headlines even in Tijuana where three hits in one day is a slow night. But they also create a new dynamic for Baja California that's wildly open to interpretation. New Mexico State University's FronteraNorteSur news went for the angle that B.C. has had more women victims, 105 between 2006-2007, than Chihuahua, 84 in the same time period. Of course, missing women don't enter into the numbers so the stats are skewed.

The University of Guadalajara has one of the best summations of femicides in Mexico, calculating 6,000 murdered women in Mexico between 1999 and 2005.

The best part of their study is in the unknowns. Thirteeen of the country's 31 states reported they did not track murder by gender.