03 May 2023 , 22:29
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An elderly 79-year-old man was beaten to death in Mexico while delivering donations to poor families.
Rudy Lazo, who moved to the US from El Salvador in the 1980s after starting a family, worked as a truck driver in San Bernardino, California.
According to his loved ones, he was always helping those less fortunate than him and would regularly drive to Tijuana, which is around 125 miles from San Bernardino, to deliver clothes, food, and toys.
But during one of his trips in mid-April, Mr Lazo's family soon released something was wrong when the 79-year-old failed to return home following his latest donation trip.
His devastated family were told he was killed during a robbery just months after US officials warned against travelling to Mexico amid rising crimes.
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He had been beaten to death and robbed of his truck along with his other belongings, according to police.
Rudy's family have been left heartbroken (CBS)Police said none of his other possessions have been found.
His heartbroken son Juan Carlos Lazo told NBC Los Angeles: "He was always a very generous person – helped anyone out.”
He would often make trips from his home to deliver toys and basic necessities (CBS)
Rudy's family had to identify his body (CBS)Mr Lazo had to travel to Mexico to identify his dad's body and said "no human being deserves this."
He said: “What I didn’t tell him in life, I told him there with my heart: ‘Forgive me, and that in the end I didn’t let you down."
"He didn’t deserve this. Actually, no human being deserves this.”
Investigators have not made any arrests since his death.
His daughter, Claudia Hernandez, told NBC he wanted to help build a community centre in the local area.
She revealed: "He probably thought he wasn’t going to have problems because he was a senior citizen."
The murder comes just weeks after an ex-New York cop warned tourists it's the "most dangerous time ever to travel to Mexico."
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Eight bodies were discovered around ten miles from Cancun's beach and hotel zone in April.
Cops believe the bodies had been dumped there between one week and two months ago.
Five of the bodies were found at an abandoned construction site and three of them were later identified as previously reported missing people, according to Oscar Montes de Oca, the head prosecutor of the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo.
Volunteer searchers, including the relatives of missing people, and specially trained dogs participated with investigators in the searches'.
The three other remains were found in a separate site on the outskirts of Cancun near the resort's airport. They have not been identified.
Similar searches were also carried out in Felipe Carrillo Puerto, a town south of Tulum.
The US State Department issued travel guidance last month that warns travellers to “exercise increased caution,” especially near resorts such as Cancun - with more than 112,000 people listed as missing throughout Mexico.