Mexican authorities say they are investigating the death of a fourth woman at a Tijuana hotel frequented by a California man who is the subject of extradition proceedings to face charges related to the murder of at least three women in the border city in front of San Diego.
Former Baja California Attorney General Ricardo Iván Carpio Sánchez said the case shares similarities with the other three murders and that authorities are looking to see if there is any link to Bryant Rivera. Suburban Los Angeles resident Downey was arrested July 6 on one count of femicide in the strangulation death of Ángela Carolina Acosta Flores, whose body was found in a Tijuana hotel room on January 25, 2022.
Mexican authorities have said that once Rivera is extradited, they plan to present evidence to add charges for the deaths of two more women in Tijuana, including new evidence found when Rivera was arrested in California.
The Associated Press emailed and left a voice message with Rivera’s defense attorney, Deputy Federal Public Defender J. Alejandro Barrientos, who could not immediately be reached for comment.
Carpio Sánchez told reporters this week that they are evaluating the evidence for another possible case. He did not provide other details, nor the date of the murder.
“It is the same hotel, the victim is a woman and there are similarities with the deaths of the other victims,” said Carpio Sánchez, who also announced his resignation.
Acosta’s mother told Mexican authorities that her daughter worked next door to the Tijuana hotel where her body was found, at a strip bar called the Hong Kong Gentlemen’s Club and occasionally as a sex worker. The mother told authorities that the last time she heard from her daughter was on January 24, 2022, when she sent her a text message saying she would take one of her clients to room 404 at the Las Cascadas hotel for about 30 minutes. 10:15 p.m., according to the court. records. At 10:45 pm, her mother said he began texting her daughter, but he never heard from her.
Court records show that Acosta’s boyfriend went to the club at 3 am and was told by a worker that Acosta had left with a client who was a “gringo” named Bryant Rivera. After her daughter’s body was found in room 404, Acosta’s mother traced her daughter’s cell phone to an address in Riverside, California.
Hotel security camera footage captured a man matching Rivera’s description and the victim entering Room 404, according to court records.
US Customs and Border Protection records show that Rivera entered the United States on foot through the San Ysidro Port of Entry shortly after midnight on January 25, 2022.
