Precis

They're called Femicide Units; Mexico's special teams of detectives, lawyers and doctors set up to investigate violent crimes against women. They're the country's solution to an entrenched problem. In the land of machismo, on average 10 women are murdered every day.

The head of Mexico City's first Femicide Unit, Sayuri Herrera, is clear about the reasons behind the violence.

"Discrimination. Hate for who we are. It is an attempt to keep us in the place and role that society has assigned for us."

Last year, women's anger erupted onto the streets of Mexico City. Tens of thousands gathered to show their fury, not only with the high rates of violence but also with the fact that the men were getting away with it.

Herrera admits that old school policing wasn't working, that police weren't believing women's stories.

"More weight was given in investigations to the partner's version," she says.

In this compelling true crime episode, correspondent Sarah Ferguson goes on the road with Mexico's City's femicide detectives, following them as they visit crimes scenes, gather evidence and solve cases.

"It's very important to have women police," says one of the female detectives. "We can put ourselves into the victim's shoes. And tomorrow, it might be our family members, our mother...even ourselves."

Ferguson witnesses some raw and confronting scenes. She visits the blood-strewn apartment of a woman who's been the victim of a vicious knife attack at the hands of her ex-partner. Her brother watches on as police comb for clues.

"She was facing a real monster, the guy that did this to her," says the woman's brother.

Later, she meets the woman in hospital.

"In Mexico not all cases have justice," she says. But she's optimistic about the work of the Femicide Unit. "I hope that justice in this case is final."

Outside Mexico City, Ferguson speaks with the distraught mother of thirteen-year-old Melany who was kidnapped and killed last December. Melany's cross is pink, marking her death as a femicide. But here, there are fewer police resources to investigate femicides and Melany's mother has no confidence the police will catch the killer.

"The only thing I can say is that we're in Mexico and there is a lot of impunity. So, it's impossible they're going to catch him."

The Minister for Women in Mexico City, Ingrid Saracibar, acknowledges that governments have a long way to go in reforming Mexico's police culture.

"An institution that's as vertical, as masculine as that of the police takes hard work to change', she says. 'But of course, we aren't satisfied. We don't want to count the death of any more women."

GV Mexico City residential. Detectives and forensics at scene of crime

Music

00:10

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: A police unit is assembling at a quiet residential compound in Mexico City. These are detectives from one of Mexico’s new femicide units, formed only two years ago to investigate violent crimes against women.

00:13

FORENSICS WOMAN: We will inspect the scene, collect the evidence and send it to the lab for analysis.

00:28

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Violence against women is increasing in Mexico.  An estimated 10 women are murdered every day. 

00:36

Blood stained hallway/Ferguson to camera

The amount of blood visible here in the hallway tells a powerful story, not just of the violence and rage that was here, but the vulnerability of Mexican women in the supposed safety of their own homes.

00:48

"Why is there is so much violence against women in Mexico?"

01:00

Herrera interview

SAYURI HERRERA Special Prosecutor, Femicide:  It's discrimination. It's hate for who we are.

01:03

Women protest 

It's an attempt to keep us in the place and role that society has assigned for us.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Last year thousands of women from all over the country, fed up at the torrent of violence against them, came to protest in Mexico City. The suppressed rage of these women boiled over in the capital.

INGRID SARACIBAR, Minister for Women: The protests were a product of women being fed up.

01:16

Saracibar interview

They carried banners specifically about unsolved cases, cases categorised as suicides that turned out to be femicides and where there had been no meaningful action taken by the authorities.

01:45

Protests

SAYURI HERRERA Special Prosecutor, Femicide:  There's rage. Frustration. Anger.

02:02

Herrera interview

There's also energy to change things.

02:08

Herrera in police offices

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter:  The head of the first femicide unit in Mexico City, Sayuri Herrera, directs investigations of violent deaths involving women. She's also reopened hundreds of cases previously ignored by police.

02:11

SAYURI HERRERA Special Prosecutor, Femicide: These are the names of women who lost their lives violently. There are 700 open investigations.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: 700? Too many.

Trying to turn back the tide of violence against Mexican women,

02:30

Title: THE FEMICIDE DETECTIVES

the femicide detectives. 

02:49

Mexico City skyline GV

02:53

Drone shot. Police headquarters. Super:
MEXICO CITY
MEXICO

02:56

Ferguson walks into police headquarters. Super:
SARAH FERGUSON
REPORTING

02:59

Police headquarters. Femicide detectives into car

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: In Mexico City’s sprawling police headquarters, known as the Bunker, detectives from the femicide unit are called out to a crime scene.

03:03

Norma and colleagues in car

Norma Beltran and her colleagues are on their way to a downtown hotel.

Norma: "Romeo forty nine, Bravo, Echo, Whisky."

MALE DETECTIVE: We work in the Femicide Prosecutor's Office and these are very, very high-impact crimes that hit society very hard.

03:22

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Many of their investigations are crimes of domestic violence – murder or attempted murder of a partner or spouse.

03:40

MALE DETECTIVE:  Whether it was the partner or the husband who committed the crime, they try to make us believe that it was someone else – her boyfriend.

DETECTIVE NORMA BELTRAN: Or even themselves –  that they the victim caused the injury.

03:50

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter:  Expecting to be believed by old school homicide detectives, perpetrators often allege their victim committed suicide.

04:11

SAYURI HERRERA Special Prosecutor, Femicide:  It is inconceivable what they are willing to say and do to get away with it.

04:27

Herrera interview

They have murdered women in their homes, buried them in their homes and then reported them as missing.

04:35

Hotel corridor. Detective suit up and enter room

They are very creative, very creative in designing scenes of supposed suicide, to blame the woman, and they count on us believing them, because society has somehow always proved them right.

04:46

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter:  Room 7 on the 3rd floor. A young woman was found dead in the bathroom. Police won’t give us details except to say It was reported as a suicide. Unlike in the past, all violent deaths involving women are now investigated by the femicide unit as potential crimes.

05:07

Femicide detective: "All the cigarette butts were here, it was a full packet."

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter:  One of Sayuri's first actions was to re-examine hundreds of cases where violent deaths were classified as suicide.

SAYURI HERRERA Special Prosecutor, Femicide:  Investigations were carried out with prejudices and stereotypes about what it means to be a woman.

05:36

Herrera interview

Women are very emotional, very impulsive, they're depressives, they're not very rational. We would make the decision to take our own life faced with a difficult situation.

05:56

Detectives use luminol spray

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: At the hotel crime scene, luminol spray reveals evidence hidden to the naked eye.

06:10

Detectives in office

Back in the office, Detective Norma Beltran files her report. After 16 months in the unit, she has a sense of mission.

DETECTIVE NORMA BELTRAN:  It’s very important to have women police.

06:34

Beltran interview

Because we are women, we can put ourselves in the victims’ shoes, and tomorrow, it might be our family, our mother, our colleagues, even ourselves.

06:51

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Every country has homicide units; why do you need a separate institution dedicated to women?

07:01

Herrera interview

SAYURI HERRERA Special Prosecutor, Femicide:  Investigating femicide is different to investigating homicides. The women in our cases are often murdered because of gender. In a femicide, it's presumed the woman has been sexually assaulted which is different to a homicide.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Sayuri Herrera was a remarkable choice to run this unit. She was a human rights lawyer and an activist.

07:12

SAYURI HERRERA Special Prosecutor, Femicide:  The mothers and students I was working with, who I marched with demanding justice, we thought this should be our Prosecutor's Office. That we should commit ourselves to this office, that we should take back our institutions.

07:47

Prosecutor's office interior

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: To tackle the 700 open investigations in Mexico City, there are 18 lawyers in her team, 42 detectives, doctors and an intelligence unit.

"Do you understand why there are so many murders of women in Mexico?"

MALE DETECTIVE: I think machismo is the root of it, right?  That the man is the ruler of the home,

08:10

Male detective interview

that the man is the breadwinner. And they don’t recognise that we, as men and women, are equal.

08:37

Drone shots. Mexico City residential. Super:
LOMAS BONITO
MEXICO CITY

Music

08:50

Ferguson with detectives at apartment crime scene

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: At the residential compound on the outskirts of Mexico City, femicide detectives and forensic technicians are piecing together the story of what happened in the blood-spattered apartment.

09:05

Female forensics: "Now we're going to do the description of the property."

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Detective Jorge Palleco is in charge.

09:22

Palleco explains blood stains

DETECTIVE JORGE PALLECO:  We find evidence in the blood stains. This stain is not the same as that one. That one is trying to tell me something different.

09:31

The dripping… That type of stain, why is it on the wall? A pool of blood and within the stain you can see a knife print. The outline of a knife that had been placed there. That’s why it’s important to observe the pools of blood.

09:41

Brother in apartment doorway

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: The victim’s brother watches on

JORGE TULTECA, Brother of victim: My sister? She was facing a monster.

10:00

Jorge Tultaca interview

She was facing a real monster, the guy that did this to her. It’s an atrocity, what he did.

10:11

Dona in hospital

DONA TULTECA:  He took me by my arms and he pulled me from the bedroom. And then he was with a knife.

10:24

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Dona was stabbed multiple times by her ex-partner.  It’s a miracle she survived.

10:39

Dona interview in hospital

DONA TULTECA:  I can’t believe it. I don't believe that he did this to me. I'm in shock.

10:50

Dona's apartment

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Her attacker was her ex-partner Marco. They were together for eight years, but had separated not long before the attack.

DONA TULTECA:  I didn't see it coming. Never. We have not that perfect relationship, but it was not that bad.

11:06

Jorge Tultaca interview

JORGE TULTECA:  My mum mainly noticed this guy was a narcissist, and he didn't want to relate with us, with my sister's family. He was controlling my sister. That's what happened.

11:34

Apartment exterior. Night

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: On the day of the attack, in early January, a few days after New Year, Marco came to see her at the apartment.

DONA TULTECA:  He started to say that he's going to kill himself. He go to the kitchen, he

11:49

Dona interview in hospital

took a knife and he was like, I'm going to kill myself because you don't love me anymore.

12:13

Forensic team at apartment

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Dona thinks he saw messages on her phone from her new boyfriend.

12:22

Dona interview in hospital

DONA TULTECA:  After that, he was another person. He was like "your time is over" And I was like… huh?

13:34

Apartment exterior. Night

JORGE TULTECA:  He tried to strangle my sister. Twice he hit her in the face. He punched her in the face, and then he took the knife.

DONA TULTECA:  The first cut he did

12:43

Scars on Dona's neck

was in my neck, it's all over my neck. And instantly I started to scream for help.

13:01

Apartment exterior. Night

JORGE TULTECA: And then he started to stab her.

13:12

Dona interview in hospital

DONA TULTECA:  He cut my hands, on my arms. He perforated my lung. I told him, Marc you're going to kill me. And he said to me, "Yes".

13:17

Mexico City. Night

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter:  Dona’s neighbour heard her screams and called the police.

DETECTIVE JORGE PALLECO:  It was about 8:00 p.m., but it was dark, it was all dark. There was an armed person inside.

MALE: What kind of weapon?

13:40

Palleca

DETECTIVE JORGE PALLECO: A sharp knife. Later we realised that it was a butcher's knife.

13:56

Forensic team collect blood samples

DONA TULTECA:  I was at the floor. He was over me, so I can't move.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter:  Dona’s life was probably saved because Marco slipped in a pool of her blood.

14:06

Dona interview in hospital

DONA TULTECA:  I find the keys and I open the door.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: How did you get to the door?

DONA TULTECA:  I don't know. I don't know.

14:21

I remember I wake up and I said, oh, thank you, God, for this body, for this strong body. Thank you, God, for my hands. Because this attack that I have here I put my left hand –  I am right handed – but I put my left hand and I can defend myself. And I am so thankful for that. And now I can't move my three fingers. But it's okay. It's okay for me because I'm alive.

14:31

JORGE TULTECA: We are a society that cannot tolerate this anymore. We breed violence

15:31

Jorge interview

every day in this country. Maybe you read it, maybe you see it on TV, but you never imagine this can happen to your sister.

15:39

DONA TULTECA:  For me, it's very important that he pay for this.

15:50

Drone shot. City/Police car with siren/ Ixtapaluca

Music

15:55

Ferguson in car Ixtapaluca

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Ixtapaluca is only 35 kilometres from Mexico City, but the progress we saw in Mexico City feels remote.  Here, in Mexico State, more women are killed than anywhere else in the country and the age of the victims is getting younger. 

16:15

Pink cross on side of road

A pink cross marks the spot where a femicide has taken place.

16:36

Ferguson to camera in car

This is the latest murder to have happened here, and its details are shocking, even in Mexico.

16:43

Ferguson to Angeles' home

And it's left the mother of the victim isolated and terrified in this harsh landscape.

16:50

Music

17:00

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: "What happened to your family in December?"

17:13

Angeles interview

ANGELES:  My daughter was raped and murdered in December. That’s what happened. I wasn’t… I wasn’t a good mother… Sorry. In Mexico there’s a word. We say you are chingona. You are strong. I used to tell her all the time, for a girl your age, you are very chingona. There are so many things you can do; you’re an outstanding student. I found a way to buy her school supplies, her phone, whatever she needed. Why? Because she was my pride and joy, and I didn’t tell her that.

17:19

Home interior

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Melany was only 13 years old. Her pink school bag still hangs on the wall

18:39

ANGELES:  She was our rock.

18:51

Fatima and Julia play

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter:  She had two little sisters, Fatima and Julia.  One morning in December, Angeles asked Melany to help her. 

18:55

ANGELES: I didn’t feel well. I got Fatima ready for school and Melany didn’t have classes that day, so I asked her, please take Fatima to school.

19:12

Angeles interview

Normally, she wouldn't, as she had school, too. But that day I asked her to take her sister. And she didn’t come back.

19:28

School exterior. Fence

I went straight to the primary school to talk to Fatima’s teacher. She Melany had dropped Fátima off, and she saw her leave to go home.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: As Angeles searched frantically through the streets she asked friends to post messages on Facebook with a photo of Melany.

19:37

Dog on rooftop. Overlay of photo Melany

Shortly after, Melany’s body was dumped a few yards from the primary school gate.

20:08

Angeles with Fatima and Julia into home

ANGELES: Her little face and body were covered with dirt. Like they'd just gone there and tossed her out.  Her little face was purple

20:25

Angeles interview

because she had been suffocated. Her clothes were all torn up because she had been raped. I was silent, I couldn’t even scream.

20:41

Angeles walks with Julia and Fatima past pink cross on side of road

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Now a simple pink cross marks the spot where  Melany’s body was left,  connecting her death to the thousands of other women and girls killed in Mexico in recent decades.

21:04

Mexico City. Skyline/Roads

Music

21:22

SAYURI HERRERA Special Prosecutor, Femicide:  It's an intentional public display of the body to send a message to society about the value of a woman who has been degraded. It's public humiliation.

21:30

Femicide unit offices. Herrera in office

That's why they dispose of them like garbage. It’s turning women’s bodies into rubbish.

21:43

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Every country has a manifestation of violence against women, but in Mexico why is the violence so extreme?

22:00

Herrera interview

SAYURI HERRERA Special Prosecutor, Femicide:  A former president declared a decade-long war against the drug trade. We have seen femicides where the methods used to kill women have been learned from organised crime.  It's what we call 'overkill'.

22:12

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter:  Angeles has received a welfare visit from the local police.

22:45

Police officer visits Angeles

Policeman:  "I feel for you. I’m holding you in my heart."

22:53

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: But she hasn’t heard anything from the team investigating the murder.

22:58

Angeles interview

ANGELES:  The Special Prosecutor’s Office is not doing its job. It’s unbelievable that they haven’t found who did this when it’s such a tiny place.

23:07

Ixtapaluca police car parked in front of femicide mural

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: The State has a femicide unit, but it’s got little funding; the police here response seems totally inadequate.

23:30

ANGELES:  Well, the only thing I can say is that we’re in Mexico and there is a lot of impunity. So they'll never catch him.

23:40

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Have they called you on the phone?

ANGELES: No.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Nothing?

23:54

Angeles interview

ANGELES:  I’ve called them. They haven’t called me.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: How do you accept that? That must make you very angry.

ANGELES: I feel helpless. Because in this country, if you don’t have money, nothing gets done.

23:58

Music

24:20

Saracibar interview on roof terrace

INGRID SARACIBAR, Minister for Women: The cause is cultural, but also impunity.

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter:  Ingrid Saracibar is the Minister for Women in Mexico City.

24:30

INGRID SARACIBAR, Minister for Women:  Femicide is a crime that we have in 2007 just put it into law.

24:41

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Do you understand women who still say the police don't come?

INGRID SARACIBAR, Minister for Women:  Yes, yes, yes, I believe it.

24:52

I mean, we are working to try to change the mindset of the police. An institution that’s as vertical and masculine as the police, takes hard work to change.

24:58

Dona at home applying ointment

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter:  Dona is home from the hospital, tending to her wounds and in the care of her family.

25:24

DONA TULTECA:  My family is my entire world. Without my family, I don’t know the way that I can survive to this.

25:35

Dona and Jorge at tale. Jorge examines her hand

Jorge: "Was this one cut as well?"

Dona:  "Yes."

Jorge: "Can you move the little one?"

Dona:  "No."

Jorge: "How does your hand feel?"

Dona: "You're rough!"

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: Her dealings with the femicide unit have been positive. Her attacker is in jail, awaiting trial.

25:43

Dona at window

DONA TULTECA: In Mexico, not all the cases have justice. I want to believe that most of the cases has justice, but we know that this doesn’t happen. So I hope this case is final with justice.

26:05

Mexico City GVs

Music

26:29

INGRID SARACIBAR, Minister for Women:  Mexico City has been making huge transformations and we are one of the few states in the Republic that has reduced the incidence of femicide.

26:37

Saracibar interview

Not all cities and not all states have the same level of infrastructure but of course we aren't satisfied. We don't want to count the deaths of any more women.

26:52

Angeles in car

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: In Mexico State, Angeles passes past the place every day where Melany was abandoned.

27:10

ANGELES:  As long as the person who attacked my daughter is walking free, I can’t ever be at peace.

27:23

Angeles visits Melany's grave

SARAH FERGUSON, Reporter: All she has left is a grave to visit. And no one to stand with her.

27:40

Phone footage. Melany blows out birthday candles. Credit start [see below]

ANGELES:  They're magic candles, they never go out.

27:59

Outpoint

28:30