Missing and Murdered Children

Karen is a 3-year-old Hispanic female with black hair and brown eyes. She is 3'6" tall and weighs 25lbs. Karen has a two-inch-long surgical scar below her navel.

Liliana is a twenty-year-old Hispanic female with brown hair and brown eyes. She is 5'9" tall and weighs 160lbs.

Liliana Iboa and her daughter, Karen Cervantes, were reported missing to Avondale, Arizona police on Friday by Liliana's twenty-six-year-old boyfriend (some news stories refer to him as Iboa's husband) Benito Cervantes Mena. According to Mena he received a phone call indicating the two had been kidnapped for ransom. Apparently he was out of town when he received the phone call and when he returned home the house showed signs of a robbery with pillow cushions from the couch thrown about and other things disturbed. Mena told police he did not report the alleged kidnapping earlier because he was afraid they would be harmed if he called police.

When I first read this story I got that familiar feeling in the pit of my stomach that makes me tend to not believe the story of how the person or persons went missing. However, police at this time do believe Mena's account and do not consider him a suspect or person of interest.

The time line of events according to Liliana's mother:

August 30, 2003

Then 15-year-old Liliana is reported missing by her parents from their Springfield, Oregon home. They believe Liliana is being held against her will by then twenty-one-year-old Benito Cervantes Mena

Approximately one month later Liliana calls Springfield, Oregon Police

During that phone call she tells police she is safe and had run away from home to be with Mena. Liliana later came back home and the family moved to New Mexico.

March 22, 2005

Liliana gives birth to Karen Cervantes. It is not clear if Liliana is living with her parents at this point or with Mena.

2007

Liliana and Mena break up and she moves back in with her parents in New Mexico.

November 2, 2008

According to Liliana's mother, Mena shows up at their home and Liliana leaves with him.

November 6, 2008

Liliana calls her mother but her mother did not tell reporters the content of that phone call

November 7, 2008

Mena calls police to report the kidnapping of his daughter and girlfriend/wife. Police have verified that even though Mena refers to Liliana as his wife, they have never been legally married.

The parents do not like Mena because they say he has a 'bad reputation'. I hope this is just an instance of Liliana deciding she made a mistake going back with Mena and she is hiding out somewhere until she can get back to New Mexico.