Miriam Rodriguez

On January 23, 2012 Karen Rodriguez was kidnapped from her truck. Strange men armed with guns forced their way in and sped off with her. The Martinez family was contacted by the Los Zetas gang. An enforcement arm of a larger cartel. The gang said they had Miriam’s daughter and were holding her for ransom. This was unfortunately not a rare event in this area of the world.

Of course, the family was terrified, hurrying over the next several days to get a loan to pay off the ransom. Miriam and her husband Luis would arrive at the drop-off location, leaving the money as she was instructed. But Karen was never returned to her. Months go by and Miriam loses hope that her daughter is still alive. She confided in her other daughter that she felt Karen had been murdered.

            Miriam would contact the member that served as the connection. He said that he would meet with her and tell her what happened to Karen for another 2000 dollars/pesos. Miriam scraped together the money, but she was duped yet again. He would take her money, but tell her he didn’t know what happened to Kare. All Miriam had was his name. And that was enough. Sama

            Miriam would of course seek the help of local law enforcement, but there wasn’t much movement on the case from their end. After two years she was Without a doubt fed up and done fucking around with the police. Running out of patience Miriam would decide to take matters into her own hands. Armed with a mother’s love, she sent to find out who this Sama was.

Scouring Facebook, she would eventually come across 1 picture of him and a friend that was dressed in their work uniform. An ice cream shop that Miriam would stake out for hours until finally seeing Sama appear. The chase was on. Now she knows where the bastard dwells. But she needs more, a clue, a lead of some kind. She recalls having an old uniform that she could use as a disguise.

Miriam was hardcore, she even dyed her hair so that she could canvass the neighborhood Going door to door she was telling the people that she was conducting a poll. I’m not sure what she was polling for, but it must have been convincing. After she did all the hard work, Miriam was noticed by a federal police agent who was willing to lend a hand.

For obvious reasons the agent remains anonymous throughout the investigations, interviews, et al.

A quote from the New York times ”When she pulled her files onto the table, I have never see anything like it. The details, the information gathered by one woman working alone, it was incredible.”

Now that she had the backing of the authorities, Sama was under scrutiny. He would evade arrest the first time, but his luck ran out when police were finally able to apprehend him. It wasn’t long before he rolled over on his fellow gang members. When brought in for questioning they shed more light on Karen’s abduction. One member of the cartel surprisingly agreed to take them to where Karen was murdered.

For more on this case listen to Dontcha Know on any podcast streaming service.