On the bleak, brown plains of Mexico's Rio Grande valley, drug smuggling is nearly as common as a coyote's yowl. Thus Mexican police were not all that surprised last week when a search of a cattle ranch 20 miles outside the town of Matamoros turned up 75 lbs. of marijuana. But the investigation took a darker turn when the authorities showed the ranch's caretaker a photo of Mark Kilroy, 21, a University of Texas senior who had vanished a month ago.
Yes, the worker recalled, he had seen Kilroy, and pointed to a rust-colored wooden shed 400 yards away. There, under...
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