A California Ph.D. student is shot dead in Mexico after disappearing on a research trip.
Gabriel Trujillo, 31, had seven gunshot wounds when police found him dead in his SUV in Sonora, Mexico, on June 22.
The UC Berkeley graduate was looking for a shrub called the common button bush, which is native to the varied climates of Canada, the US and Mexico.
Trujillo wanted to know why it thrived in so many places and whether the evolution of the species offered opportunities for future habitat conservation and restoration efforts.
That investigation was tragically cut short when his fiancé reported him missing in the region controlled by tow cartels.
The murder has left his family reeling and searching for answers in a case that has once again exposed the rampant violence plaguing the country.
“Apparently he was in the wrong place,” Anthony Trujillo told the Associated Press Thursday as he waited to board a flight back home, with his son’s remains beside him.
Gabriel Trujillo, 31, was found dead in his SUV in Sonora, Mexico, on June 22 while on a research trip
His body was found with gunshot wounds about 60 miles from the Airbnb where he was staying
Trujillo drove across the Arizona border into Nogales on June 17 — an area where the State Department specifically advises against travel and only allows government employees to use Federal Highway 15 for fear of armed carjacking.
The United States Department of State issued a travel warning in October 2022 for several parts of Mexico, including Sonora, citing rampant crime and kidnapping.
“Sonora is a key location used by the international drug and human trafficking networks. Violent crime is widespread. U.S. citizens and LPRs have been victims of kidnapping,” the advisory said.
Trujillo drove across the Arizona border into Nogales on June 17 — an area where the State Department specifically advises against travel and only allows government employees to use Federal Highway 15 for fear of armed carjacking.
He spoke to his father the next day and his fiancé, Roxanne Cruz-de Hoyos, the next morning.
Trujillo said he was going to collect plants and return to his Airbnb later, but she was worried when he didn’t respond to her calls and texts.
When his Airbnb hosts told Cruz-de Hoyos that his belongings were still there but he hadn’t returned, she immediately flew to Mexico to find him.
Trujillo’s body was discovered in his SUV parked about 60 miles from his Airbnb.
Cruz-de Hoyos identified him to Mexican authorities when his father flew over from Michigan.
Both have been given little information about the tragedy and are begging the US and Mexican governments for answers.
The Sonora State Department said it is analyzing evidence “to establish the facts, circumstances and causes of death.”
Trujillo’s fiancee, Roxanne Cruz-de Hoyos, (pictured together) identified his body, which was found with seven gunshot wounds
His father said his son was “in the wrong place” at the wrong time, as Sonora is known for crime and cartels.
Trujillo’s family had begged him not to go to such a dangerous place — as Sonora recorded 518 homicides through May, according to federal government records — but the graduate believed the trip was critical to his research.
Sonora shares a long border with the US and is a major route for smuggling drugs, especially fentanyl, as well as migrants, cash and guns between the US and the state of Sinaloa, and the infamous cartel of the same name, further south.
Cartel gunmen killed three American women and six of their children near the border of the states of Sonora and Chihuahua in 2019.
For Trujillo, a scholar with ties to Arizona, Michigan, Illinois, New Mexico, California and indigenous areas in Mexico, the button bush’s ability to survive and thrive must have been familiar almost everywhere.
He studied it for years and collected specimens, often with Cruz-de Hoyos — a postdoctoral researcher who researched widespread tree dieback — in a big red van they bought together.
The UC Berkeley graduate was looking for a shrub called the common knot bush (pictured), which is native to the varied climates of Canada, the US and Mexico
A local dance troupe he was a part of honored him during practice on Thursday and created a makeshift memorial
“We were committed to dedicating our lives to conservation and environmental research,” Cruz-de Hoyos, a plant biologist himself, told the AP.
“We felt that indigenous hands have cared for these lands since time immemorial.”
Trujillo was drawn to Sonora and hoped to connect with his native Opata roots through the group’s ancestral lands in the arid, mountainous region. Ultimately, he wanted to apply his research to creating a garden in Mexico and using the button bush for wetland restoration. His planned trip included three potential locations to make a final choice.
Cruz-de Hoyos has been undergoing fertility treatments for the past two years and this summer’s trip to Mexico would be Trujillo’s last before the couple began trying to conceive.
They had bought a house together, ordered custom engagement rings, and proposed a wedding officiated by a native elder by the end of the year. They planned to announce their happy news in August, when Trujillo returned from his trip.
Cruz-de Hoyos will instead honor Trujillo with a Danza Azteca ceremony, a native spiritual tradition, in the San Francisco Bay Area after his father hosts a Catholic funeral in Michigan next month.
Danza Azteca In Lak’ech dedicated Thursday night’s exercise to him to honor his life. Trujillo was introduced to the group in 2017 by a UC Berkeley instructor who wanted him to find a sense of community, according to ABC 7.
“From the beginning you could just tell that he’s, you know, very gentle, very thoughtful – open,” said Manuel Garcia.
“Danza is not just dance, Danza is bodily prayer,” Garcia said of the honorary practice.
Cruz-de Hoyos became concerned when Trujillo did not respond to her calls and texts and when his Airbnb hosts said his bags were still there but he had not returned
The Sonora state attorney general’s office said in a statement Thursday that it is analyzing evidence “to establish the facts, circumstances and causes of death”
At the meeting, members brought photos and candles and flowers to create a makeshift memorial to the biologist.
“He loved plants, that was his life’s work, you know, so we have flowers,” Garcia told ABC 7. “The road he went is very traumatic, and he was a very spiritual being, and we want his spirit travels where it should go.’
“Gabe was a passionate ecologist, field biologist, and advocate for diverse voices in science,” the university’s Department of Integrative Biology wrote in an email to the campus community. “We all face a world less rosy for this loss.”
Trujillo’s mother, Gloria, died of cancer ten years ago. He is survived by his father and Cruz-de Hoyos, five siblings, six nieces and a nephew.