While the bishops of Mexico hold the 119th plenary session in Lago de Guadalupe, very close by, authorities from the municipality of Nextlalpan, State of Mexico, reported the discovery of a body in advanced decomposition, tied and wrapped in bags.
It has been reported that the body could be that of Father Ernesto Baltazar Hernández Vilchis, 43 years old, parish priest of Santa Cruz in the Ampliación La Piedad neighborhood, Tultepec municipality. His disappearance on October 27 mobilized authorities and the Diocese of Cuautitlán, which asked for prayers for the missing priest.
In the early morning of November 12, residents of Nextlalpan alerted about a suspicious bundle stuck in the course of the Gran Canal del Desagüe, in a section corresponding to this municipality in the State of Mexico. Authorities located the body of a man in an advanced state of decomposition, wrapped in black plastic bags, tied, and surrounded by a mound of garbage inside the wastewater channel.
Authorities estimated that the body could be Father Baltazar, given the temporal and geographical coincidence with his disappearance in Tultepec. The body was transferred to the judicial amphitheater in Zumpango de Ocampo to perform the necropsy and genetic tests to confirm the identity.
An investigation file was opened for homicide, with the initial inquiries pointing to a possible cranioencephalic trauma as the cause of death, although the definitive forensic results are expected in the coming days. No details have been revealed about possible suspects or motives, but the case is framed within the wave of violence against the clergy in Mexico, where at least other similar incidents have been recorded in recent days.
Meanwhile, the Bishop of Cuautitlán, Efraín Mendoza Cruz, issued a statement in which he asked the faithful of the diocese not to make assumptions “nor to give credibility” to the news, “much less to spread them,” requesting to wait “with prudence” until the competent authorities can have sufficient elements to issue an official statement.
If confirmed, this discovery represents a hard blow to the Mexican Episcopate while the 119th plenary assembly is taking place, in which, among other topics, the situation of religious freedom in Mexico will be analyzed, the violence, and the results of the peace dialogues that are being promoted as a result of the crime committed against the Jesuits of Cerocahui. The murder of Ernesto Baltazar Hernández would be the third case in the current government, the last of them just a few weeks ago when Father Bertoldo Pantaleón Estrada, from the Diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa, was killed.
According to the compilation and information from the Centro Católico Multimedial, directed by Fr. Omar Sotelo Aguilar, SSP, as of November 12, 2025, there is no news on the whereabouts of the following priests:
Father Santiago Álvarez Figueroa from the Diocese of Zamora, missing since December 29, 2012. The nuncio Christoph Pierre shared the suffering of the families of the kidnapping victims and expressed his sorrow for the disappearance of the priest.
Father Carlos Órnelas Puga disappeared on November 3, 2013, and there is also no knowledge of his whereabouts. The case was handled by the Anti-Kidnapping Group of Tamaulipas, whose members “were attacked by unknowns in the municipality of Padilla” in the first steps of the investigation, without specifying when the incident occurred.
Father Francisco Núñez Martínez, Siervo Misionero de la Santísima Trinidad. Missing since February 7, 2025. He was last seen in Temascalapa, State of Mexico.
Father Ernesto Baltazar Hernández Vilchis, missing since October 27. Some reports from November 12, 2025, report the discovery of a body in a black bag floating in the Gran Canal. It is suspected that it is Father Ernesto without the identity yet confirmed.