Bodies Found In New Mexico Identified As Missing Teens In Snapchat Beatdown Video
After being missing for more than two weeks, the bodies of missing New Mexico teens, Collin Romero, 15, and Ahmed Lateef, 14, have been found. The Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed the identities after the bodies were located over the weekend at the mesa area west of Rio Rancho. Of course, for the families involved, the news is devastating.
According to KOAT, the Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office is now considering this case a murder investigation as details of the crime scene is revealed.
“It was a very violent scene and we are looking and waiting for the Office of the Medical Investigator to determine the cause in the matter of death,” said Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Lt. Keith Elder.
As previously reported by the Inquisitr, it was believed that Romero and Lateef were involved in a drug deal that went horribly wrong after a video on Snapchat emerged showing the pair being severely beaten. The beating now appears to be further evidenced in the clothing discovered at the scene. However, further investigations will have to be conducted.
The search area for the missing teens was narrowed when someone identified clothing and reported it. The buried bodies of the two teens were found and recovered from shallow graves on Saturday. The Office of the Medical Investigator later confirmed that the bodies belonged to Collin and Ahmed. However, they would not identify the exact location the bodies were found, indicating that that information could compromise the investigation. It is also unclear just how long the boys’ bodies were buried in the undisclosed location.
Bodies found west of #RioRancho are those of 2 missing #Albuquerque boys, 15 year old Collin Romero & 14 year old Ahmed Lateef https://t.co/wRQGO9P1HI #RIPCollinAndAhmed
Pictures/video of the boys being tortured were posted using @Snapchat & snapchat REFUSED to help #Disturbing
— Marcelina (@marchichie) January 1, 2019
While the victims have been identified, it is now a matter of the department having to work backward to try to identify the circumstances that resulted in the deaths of these two boys.
“No leads have been disclosed,” said Elder.
“This is real soon after the recovery of the bodies and we’ve got to go backwards now to look and see who they were last known to associate with and start with those folks.”
While the Snapchat video showed the boys in a beaten state in the back of a car, no suspects have been identified yet. However, police are eager to find out as much as they can in order to close the case as soon as possible and hopefully bring closure to the families of the boys.
“We want to move forward with this investigation and bring to justice those that perpetrated the crimes,” said Elder.
“Our hearts go out to the family members that have lost their loved ones. We hope that they can begin to have some closure.”
As reported by KRQE, these families are now desperately trying to raise much-needed funds to cover funeral expenses and a GoFundMe page has been established.
