Masked men kidnapped Romero as he entered a restaurant in
on December 30, 2009, bundling the reporter into a waiting SUV, according to
news reports and CPJ interviews. Eliu Lorenzo Patiño, a former military officer
who was accompanying Romero, was also abducted and remained missing.
The detective assigned to the abductions was himself
murdered about six hours after the kidnappings were reported, Mexican press
reports said. The state attorney general told reporters that the two cases
might be connected, according to press reports.
On January 16, 2010, Romero’s body was found along a rural
road near
said Rolando Bon López, Sinaloa’s assistant state prosecutor. The body had
signs of torture; Romero had been shot and his hands had been broken, Bon López
said.
Romero had covered the crime beat for the statewide radio
broadcaster Línea Directa for 10 years, News Director Luis Alberto Díaz told
CPJ. He said he believed Romero was the victim of one of two warring drug
cartels. Díaz said murdering a well-known broadcaster fit into the cartels’
intentions to intimidate the public. “They want to seed psychosis among the
audience; they want to terrorize; they want to keep people’s mouths shut,” Díaz
said.