Abdul Latif Sharif
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An Egyptian-born chemist Abdul Latif Sharif (born 1947) is the chief suspect in the Juárez killings, a decade-long serial killing spree that began in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez in the early 1990s.
Sharif emigrated to the United States in 1970 to work as a high-paid research chemist for a series of U.S. companies, some of whom are alleged to have shielded him from persistent accusations of rape and even murder. Jailed for twelve years for rape in 1984, Sharif was released early for good behavior in 1989, committed rape yet again, and fled to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, to escape a deportation hearing across the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas. After the bodies of young women began to turn up in the desert surrounding Juárez, Sharif was arrested and imprisoned and is now serving a life sentence for murder in a maximum-security jail in the state capital, Chihuahua, Chihuahua.
The serial killings have continued since Sharif's imprisonment, leading to speculation that there are multiple killers besides Sharif.
References
- Antonio Mendoza, Killers on the Loose: Unsolved Cases of Serial Murder, (Virgin Books 2002), [ISBN 0753506815] – Study of unsolved serial killing around the world, including Ciudad Juárez.
- Simon Whitechapel, Crossing to Kill: The True Story of the Serial-Killer Playground, (Virgin Books 2002), [ISBN 0753506866] – Updated edition of the first detailed study of the Juarez murders.