California family missing after trip to Mexico

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By Sharon Bernstein, NBCLosAngeles.com

Three members of a Southern California family have been missing for nearly a month after taking a trip to Mexico, loved ones say.

Roberto Muñoz, his wife Cecilia, and their grandson Armando Salinas, had gone to Mexico to visit relatives over the holidays. But just as the three were beginning their trip home, family members lost contact with them.

Relative Delphina Layton said the family had reached out to the U.S. Embassy and the FBI, to no avail.

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Cellphones belonging to the missing group appear to have been turned off, and border records show that they never crossed back into the United States, she said.

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Layton expressed frustration with the pace of the investigation.

“I need returned calls,” she said. “Somebody get back to me and tell me that you’re doing something.”

A Palm Springs, Calif., television station reported that the family had been traveling through Chihuahua, Mexico, and passing through the rough border town of Ciudad Juarez. U.S. relatives were reported to be living in the Coachella Valley, northeast of San Diego.

Feb

2012

10:24pm, EST

Rogue bullet shot across Mexico border hits El Paso woman

By msnbc.com staff and news services

A woman has become the first victim of bullets flying across the border from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, into El Paso, Texas, the Associated Press reported.

Authorities say an assault rifle-type round went through the calf of a 48-year-old woman while she was shopping on a busy downtown street, Tuesday morning. The El Paso Times reported that she was pushing a child in a stroller.

Authorities on the U.S. side later determined that the bullet was fired across the border during a gunfight between carjackers and Juarez police.

Two suspects were injured by police gunfire and taken to a Mexican hospital, the El Paso Times reported.

The victim was taken to University Medical Center of El Paso and treated for a non-life threatening injury. Authorities said the woman is from Mexico and has a residency card; she lives in El Paso.

The bullet has been sent to a Texas Department of Public Safety lab for testing.

Stray bullets have crossed the border twice before in El Paso, although none have hit people, the El Paso paper reported. In June 2010, a round made its way to the ninth floor of City Hall. Months later, a rogue bullet hit a building at the University of Texas at El Paso.

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