A Mexicali woman who filed two complaints with Baja California’s state attorney general’s office says the agency lost all the evidence she submitted, then asked her to start over from scratch. Erika Pillado first reported death threats from her ex-boyfriend in November 2024. More than a year later, she has received no protective measures, and the threats resumed on April 26.
The case follows a documented pattern in Baja California. At least three women who sought help from the FGE (the state attorney general’s office, known by its Spanish initials) were killed by the men they reported. A state human rights body confirmed the agency’s failures in the most recent of those cases earlier this year.
Mexicali FGE Death Threats Case Mirrors Prior Failures
Pillado told Punto Norte that her ex-boyfriend, a 48-year-old man named Walter who lives in Somerton, Arizona, began sending threatening WhatsApp messages on November 4, 2024. The relationship had ended in September 2023. The messages targeted Pillado and her daughters, with explicit threats of kidnapping and killing.
Six days after the first messages, on November 10, 2024, a second round arrived: “I know where you are. Watch your daughters very carefully.” Pillado filed her complaint at the FGE’s Río Nuevo offices in Mexicali, where she provided printed screenshots, digital evidence, and witness testimony. She was told to present her materials in two separate offices. No protective order was issued.
After several more calls and messages, the harassment paused for months. Then on Sunday, April 26, the threats resumed. One message read, translated from Spanish: “The night is long and not even your people can save you. I just want to kill you.” Another stated: “Get ready, because one of your daughters will suddenly disappear.”
When Pillado returned to the FGE to report the new threats, staff told her the evidence from her November 2024 complaint had been lost. They asked her to re-submit all screenshots, printed messages, and witness testimony.
“I am afraid, honestly, because they are not doing anything,” Pillado said.
Pillado described Walter as dangerous beyond her own case. During their relationship, she said, he planned to kidnap the child of someone who owed him money. He had also threatened another person’s daughter on a separate occasion. Those behaviors prompted her to end the relationship.
Three Baja California Women Killed After FGE Ignored Complaints
Pillado’s experience is not an isolated failure. Baja California has at least three documented cases where women reported threats to the FGE and were later killed by the men they reported.
The most prominent case involves María Fernanda Hernández Viera, a Tijuana dentist murdered on August 11, 2021, in her office in the Colonia Alfonso Corona del Rosal neighborhood near La Ermita. Hernández Viera had filed two separate complaints against her ex-partner, Every Alain Gastélum Rodríguez. The FGE failed to act on either complaint. Gastélum Rodríguez remains at large as of April 2026.
In April 2026, the CEDHBC (Baja California’s state human rights commission) issued Recommendation 2/2026 confirming that the FGE failed at multiple points to prevent the killing. The recommendation documented specific institutional breakdowns: complaints were received but not investigated, and no protective measures were granted despite clear evidence of escalating danger.
Two other cases follow the same pattern. Daryela Elizabeth Valdez Rocha of Mexicali was killed on January 15, 2023, by 73-year-old Honorio González García. Lucero Rubí Ojeda Huerta of San Quintín was killed on September 24, 2020, by Pedro Martínez Castro. Both women had sought help from the FGE before their deaths.
Cross-Border Jurisdiction Complicates Enforcement
The suspect in Pillado’s case lives in Somerton, Arizona, a small city of roughly 15,000 people about 15 miles southwest of Yuma. That cross-border element adds a layer of complexity. Mexican arrest warrants do not automatically apply in the United States. Enforcement would require coordination between the FGE and U.S. law enforcement, typically through formal mutual legal assistance channels or Interpol notices.
Baja California shares roughly 150 miles of border with Arizona and California. Thousands of people cross daily between Mexicali and Calexico. Threats sent digitally from U.S. soil to recipients in Mexico occupy a gray zone. Mexican authorities can investigate the crime as it affects the victim on Mexican territory. But apprehending a suspect in Arizona would require U.S. cooperation.
Whether the FGE has contacted any U.S. agency about this case is unclear. Pillado did not mention any such coordination, and the FGE has not commented publicly on her complaint.
Pillado’s case remains open with the FGE. The most recent threats arrived on April 26, four days before her interview was published. She called the suspect directly on one of the two phone numbers used to send messages. He denied being the sender, but Pillado said she recognized his voice. The CEDHBC’s Recommendation 2/2026 on the Hernández Viera case gives Pillado a formal precedent to cite if she escalates her complaint to the state human rights commission. This story was first reported by Punto Norte on April 30.