Arrest in case of slain Mexican journalist

One person was in police custody Wednesday in connection with the slaying of a Mexican photojournalist and four women in an apartment, Mexico City's top prosecutor said.

Prosecutor Rodolfo Rios Garza said Wednesday the person was identified through a fingerprint found in the apartment and that he had a criminal record.

In June Ruben Espinosa, a photographer fled the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, where 11 journalists have been killed since 2010, after he was followed and harassed by strangers waiting outside his house.

He was shot in the head Friday, his body bound and tortured. The attackers also killed his friend, Nadia Vera and two of her roommates — a 19-year-old aspiring makeup artist and a woman from Colombia — as well as their 40-year-old housekeeper.

No other information about the arrest was immediately released.

Mexican investigators have suggested the five may have been killed for any number of reasons, including robbery.

But friends say it's hard to believe Espinosa and Vera, an activist who had organized protests in Veracruz, would be tortured and killed because they simply were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The photographer had moved to Mexico City from the coastal state of Veracruz in June because he felt threatened because of his work. But even in the vast metropolis, he sensed he was being watched.

Once in Mexico City, he still didn't feel safe, telling friends that strangers approached him on two different occasions asking if he was the photographer who had left Veracruz. Mexico was ranked the 10th deadliest country for the press last year, according to advocacy group the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The Associated Press