A mentally challenged 19-year-old man was viciously beaten to death in Teakettle. On Saturday morning, Abner Vasquez was found bludgeoned in the back yard of a house. Everything seemed normal on Friday as villagers said they saw him collecting pint bottles to sell as he usually does. But later that Friday night, while everyone else was at a football tournament in the Arizona area of the village, Vasquez's attackers probably took that opportunity and killed him with uncommon savagery. Courtney Weatherburne has the story:
Courtney Weatherburne reporting
Abner Vasquez had to have a chilled coca cola with every meal, and his aunt always had it ready for him.
His aunt was expecting him on Thursday evening but Vasquez never showed up, instead he slept at a friend's house.
She didn't find out the terrible news until 7:15 on Saturday morning from her 16 year old daughter.
Isolita Hewlett, Aunt
"She said mom, they found Abner dead and then I cried, then I ran out of the house and went up the road to where they said they found him by a warehouse."
"When I arrived on the scene I see a lot of people on scene, it was private property and no one could go in, everybody was outside looking inside, as I approach I heard a lot of people talking that my nephew has no face, no head and I scream and I say how they could anybody do such thing."
Vasquez's body was found in the back yard of this vacant house.
This caved-in patch of soil looks like the imprint of a large rock, but this is where Vasquez's face was pressed in while his attackers bludgeoned him.
Villagers say that Vasquez was running from his attackers and his slippers and hat fell off here in the yard.
Reports are that the men cut the fence to go after him and that's where they caught him.
Although Vasquez's gruesome killing is shocking to many, his aunt admits that some men from the village had been threatening to kill him only a week before. Hewlett believes it's because Vasquez was an eyewitness for a drug bust case out West.
Isolita Hewlett, Aunt
"The week before, so that is Saturday before that , he got in a confrontation with some guys here and one of the young boys smacked him , punched him in my eye and he came home and he said aunt, this guy punched me in my eye and I asked him why did he do that and he didn't tell me why and then he said, aunty , I know a lot of things about these people , the things he knows about them , he knows too much about them and they don't want him to reveal?"
"Alot of people in these last days, threatened to kill him, and today was a court day for him, he had to go to court as a witness for something that happened."
"He was in a vehicle with a guy who was transporting drugs and police had busted them in San Ignacio/Benque area and he was there as a witness and he was there in the vehicle, on the scene where the drugs were."
But regardless of what compromising situation Vasquez might have been in with these men, Hewlett says they went too far.
Isolita Hewlett, Aunt
"It is really wrong what they are doing because it is not right for them to just take his life like that , it is not fair."
Courtney Weatherburne, 7News
"And as you said he suffers from mental illness and they really took advantage of him because he could not fight for himself."
Isolita Hewlett, Aunt
"He couldn't, he is not like a normal kid or a normal person, he can't fight back those guys, he is powerless to them."
"He is a nice young man to me, he does his things, I won't say he is innocent but to die in that meaningless and brutal way, the persons want him dead because they know he knows something about what they are doing."
But what or how much he knew means nothing, now, instead of preparing another meal and drink for Vasquez, she is arranging his clothes for his burial.
In terms of a suspect, Police say they are looking for a man from Teakettle who is well known to them.
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