The lifeless bodies of the two media professionals were found in the municipality of Mazatenango with torture signs and their hands and feet tied after they went missing on 28 January. According to media reports, Castillo Cifuentes who was the correspondent for Medio Nuestro Diario newspaper based in the department of Quetzaltenango left home to cover the Mazatenango carnival. Luis Alfredo de Léon Miranda, who worked at Radio Coaltepec in the same location, went with Castillo to the same event.

Local sources close to Castillo’s family reportedly told media that the journalist had been receiving blackmailing calls.