Chicago Couple Found Dead Weeks After Disappearing in Mexico City; 4 Bodies Discovered During Search

A married couple who had recently relocated from Chicago to Mexico City were confirmed dead Friday by family members, weeks after they vanished under suspicious circumstances in late May — and as Mexican authorities disclosed that four bodies had been recovered on the outskirts of the capital during the search for them.

The Couple and Their Disappearance

Zafar Padamsee Mawani, 56, a U.S. citizen, and Guillermo Jaffet Hidalgo Ortiz, also 56, had moved from Chicago to Mexico City in October, settling in a neighborhood in the far southern part of the city. The men were spending time in Mexico in part to care for Mawani's elderly mother, who has Alzheimer's disease. According to family representatives, the couple had gone to retrieve equipment from an alleged contractor for Mawani's mother when they disappeared. They were not seen again after that point in late May.

In the days following their disappearance, people close to the case reported unusual withdrawals from the couple's bank accounts, raising alarm among friends and family. The family retained representatives in Mexico City to work alongside local investigators, and U.S. authorities were asked to intervene. The U.S. Embassy acknowledged awareness of the case but provided no further public details.

Bodies Found on the Capital's Outskirts

Mexico City prosecutors, who were leading the investigation into the couple's disappearance and had already made arrests related to the case, requested assistance from the neighboring State of Mexico prosecutor's office. That office located four bodies on the outskirts of Mexico City and was working Friday to identify them. A spokesperson for Mawani's family confirmed to media that both men had been found dead.

The location of the disappearance — south of Mexico City, roughly 50 kilometers east of the mountains of La Marquesa National Park — was noted in official missing-person bulletins issued for both men.

A Crisis of Missing Persons in Mexico

The tragic outcome for this Chicago couple underscores a broader and worsening crisis in Mexico. More than 135,000 people are currently reported missing across the country as a result of criminal violence, according to the most recent federal data. Nearly 1,000 people were reported missing in Mexico during May alone. Even as homicide figures have declined since President Claudia Sheinbaum took office in 2024, the number of missing persons continues to rise.

Family advocacy groups have grown increasingly vocal, staging protests in recent days — even as Mexico co-hosts the FIFA World Cup — to demand more government resources for search efforts and greater urgency in investigations. A persistent complaint among these groups is that authorities respond more swiftly when the missing are foreign nationals.

What Comes Next

The investigation remains active, and Mexican authorities have not released full details of the case. With arrests already made and four bodies now recovered, prosecutors face the task of formally identifying the remains and establishing the precise circumstances of the couple's deaths. For their family in Chicago and those who knew them, the confirmation of their deaths closes a weeks-long ordeal of uncertainty — and raises sobering questions about safety for those living or traveling in Mexico City's southern outskirts.