Cancun, Q.R. — A tour company driver has been sentenced to 50 years for the 2022 murder of a Cancun tourist. On Tuesday, authorities said Julio César de la Fuente Hernández was sentenced for the crime of femicide.
According to authorities, the Cancun tourist was killed by De la Fuente Hernández in May of 2022. The tourist, a woman of Chinese nationality, was being driven from Tulum by De la Fuente Hernández back to her hotel in Cancun in a company vehicle after a tour of the municipality.
Along the way, De la Fuente Hernández “took her to another location” where he raped and killed her. On Tuesday, he was sentenced to 50 years in Cancun prison and fined just over a million pesos in damages.
In a statement, police said “the events for which he was sentenced occurred on May 24, 2022, when the victim, a Chinese national who was vacationing in Cancun, booked a tour to visit Tulum, Cobá and the Gran Cenote.
“On the way back to her hotel, the suspect, who was driving the vehicle transporting the tourist, took her to another location. Her body was found the following day on Chetumal Avenue in Supermanzana 225.
“The victim’s body showed clear signs of physical violence, multiple injuries and rape. During the autopsy performed by forensic experts, they were able to obtain the woman’s genetic profile as well as biological evidence of a male, thereby establishing his genetic profile,” they said.
Police said after genetics was confirmed, a judge issued a search warrant for his home “where they found the woman’s cell phone, as well as a copy of her passport.”
Video recordings from the day of the incident revealed the van belonging to the tour agency where the suspect worked was found near the location of the tourist’s body.
