Back to the Utah State Aggies Newsfeed

‘Innocence is shattered:’ A storied Mormon family reels after Mexico murders

“Howie’s wife and four kids have been killed,” it said. “Christina and Donna and their kids are not accounted for. Were traveling with them.”

Aaron Staddon married into the diaspora of Mormon families who have long lived in the rural valleys of northern Mexico, and he shuddered when he read through the haunting thread of messages coming from south of the border.

“My heart just sank,” said Staddon, 44, who owns a swimming pool company outside of Phoenix. His wife, Leah Staddon, grew up in La Mora, where about 200 members of their extended family have built a thriving farming community in the Mexican state of Sonora.