“Umbra” for Borderland Beat
Bryant Rivera, 30, of Downey, California, who was arrested in connection with serial murders targeting strip-club workers in Mexico, will remain behind bars throughout his extradition proceedings, a Federal Judge in Los Angeles has ruled.
Bryant Rivera
Mr. Rivera allegedly killed Angela Acosta Flores in a room at the Hotel Cascadas, in Tijuana, in 2022.
On July 10, 2023, U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen L. Stevenson denied a request by Public Defenders Cuauhtemoc Ortega and J. Alejandro Barrientos that Mr. Rivera be released, and instead ordered him to be held without bond.
The Public Defenders had described their client as a law-abiding citizen, with no prior arrests, warrants, charges or convictions, who still lives with his parents and acts as their primary care-giver.
Mr. Rivera’s father, Candido Rivera, 65, is a retired welder who is diabetic and blind, and confined to a wheelchair. His mother, Maria Rivera, 62, has never worked, cannot read, drive or speak English, and is also diabetic. Mr. Rivera appeared in court for the hearing, but said nothing, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Ángela Acosta Flores
On January 24, 2022, Ángela Acosta Flores was beaten and strangled to death in the Hotel Cascadas, in the Zona Norte, a red-light district in Tijuana, Mexico.
Ms. Flores, 20, had been working for about five months as a stripper and sometime prostitute at the Hong Kong Gentleman’s Club, next door to the hotel.
An unnamed dancer at the Club later told investigators that she herself met with a “gringo” she knew as “Bryant Rivera” earlier that evening, and had gone to a room with him at the Hotel Cascadas. This dancer said that at about 10 p.m. that night, she saw Mr. Rivera leave the Club again, this time with Ms. Flores.
Around the same time, Ms. Flores texted her mother that she was going with a client to the hotel for 30 minutes.
Security cameras videotaped Ms. Flores and Mr. Rivera together in the hotel corridor before entering Room 404.
Later, Mr. Rivera was seen on security video leaving the hotel alone.
That same night, at two minutes after midnight, Mr. Rivera returned to the US on foot, and was videotaped at the San Ysidro port of entry.
Meanwhile, in Tijuana, after not hearing from her daughter, Ms. Flores’ mother contacted her boyfriend, who went to the Hong Kong Gentleman’s Club to look for her.
He was told Ms. Flores had left with a client who stood about 5-foot-5, with brown hair, a “light brown complexion, and an acne-scarred face.” He went next door to the Cascadas Hotel with Ms. Flores’ mother, looking for her.
They waited for hours. She never came.
Finally, they were told that Ms. Flores had been found beaten and strangled to death in the bathroom of Room 404.
Elizabeth Martínez Cigarroa
About a month later, Elizabeth Martinez Cigarroa encountered Bryant Rivera, who went by the name “Eduardo”, while she was also working at the Hong Kong Gentlemen’s Club.
On February 14, 2022, Ms. Cigarroa reportedly told colleagues that she was going on a Valentine’s Day date with the American, Eduardo.
On February 17, 2022, Ms. Cigarroa’s body was found in the back of her abandoned truck. She had been beaten and strangled to death.
Authorities allege Bryant Rivera is also responsible for the death of another (yet un-named) dancer who also briefly worked at the Hong Kong Gentleman’s Club. Mr. Rivera was reportedly one of her regular clients.
It is claimed she was beaten and strangled to death on August 30, 2021. Days later, her body was found in a garbage bin.
In late 2022, Baja California Attorney General Iván Carpio Sánchez described the then-unidentified killer of Ms. Flores and at least two other Tijuana sex workers as displaying “violent and psychopathic behavior” comparable to serial murderer Ted Bundy.
On June 29, 2023, a Complaint and Provisional Arrest Warrant for Mr. Rivera was placed under seal by a federal judge in Los Angeles due to the possibility that the suspect “is likely to flee if he learns of the existence of a warrant for his arrest,” prosecutors stated.
It was unsealed after Mr. Rivera’s arrest on July 10 at the request of Mexico on a charge of femicide. Femicide has been used to describe the current spate of deadly violence against women in Mexico.