Details of message from Sundberg murder case released

GEORGE — A message that was found on the body of murder victim Jill Sundberg in mid-December references a Mexican cartel known as the “Gulf Cartel.”

The contents of the handwritten sign, which was affixed to Sundberg’s body by a knife, was released by the Grant County Sheriff’s Office this week. The message was included in a packet of testimony presented by Chief Deputy Ryan Rectenwald before the U.S. Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last week, which made the message a part of the public record, according to sheriff’s office spokesman Kyle Foreman.

The message, which was written on a piece of cardboard in Spanish, translates as follows: “For all those (expletive), (expletive) and (expletive) that show no respect to the gulf cartel.”

Sundberg’s body was recovered in late December near a rest area on the Old Vantage Highway in rural George. During their investigation, deputies were able to identify and arrest five men for their involvement in Sundberg’s death. Arrested and charged in Grant County Superior Court with first-degree murder are: Gustavo Tapia Rodriguez, 39, Ambrosio Mendez Villanueva, 25, and Julio Cesar Albarran Varona, 25.

Two additional men, Fernando Marcos Gutierrez, 33, and Salvador Espinoza Gomez, 24, were arrested and charged as material witnesses in connection with the incident. Investigation documents show Sundberg was kidnapped and forced into a vehicle following an argument at party at the Shady Tree RV Park near Quincy and driven to where she was killed on the Old Vantage Highway.

During his testimony, Rectenwald told lawmakers all five suspects are in the country illegally. The alleged shooter, Tapia Rodriguez, was previously deported in May 2007 after his first felony conviction and re-entered the U.S. illegally in June 2013.

According to the Daily Mail, the Gulf Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest cartels and is a significant presence in the drug trafficking world. A 2015 U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) report stated the Gulf Cartel, which is based out of the northern Mexico city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, was the biggest source of illegal drug imports to southern Texas.

Foreman said the sheriff’s office has not yet directly linked the five suspects in the Sundberg case to the Gulf Cartel. Court documents indicate it was Mendez Villanueva who affixed the message containing the reference to the Gulf Cartel onto Sundberg’s body with a knife.

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.