CIUDAD VICTORIA, Tamaulipas – Mexican authorities are looking into the murder of a local singer. Cartel gunmen kidnapped the woman and her boyfriend. The woman was found beheaded and the boyfriend is still considered missing.

The gruesome case began earlier this month in Ciudad Victoria when 26-year-old Yajaira Saira Castillo left her home in the southeastern part of the city to see her boyfriend known as Edson. Soon after, relatives reported Castillo missing.

Days later, authorities found Castillo’s headless body wrapped in blankets in the trunk of a blue Volkswagen Jetta in the Ninos Heroes neighborhood. While Castillo was not tied to any criminal activity and worked as a singer in a band, authorities believe Edson is linked to one of the cartels operating in the city. The Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) faction of Los Zetas is fighting a fierce turf war with the Old School Zetas and the Gulf Cartel.

Castillo is the fourth woman murdered in Ciudad Victoria this year. In each of the cases, the victims were not involved in criminal activity but are considered cartel collateral damage. Last month, Fannay Aylin Badillo Ramirez, another local singer, was found dismembered in a shallow grave.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities. The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “Francisco Morales” from Tamaulipas.