By: Crystal Bonvillian, Cox Media Group National Content Desk

Updated: Jul 13, 2018 - 9:13 AM

OWENS CROSS ROADS, Ala. - An Alabama 13-year-old found dead in a wooded area last month was beheaded after she saw two men stab her grandmother to death, an investigator testified Thursday.

The grisly details of Mariah Lopez’s slaying came out during the preliminary hearing of Yoni Martinez Aguilar, AL.com reported. Aguilar, 26, and Israel Gonzalez Palomino, 34, are each charged with two counts of capital murder in the deaths of Lopez and her 49-year-old grandmother and legal guardian, Oralia Mendoza.

Palomino is also charged with possession of methamphetamine.

Scroll down to read more.

More news from KIRO 7

Police: Man tried to kidnap two women in two different Renton stores

What's a company's obligation to the customer when it makes a promise it can't keep?

Two motorcyclists killed in Shoreline crash

Student rescued after climbing tree to escape wolves

Child molester beaten to death 5 days after prison arrival, authorities say

DOWNLOAD OUR FREE NEWS APP

Members of the middle schooler’s family wept as Investigator Stacy Rutherford testified about the details Aguilar, who was Mendoza’s live-in boyfriend, gave in a statement following his June 14 arrest.

View image on Twitter

View image on Twitter

Ashley Remkus

✔

@aremkus1

I just left the preliminary hearing for Yoni Aguilar, one of the accused killers in the Madison County slayings of a grandma and 13-year-old.

10:25 AM - Jul 12, 2018

36

66 people are talking about this

Twitter Ads info and privacy

Related story: Police: 13-year-old girl dead in ‘brutal’ killing, grandmother’s body also found

According to AL.com, Aguilar told detectives that Mendoza was involved with the Sinaloa cartel, considered to be the world’s most powerful drug trafficking organization.

Rutherford testified that the defendant told investigators that he, Palomino, Mendoza and a woman named Leticia Garcia traveled June 2 to Norcross, Georgia, where they picked up a quarter kilo of meth for the cartel. Along the way, something went wrong and Palomino became suspicious that Mendoza and Garcia, who was also tied to the cartel, might be setting him up, Aguilar said in his statement.

WAAY in Huntsville reported that Rutherford testified that sometime after the group returned to Huntsville, Palomino learned that Mendoza had removed the SIM card from her cellphone. He also found a text she sent during the drug run to Georgia, in which she asked an unknown woman to pick up her granddaughter, who was with Palomino’s wife, because she feared that she and her granddaughter were in danger.

Early on June 4, the men woke Mendoza at their Huntsville home and told her that they were taking her and Lopez, who had special needs, somewhere safe, AL.com reported. Rutherford testified that they were instead taken to Moon Cemetery, located about 15 miles southeast of the city in Owens Cross Roads.

Palomino and Mendoza argued in the cemetery about the drug deal and Palomino stabbed the grandmother multiple times, leaving her for dead, Aguilar told investigators.

Lopez, who witnessed her grandmother’s slaying, was taken to a wooded area about 2½ miles from the cemetery, where Aguilar said Palomino forced him to kill the girl.

Madison County Sheriff's Office

Rutherford testified that Aguilar told investigators he was holding the knife when Palomino grabbed his arm and moved it back and forth in a “sawing motion,” with which the girl was beheaded.

Aguilar said he participated in the slayings out of fear.

“He said he was fearful of Israel,” Rutherford testified, according to AL.com.

>> Read more trending news

The men left the teen’s body where she was killed and stopped to clean Palomino’s car, the detective said.

Mendoza was reported missing two days later by worried relatives, WAFF in Huntsville reported last month. Lopez’s body was found the following day.

Madison County investigators released information describing the items the body was clothed in: red pajama pants with gingerbread men on them, as well as a pink undershirt and black tank top. The news release also indicated that the young victim had a cerebral shunt.

Lopez’s mother -- who is also Mendoza’s daughter -- showed up at the Madison County Sheriff’s Office a short time after the description was released and told investigators that the body might be that of her daughter, Sheriff’s Office officials said. Dental records provided a positive identification a week later.

Mendoza’s body was found at the cemetery June 15, after Aguilar gave his statement to investigators. She was also identified through dental records, Sheriff’s Office officials announced June 27.

Aside from Aguilar’s alleged confession, investigators have collected physical evidence they say links the men to the slayings -- including the suspected murder weapons. AL.com reported that Rutherford testified one knife was found under Palomino’s mattress and the other was found under Aguilar’s mattress.

Despite the men’s cleanup efforts, blood was also found in Palomino’s car, the investigator said.

Both men’s cellphones also “pinged” in the area of the killings during that time frame, the news site said.

The slayings shocked the community, particularly those at Challenger Middle School, where Lopez was a student. The school’s Parent-Teacher Association last month set up a memorial account to help her family pay for her and her grandmother’s funerals.

“No one is prepared to lose a child or other relative at such young ages,” a statement from the PTA said. “With the untimely passing of two family members, one can imagine the mounting costs of funeral and burial expenses that the family faces in addition to the unparalleled grief that is felt as well.”

The “Mariah Lopez and Oralia Mendoza Memorial Account” was established at Wells Fargo, with donations set to go directly to the funeral home.

“Anything in excess of those costs will be given to the immediate family to assist with other expenses and needs,” the PTA statement said.

Lt. Donny Shaw, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman, last month credited the community with helping to quickly bring the search for Lopez’s and Mendoza’s killers to an end.

“For a murder where there were no indications, no witnesses, nothing to lean on when we began with it, the Hispanic community, the partners, the media, we’ve been able to do a phenomenal thing in just a little over seven days by coming to the arrests of two individuals,” Shaw told WAFF.

Both Aguilar and Palomino are being held without bail in the Madison County Jail. Palomino is also being detained on a hold for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

His preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for Monday.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36428036)

The fact that wets are fucking in ALABAMA tells you everything you need to know about the problem.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36428441)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Junko_Furuta

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36428144)

http://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/10/27/17/husband-of-south-korean-actress-murdered-in-contract-killing

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36428149)

https://youtu.be/6U0ZkhjZd3Y

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36428159)

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/johor-baru-murder-victim-had-gang-ties-and-drugs-related-record-police-sources

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36428163)

Listen man, since you’re too dumb to have heard of the Triads, maybe just spend some time on Wikipedia.

Have a great day with the realization that you’re a fucking retard.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36428169)

Author: ,.,..,.,..,.,.,.,..,.,.,,..,..,.,,..,.,,.

LOL. drugs are also illegal in japan; show us all the gruesome gangland slayings in japan as a result of their anti-drug policies. or south korea, or taiwan, or singapore, or china...

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36428133)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36428171)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36429375)

instead, you sperged out and started posting INDIVIDUAL murder cases from as far back as the 1980's. that's not even tangentially related to the question, since it doesn't even appear as though these slayings resulted from the illegality of drugs.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36428221)

http://www.xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=3370856&mc=99&forum_id=2

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36428229)

http://www.xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=3786768&mc=93&forum_id=2

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36429382)

you even changed your moniker as you were getting gaped ITT, obviously this isn't getting to you at all.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36429614)

weapons, human, stolen goods, lots of things to traffic other than drugs which would also continue to be trafficked.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36428193)

Author: But Mom I pwned them all!

I’m an incel racist? Yes I’m wasting my life here like you but that’s ending. Xoxohth

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36430274)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36430282)

Lol, 'Israel' is a common name in Mexico. They take all Biblical names. There are millions of Mexicans named Jesus and Israel.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36429385)

You: taking your 36 year old wife for $15,000 fertility treatments.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36429447)

There's even a medal of honor recipient buried there, a guy who fought actual Nazis (killed 35 SS troopers with his gun after being shot 3 times) just so libs could now attack anyone who calls Mexican gang members animals and welcome them into the country without being bothered by ICE

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7130099/paul-luther-bolden

World War II Congressional Medal of Honor Recipient. He served in the United States Army during World War II as a Staff Sergeant in Company I, 120th Infantry, 30th Infantry Division. He was awarded the CMOH for his bravert at Petit-Coo, Belgium, on December 23, 1944. His citation reads "He voluntarily attacked a formidable enemy strong point in Petit-Coo, Belgium, when his company was pinned down by extremely heavy automatic and small-arms fire coming from a house 200 yards to the front. Mortar and tank artillery shells pounded the unit, when S/Sgt. Bolden and a comrade, on their own initiative, moved forward into a hail of bullets to eliminate the ever-increasing fire from the German position. Crawling ahead to close with what they knew was a powerfully armed, vastly superior force, the pair reached the house and took up assault positions, S/Sgt. Bolden under a window, his comrade across the street where he could deliver covering fire. In rapid succession, S/Sgt. Bolden hurled a fragmentation grenade and a white phosphorous grenade into the building; and then, fully realizing that he faced tremendous odds, rushed to the door, threw it open and fired into 35 SS troopers who were trying to reorganize themselves after the havoc wrought by the grenades. Twenty Germans died under fire of his submachinegun before he was struck in the shoulder, chest, and stomach by part of a burst which killed his comrade across the street. He withdrew from the house, waiting for the surviving Germans to come out and surrender. When none appeared in the doorway, he summoned his ebbing strength, overcame the extreme pain he suffered and boldly walked back into the house, firing as he went. He had killed the remaining 15 enemy soldiers when his ammunition ran out. S/Sgt. Bolden's heroic advance against great odds, his fearless assault, and his magnificent display of courage in reentering the building where he had been severely wounded cleared the path for his company and insured the success of its mission". His Medal was awarded to him on August 30, 1945.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4026136&forum_id=2#36480421)