The death of Mario Amado still remains a mystery more than 30 years later. The 29-year-old Los Angeles resident drove down to spend a weekend at Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico. He was with his girlfriend, brother, and brother’s girlfriend. What started as a fun weekend on the beach took a dramatic turn. Amado got into a fight with his girlfriend and was arrested by Mexican authorities. For more than 30 years, no one knows what exactly happened to Amado in the jail where he died.

Mario Amado’s death remains an unsolved mystery

Mario Amado, along with his girlfriend, his brother Joe Amado, and his brother’s girlfriend Deborah Larson. The two couples left Los Angeles on June 5, 1992 and arrived in Rosarito at 1:00 a.m. on June 6, 1992. The group immediately started drinking tequila and partied to start off their weekend on the beach. At some point, according to reports, Joe and Larson went to bed and woke up the next morning to find Mario and his girlfriend still awake. They were fighting and things were tense.

According to Unsolved Mysteries, the couple had reconciled by the next morning. With calm in the group, Larson and Joe took a drive down the coast and left Mario and his girlfriend at the house. It was during this time that the couple erupted into another argument on the porch and police were called. Mario was arrested and put into a jail in Tijuana.

When Larson and Joe returned, they found the house empty. A housekeeper told them that Mario had been arrested and when his girlfriend reappeared at the house she claimed not to know what happened to him. Shortly after learning he was in jail, police arrived at the home again and told Joe that Mario was dead claiming he committed suicide.

Mario’s brother questioned the story from Mexican authorities

Mexican police claimed that Mario committed suicide using his sweater. An autopsy was performed in Mexico. According to that autopsy, Mario died from hanging himself in the jail cell. The autopsy claimed a lack of oxygen to the brain as the cause of death. However, Joe refused to accept the story being told by Mexican authorities.

Joe brought Mario’s body back to the United States and had a second autopsy performed. The second autopsy found that Mario likely died from internal bleeding stemming from a severe beating that he received while in jail. With the new information, Joe submitted the autopsy with Mexican authorities and demanded justice for his brother.

Due to the new evidence, Mexican authorities reopened the case and investigated Mario’s death as a murder. According to the LA Times, Tijuana Judge Jesus Antonio Chavez Hoyos found former Rosarito police officer Jose Antonio Verduzco Flores guilty and sentenced him to 8.5 years in prison. The officer was given 2.5 years of time served due to him being held in prison during the trial. It marked a rare moment when a Mexican police officer was sentenced in the death of an inmate.

Verduzco Flores’ sentence was later overturned on appeal. His release brought more questions forward about what happened to Mario while he was in jail.

Questions of a cover-up

Joe worked closely with Representative Howard Berman to get answers about his brother’s death. Rep. Berman represented California’s 26th Congressional District from 1983–2003. According to Unsolved Mysteries, Rep. Berman agreed with Joe’s assertion that Mexican authorities worked to cover up the death of Mario.

“The people involved in this incident did not want authorities coming quickly to the scene of the crime,” Rep. Berman said, according to Unsolved Mysteries. “They wanted the period of time to elapse. They hoped that Joe Amado would forget about it, that his brother was dead, and that he’d go back to the United States and drop the whole issue.”

Rep. Berman pointed to the lack of communication from Mexican authorities to the U.S. consulate following Mario’s death. It is alleged that the Mexican authorities worked to cover up the death by withholding information from the U.S. government.

All these years later, Mario’s death remains a mystery. There has been no new evidence and the only suspect was released on appeal.

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