Joe was told that Mario killed himself. By hanging. With his sweater. He tied his sweater around his neck and hung himself from a bar that was three feet off the ground. Joe, being reasonably skeptical, asked the detectives why no one stopped him. They claimed that everyone at the station was asleep while all of this was going on — forgetting the fact that this apparent suicide occurred at 5:00 PM, a time where most likely none of these people were sleeping. Mario’s brother wasn’t buying this story. To make matters worse, Mexican authorities wouldn’t even let Joe return to the states with Mario’s body. They needed time to complete an autopsy that would take an undetermined amount of time. Not surprisingly, when the autopsy was finished a week later, it listed the cause of death as a loss of oxygen to the brain from hanging himself. It also turns out that the Mexican authorities were in violation of international agreements by not contacting the United States to make them aware of Mario’s death.

Joe went back to the states on a mission. He contacted congressman Howard Berman and gave him a rundown of the situation, as well as his suspicion of the ruling. After getting the congressman on board, Joe went onto hire his own independent pathologist. He conducted his own autopsy on Mario and found internal damage to his liver. This was not only strong evidence that he was punched in the upper abdominal area, but such an injury would actually prevent him from even being able to hang himself. Joe and Congressman Berman came to the (very likely) conclusion that Mario was beaten to death and then a hanging was staged to cover it up. The Los Angeles County Coroner reviewed both autopsy reports and agreed that Mario had probably been murdered.

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