Dad’s car surfaces in Mexico

The car that investigators were searching for in connection with a triple slaying near Queen Creek was stopped by Mexican officials last week, and the man who was driving apparently was allowed to walk away, Mexican authorities confirmed Saturday.

U.S. and Mexican law enforcement are still looking for Rodrigo Cervantes Zavala and his two children, who have been the subject of a state Amber Alert since the July 10 slayings.

His two children, 3-year-old Jennifer and 18-month-old Bryan, have been missing since.

Officials could not confirm late Saturday that Cervantes was driving the car when it was stopped, and it was unknown whether any children were with the car.

Mexican Aduana, or customs officers, impounded the 1993 Buick Regal as it was crossing the border between Nogales, Ariz., and Nogales, Sonora, sometime last week because the vehicle did not have the correct paperwork, said Comandante Raul Guillen of the Sonora state police in Mexico.

But Guillen said the Aduana officer did not recognize that the vehicle was wanted in connection to the Amber Alert during the transaction, and the driver was allowed to walk away. He was not sure what day the stop took place.

"We don’t know where he is. We are still looking," Guillen said.

Aduana officials could not be reached late Saturday for more details.

Maricopa County sheriff’s investigators activated an Amber Alert for Cervantes and his two children early Monday after the children’s grandparents and uncle were found shot to death in their home near Queen Creek.

But the alert was not activated until four hours after the bodies were found.

Guillen would not comment on any evidence found in the car, but he said there were no obvious signs of a violent crime inside.

Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Paul Chagolla declined to comment on the status of the car in the Amber Alert investigation.

Chagolla said sheriff ’s investigators followed protocol before the Amber Alert was issued Monday by contacting U.S. authorities, who were then expected to contact Mexican officials. The sheriff’s office did so based on information that Cervantes, a 34-year-old illegal immigrant, might be returning to his native Mexico with his children.

"The sheriff’s investigators took the appropriate steps to notify the border crossing, to provide them with the information in the event this individual tried to cross over and did that in timely a manner as possible,’’ he said. "They did it by contacting a federal official and a federal agency."

Chagolla would not identify the federal agency that investigators contacted, nor could he confirm whether the agency contacted Mexico.

The sheriff’s office said detectives called the U.S. Customs and Border Protection with the Amber Alert between 2 and 3 a.m. Monday, although border officials say they weren’t notified until 4:30 a.m. An agency supervisor at the Nogales office referred inquiries to a spokesman in Texas, who could not be reached for further comment late Saturday.

The Amber Alert system does not reach across the border.