Servants Suspected in Family’s Slaying

A family of five who were murdered in their beds in a crime that stunned Mexico City were killed by servants, authorities said. Many had speculated that the early December murders were a drug hit or retaliation because the parents--author Yolanda Figueroa and her husband, former anti-drug agent Fernando Balderas--had blamed government corruption for delaying the arrest of a drug lord. But the Mexico City attorney general’s office said two chauffeurs killed the family in revenge after Balderas raped the wife of one and tried to rape the wife of the other. Both women were maids in the household. Gen. Luis Gutierrez, director of the Judicial Police in Mexico City, told Television Azteca that one chauffeur, who was hospitalized with head injuries after the attack, had confessed. The alleged murderers killed Balderas and then lost control, beating the wife and children, ages 18, 14 and 9, to death with an iron rod, Gutierrez said. The second chauffeur and his wife fled after the attack.