Mexico – A child serial killer in England, a Christian cult in Kenya with hundreds of dead bodies, and a violent confrontation in Mexico involving El Chapo’s son were some of the most shocking crime stories from around the world this year.
Mexican authorities in Culiacan, Sinaloa, engaged in a bloody battle to capture Ovidio Guzmán — the son of notorious Mexican drug cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán. The intense fighting between suspected Sinaloa drug cartel gunmen and Mexican troops erupted on Jan. 5, 2023.
The battle killed 30 people, including 10 military personnel and one Culiacan police officer. At least 17 police officers and 35 military personnel were wounded in the running shoot-outs.
Mexican authorities had previously attempted to capture Guzmán three years earlier, setting off a wave of violence in Culiacan that ultimately led to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ordering the military to release him from captivity.
Two months after Mexican authorities arrested Guzmán, the country again made international news when four American citizens were kidnapped in Mexico. The victims included four men, two women, and an unborn female child. Two of the victims were killed, and the other two were repatriated back to the United States.
Additionally, a German gunman killed six people as well as an unborn child at a Jehovah’s Witnesses center in Hamburg, Germany, in March before taking his own life after the mass shooting.
The most haunting of the stories was from Kenya, where police recovered hundreds of bodies believed to be involved in a Christian cult that allegedly believed they would meet Jesus Christ if they starved themselves to death. The leader of the religious group was arrested and found guilty of illegal filming but has yet to be charged over the mass deaths.
Lastly, a nurse in England was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted for murdering 7 babies and attempting to kill six others in a British hospital neonatal unit.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.