Five arrested in murder of UBC student

Police in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico say they’ve arrested three women and two men in connection with the December murder of University of British Columbia doctoral student Ximena Osegueda and her boyfriend Alejandro Santamaria.

Their bodies were found in January on a beach in the town of Huatulco with their throats slashed. The gruesome scene was replayed in a computerized reenactment released by Attorney-General Manuel de Jesus Lopez on Tuesday.

Police say the motive was theft of Osegueda’s 2012 Chevrolet. They tracked the car through its GPS system to Oaxaca City, 410 km from Huatulco. A butcher shop receipt inside the car pointed them to gang members, they say. Police are searching for three more men. Osegueda, 39, was in Mexico to work on her Hispanic Studies PhD.