A Quebec expatriate in Mexico has been living a real nightmare since the end of March. His life was turned upside down after he was robbed, beaten, raped and left for dead by a group of Puerto Vallarta criminals.
After five years in the Jalisco region, Patrick Larochelle had his habits and his daily life in downtown Puerto Vallarta. He had been living there in an apartment with his partner, Enrique Muciño, for a year.
Photo provided by Patrick Larochelle
One fine afternoon on March 23, Mr. Larochelle went to a bar he frequented regularly. This is where he claims to have been drugged with GHB by locals.
“Until 7 p.m., it’s very vague for me,” he says. My spouse explained to me that we had argued over some nonsense on my return from the bar and that I had left. The problem is that I can’t see anything in the dark. I can’t go out in the evening and I never do, not even to go to the convenience store. When I came to my senses, I was at a bus stop and I was about to get on. This is where everything changed.”
waking nightmare
A van stopped by the side of the road. In a storyline worthy of a movie, four men got out and pulled Patrick Larochelle into the vehicle after he was drugged and then robbed at the local bar, losing his passport, computer and phone.
“Clearly they knew what they were doing, because they turned off the Google tracking feature in my phone. They disabled my computer tracking as well. These people were not at their first kidnapping and they had planned their coup.
The hours that follow, the native of Palmarolle, in Abitibi, would like to forget them. His captors beat him up before having multiple non-consensual sex with his body tied up for much of the night. A violent blow to the head then knocked him out.
His captors were so violent during their repeated attacks that Patrick Larochelle lost a tooth on his return home.
Photo provided by Patrick Larochelle
“I woke up because the garbage bag they left me in was sticking to my face when I breathed, recalls painfully Patrick Larochelle. I was totally distraught, had a headache and was completely naked in the middle of nowhere. They left me for dead and sometimes I think I would have preferred to be.
A lighthouse in the night
About a week after the events that scarred his mind and body for life, the 47-year-old Quebecer received a curious message from a Mexican woman. In the exchange that was able to consult The newspaperthe lady claims to work at the bar where it all started and says she has all of Mr. Larochelle’s possessions, supporting photos.
Screenshot provided by Patrick Larochelle and translated with Google Lens
Worried for her fate, in case she gets caught with stolen equipment, the waitress had her ears pulled to meet the one she wanted to help in a safe place.
“She felt bad about what people around her did and she wanted to help me. He is an incredible person who has shown great empathy.”
The police caught wind of the brewing exchange and arrested the young woman in the following days. She was finally released a little later.
Since then, Patrick Larochelle has left Puerto Vallarta for another region with his spouse and the bare minimum in their suitcases for fear of reprisals, on the recommendation of the local Canadian consulate. His family and friends, dead with worry, begged him to return home. The expatriate refuses to do so out of love for the man “without whom he would no longer be here today”.
Patrick Larochelle and “the man of his life”, the Mexican architect Enrique Mucino, in Cancún.
Photo provided by Patrick Larochelle
“Enrique is my guardian angel,” he says. Since what happened to me, he has put his passion, his work as an architect, aside to help me. He’s the one who pays all our expenses, because I don’t have a penny. It would be so much easier, but he’s the man of my life and I can’t leave him here after everything he’s done for me.”
“A travesty of justice”
In the hours following his 2 p.m. abduction, Patrick Larochelle was met by investigators from Fiscalia – the police branch of the Attorney General of the State of Mexico – who took over the file from the municipal police.
It was her spouse, Enrique Mucino, who reported her disappearance on the night of March 23 to 24. According to an official document consulted by The newspaperauthorities declined to speak directly with Mr. Larochelle to advance the investigation, saying “he must undergo a psychological evaluation before being considered a credible witness”.
“The only time I was able to talk to them was when they made me go through an intimidating interrogation like in the movies, says the Quebecer. They were yelling at me, banging on the table and trying to trap me. It was a traumatic experience.”
Never again did the Mexican State Police want to do business directly with him afterwards. Any discussion related to the file must be done through his spouse, according to another official form bearing the seal of Fiscalia.
Contacted by The newspaperthe Mexican authorities were stingy with comments, contenting themselves with replying that “the investigation is still in progress”.
Desert crossing
After making the official complaint, Patrick Larochelle asked to see a forensic doctor as soon as possible to take blood tests to detect potential HIV and confirm that he was indeed sexually assaulted.
“They made it clear to me that there was no qualified medical examiner to examine me in the area for several weeks. I’ve never been so worried in my whole life”, breathes with emotion the one who has lived in Mexico for five years.
It took more than two weeks before a doctor could examine him and prescribe a 28-day post-exposure treatment to prevent him from contracting AIDS.
Even after this prescription, Mr. Larochelle never got the results of the screening, which caused him untold anxiety throughout the duration of the treatment. He was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief on June 5 when he tested negative.
“I feel alive again, it’s an enormous weight that was on our shoulders and, whether we like it or not, it plays on the couple too. Now, I have to recover from all these events and take my life in hand, ”he concludes.