How police rescued a woman from a ritual killing amid massive Mexican trafficking network

BRUNSWICK, Ga. —A masked man snatched a woman from a day care in coastal Georgia and drove her north to a small cemetery.

Near ivory marbled tombstones and stone angel statutes, Javier Sanchez Mendoza Jr. beat his victim. He planned to stab her and dump her body in the grass under towering oak trees and swaying gray ribbons of Spanish moss.

However, the day care worker fought back, wrestling the knife from Mendoza's grip. It landed between his truck's console and seat, out of reach. As the Brunswick area day care notified police, Mendoza changed his plan and drove the woman further north toward his home in Jesup, Georgia, 66 miles southwest of Savannah.