On November 4, 2019, 17 members of the extended LeBarón family set out from La Mora, located in the Mexican state of Sonora, to head towards Colonia LeBarón in neighboring Chihuahua. There were three women, all of them related to each other, and 14 of their kids in the caravan. The occasion was a wedding at Colonia LeBarón between Kendra Lee Miller and Zach Loub, relatives of the families.
The three mothers, Rhonita LeBarón Miller, Christina Langford Johnson, and Dawna Ray Langford, were planning on making the majority of the trip together, though Miller was supposed to later break off from the caravan and head north to meet her husband. The Millers — who were cousins before getting married as teenagers — were living in North Dakota at the time, but had recently planned on moving to La Mora. They had seven children together, four of whom were in Miller’s SUV when she headed out. In Johnson’s SUV, it was just her and her young daughter Faith, who was not even a year old, and the final SUV, driven by Langford, had nine of her 13 children in tow.
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The trip to Colonia LeBarón was only supposed to take about six hours, and though they were familiar with the road, the route was far from safe and littered with deadly narcos. Just minutes into the trip, Miller experienced serious car troubles, but that would turn out to be the least of their worries.
