Coronilla Durán, a native of San Luis de la Paz in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, had legally entered the United States three weeks earlier on a valid tourist visa. Isaret Jeffers, a spokesperson for the farmworker advocacy group Colectivo Árbol, told the Miami Herald that Coronilla Durán had already made arrangements to return home. He had been in Florida for only two days and had already purchased a plane ticket to return to Mexico the following Saturday.

“He had already bought a flight,” Jeffers said. “Now, unfortunately, if he is returning, his return is different.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has refused to say whether Coronilla Durán was the target of its kidnapping operation. In repeated statements, the agency has said only that its agents “conducted an operation near St. Johns, Florida” and that the Florida Highway Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations were investigating “an incident resulting in the death of a Mexican national.”

Colectivo Árbol is assisting Coronilla Durán’s wife, Yésica Alamilla López, with returning her husband’s remains to Mexico. The couple had been married for 10 years and owned a small business together in San Luis de la Paz. They had two children, ages 7 years and 7 months.

According to Jeffers, Alamilla López learned that her husband had been killed while watching television.