Unknown Killers Mutilate City's Beautiful Women

JUAREZ, Mexico, Aug. 12, 2006 — -- Norma Andrade used to pick up her daughter after work at an appliance factory, but one night in 2001 she couldn't make it.

Seventeen-year-old Lillia was last seen alive crossing the street headed for the bus.

"I reported it to the police," Andrade said. "They told me she'd probably gotten back with her boyfriend."

Lillia's body was found eight days later, strangled and mutilated.

In 1998, Esther Luna's 15-year-old daughter Brenda disappeared.

"The police said maybe she's with her boyfriend, or lazy," Luna said.

Brenda's body was found beaten, raped and stabbed.

Another woman's daughter was last seen getting on a bus. Another's was 16, raped and killed. Another's was found dead with her head skinned.

Since 1993, there have been almost 400 murders of women in Juarez. At least 90 were similar -- young factory workers, their bodies dumped in fields or the desert, sometimes in groups.

Actress and Mexican native Salma Hayek is one of the voices calling for action in Juarez. ABC News sat down with her this week to talk about her efforts to raise money for victims' families and get U.S. law enforcement more involved.

"They're not just killing women," Hayek said. "They are taking girls that are both 15 to 22 years old. They're all pretty. And they are mutilating them, raping them and burning them. And then, whenever they wish, they throw the pieces in the desert."

Investigations have seemed so incompetent to some of the victims' mothers that some believe the police actually may have been involved.

"The police is completely involved in this, and that's why we don't see anything go forward," said one mother, Vicki Cavrero.

Pink crosses at the city's southern entrance and painted on utility poles are reminders that the murders remain unsolved.