Villagomez has been shot dead while working a second job as a driver, the report said. The newspaper cited the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office as saying that the murder might have been related to Villagomez's journalistic activities.
El Paso Times cited the office as saying that police found the body of Villagomez in his car on Thursday morning. The media also cited Carlos Manuel Salas, the state prosecutor for the Northern Zone of Chihuahua, as saying in a statement that Villagomez may have been killed while working as a driver, but the prosecution will investigate all possible motives in the murder.
Three possible suspects in the murder were detained by Thursday evening and were being questioned, the report said.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on the Mexican authorities in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, to "immediately and credibly investigate" the case.
Article 19, an international human rights organization that defends and promotes freedom of expression and information, said earlier this year that "the number of aggressions against the press in Mexico in 2022 exceeded all previous records," adding that an attack against the press takes place every 13 hours. In 2022, the organization registered 696 attacks against the press and the murder of 12 journalists in the country.