A few days before Chris Cleave was shot in the head in his red Audi convertible—with his 14-year-old daughter beside him in the passenger seat—the 54-year-old British real-estate agent received an ominous message in Mexico.
“We are coming for you and the sale of your shit. Also for you Cris, with the red Audi,” read the message, or narcomantra, written in Spanish on a white cloth often used by narcos trying to extort money, according to local media reports. The message was pinned to the popular restaurant Bistro Playacar, owned by friends of Cleave. It was signed by “Comandante Cobra,” a fictional character made popular by the G.I. Joe comic series.
A few days later, Cleave, who had been living in Cancun, where he relocated from Cornwall, England, in 2013, was slumped over his steering wheel in Playa del Carmen as his daughter screamed in horror. Two men on a motorcycle pulled up beside them and shot the real-estate agent “execution-style,” police said. The daughter, who has not been officially named, suffered non-life-threatening injuries from bullets that ricocheted off the dash. No motive has yet been released.
