Family of Marine veteran murdered in Mexico seeks help from Biden administration

Quets is a sixth-generation service member whose family has more than a century of time served in the military combined as active-duty and reserve time, as well as federal service.

Quets’s father, Warren Douglas Quets, Jr., and brother-in-law, Philip Sweet, told the Washington Examiner in a phone call Tuesday afternoon that they have had zero communication from the U.S. government since Nicholas’s murder Friday evening except to notify them of the incident.

“A U.S. military veteran transiting Mexico was executed and four days into this and no official, outside of the consulate in Mexico, has made any effort to contact us or provide us with an update of what’s happening,” said Quets, a retired U.S. Air Force captain. “What we want is an investigation and prosecution within the United States. We want the U.S. to take over the prosecution.

“If my case for my son is not worthy of the highest level of attention from the U.S. government then what is?” said Quets. “My end game for this is that this gets turned over to the U.S. and extradited, incarcerated here. There was more than one person on the site … and I need all those people coming back.”

“It’s shocking to us that we’re this far into this and we haven’t heard anything,” said Philip Sweet, brother-in-law to Nicholas Quets. “Our family has given and sacrificed decades and decades of selfless service to our nation. And we need our country to have our back.”

The 31-year-old Marine veteran was killed on Friday, Oct. 18, while driving with friends to the Mexican beach town of Puerto Peñasco, according to his family. Puerto Peñasco is roughly 50 miles southwest of the Arizona-Mexico border.

Quets worked for Pima County, home to Tucson, and had gotten off work around 2 p.m. local time when he went home and then drove southeast to Nogales, a town on the Arizona-Mexico border. He picked up friends to come along for the trip. He last spoke with his father Thursday evening.

Warren Douglas Quets, Jr., described his son as an “avid outdoorsman” who enjoyed a variety of ocean activities and was a “stand-up guy, doing the right things.”

Quets’s father received a call at 12:30 a.m. Saturday informing from the regional U.S. Consulate in Mexico, which informed him that his son had been killed while driving earlier in the evening.

Rather than taking a significantly longer route driving west through Arizona to the Lukeville border crossing into Mexico, Quets and his friends took a route that was shorter but entirely through a remote part of the Mexican state of Sonora.

Quets’s vehicle was ambushed by another vehicle, according to information shared by Quets’s family and a general statement by the officials in Sonora. The family members said that based on information shared thus far, a criminal organization known as a cartel is believed to be behind the attack.

“I have seen some pictures of my son’s truck. I haven’t seen any pictures of my son,” the father said.

Paramedics and police who arrived on scene were not able to revive Quets, who was fatally shot while seated in the driver’s seat. The truck’s glass window behind the driver’s seat was riddled with bullet holes. Police on scene recovered Quets’s cellphone and wallet. His father said his money was still in the wallet, untouched.

The friends who traveled with Quets were not harmed and were left behind on site by the vehicle that ambushed them.

Both family members who spoke with the Washington Examiner chose not to disclose the names of the others in the vehicle for their privacy and said a federal investigation by the U.S. government was necessary to get to the bottom of the “senseless” murder, including why others in the vehicle were not harmed.

“I think it was about the truck,” said Quets. “I think what happened is they tried to stop him … and he tried to drive through. Any military member will tell you once you get ambushed, that’s what you do.”

A statement from the district attorney’s office for the Mexican state of Sonora, where the shooting occurred, stated that it was searching for the individuals responsible for the attack.

The family expects to receive Quets’s remains Wednesday.

The Mexican government has taken over the local law enforcement investigation, but Warren Douglas Quets said it needs to be led by the U.S.

“It has to go and be prosecuted through the U.S. attorney general. And I’m not going to stop until that’s occurred,” said Quets. “If we go down there and exert pressure, we can solve this very quickly. It’s just got to be made important enough.”

Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ), who represents southeastern Arizona, told the Washington Examiner in a statement Tuesday that his office has been in touch with the victim’s family coordinating with the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.

“My heart goes out to Nicholas’s loved ones. No family should have to endure a tragedy like this,” said Ciscomani. “My office has been in contact with the family and the U.S. Consulate in Nogales, and we are awaiting further details.”

The State Department has advised Americans to “reconsider travel to” the state of Sonora, Mexico, “due to crime and kidnapping.”

Quets maintained that his son was “pure of heart and intent.

“He was living his life to its fullest and was an innocent victim of senseless crime,” said his father.

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The State Department, White House, and FBI did not immediately return requests for comment.

The Mexican Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.