LA MORA, Mexico — Cole Langford softly sang his mother’s favorite ballad as he prepared to sign her death certificate in a harshly lit government office in Sonora state, northern Mexico.
His mother, Dawna Ray Langford, was one of the three women killed along with six children by suspected cartel gunmen in a barbaric attack last week that now threatens the future of this breakaway Mormon community and has strained relations with the U.S.
The next day, on Saturday, Mr. Langford and about 50 residents of this community of about 200 people founded more than seven decades ago packed their belongings into a convoy of about 13 vans and crossed the border into Tucson, Ariz., where other children belonging to the families are recovering from gunshot wounds suffered in the attack.
“I’ll never come back,” said Mr. Langford, 20 years old, who also lost two young brothers in the attack. “Home is where the heart is, and they took that from me.”
The attack shattered the sense of idyll in this remote community of American-style ranch houses, where for generations life carried on largely unchanged, even in the past decade as a rising tide of drug-related violence in Mexico claimed about 200,000 lives, according to government figures.
It also pierced the illusion that the families’ American citizenship protected them from the violence. They believe they were targeted by gunmen, and doubt the government’s version of events that the assailants mistook their SUVs for those of a rival gang. Even if they aren’t sure, staying means risking more lives.
Most of the people who left the community this weekend aren’t returning, said Mr. Langford. “One after another, they decided to leave,” he said in a telephone call from Arizona. “The safety of the children and family are No. 1.”
Not everyone can leave. Adam Langford, who has twice been mayor of Bavispe, the municipality where La Mora is located, is married to a Mexican national. But he estimates that at least half the residents will depart—he hopes temporarily, if security can somehow be restored. “We are going to be by ourselves.…It’s going to be pretty sad.”
Cole Langford signed his mother's death certificate at a government office in San Miguelito, Sonora, Mexico.
La Mora is located in the municipality of Bavispe, Sonora state, where Langford family members were killed.
The Sonora highway that connects the Sonora state capital of Hermosillo with La Mora.
The assault raises broader questions about whether more than a million U.S. citizens who live in Mexico—often leading sheltered lives—can remain unaffected. Half of all Americans who live abroad are in Mexico, many of Mexican heritage but also American business executives and retirees.
“We’ve never seen such a brazen attack on U.S. citizens,” said David Shirk, a security expert and professor at the University of San Diego. “If you can attack innocent U.S. civilians with impunity, it’s going to fundamentally damage the relationship, and decrease the number of U.S. citizens visiting Mexico.”
The incident is likely to hold U.S. government attention for some time. President Trump last week offered U.S. military support for a war on drug cartels—which was rejected by Mexico’s president. On Sunday, Mexico said it had requested FBI help with the investigation.
Mexico’s violence has displaced some 338,000 people domestically since 2009, according to Norway’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. Thousands more Mexicans fleeing violence have applied for political asylum in the U.S.
This time, however, the dead and displaced are American citizens.
“This has been a refuge for 70 years,” said Paul Langford, an 80-year-old patriarch who has spent most of his life in the community but now may leave, at least temporarily.
La Mora was founded by a breakaway group of fundamentalist Mormons, some of whose ancestors first sought refuge in Mexico during the 1880s after polygamy was outlawed in the U.S. The practice was banned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1890. Many of the victims are members of the extended LeBaron clan that came to Mexico decades ago from the U.S., and all were dual U.S.-Mexican citizens.
La Mora lies at the end of a paved highway from the Sonora state capital of Hermosillo, comprising 30 or so roomy American-style ranch houses with large lawns, shady trees and a shallow river running through it. Many homes, with magnificent views of the valley and nearby mountains, are surrounded by pomegranate gardens. Nearby fields are planted with rows of pecan trees.
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Families are large, and sometimes polygamous in a country where the practice is illegal. As a measure of their isolation, many of them speak Spanish with an American accent and only four of the men have Mexican wives, one of the wives said.
Mostly blond kids roam the nearby hills with siblings or cousins, growing up carefree and studying both Spanish and English at community schoolhouses, residents say. When they reach adulthood, many leave for the U.S. where they work as construction framers, drive trucks or work in North Dakota’s oil fields. Life had a circular rhythm, with the young men returning home for Thanksgiving, Christmas, weddings and funerals.
“I loved my childhood,” said Roseanne Langford, now a dancer in Arizona. “We had no TV. No electricity, just gas lamps. We were in nature all the time. We’d go to the river, always barefoot, building treehouses.”
In recent years, as Mexico slid into drug-fueled violence, La Mora’s tranquility faced new threats. In 2009, two members of a sister community in the neighboring state of Chihuahua were killed by a local gang.
Sonora state has long been controlled by Los Salazar organized crime group, an affiliate of the Sinaloa cartel. The mountains of Sonora and Chihuahua are known for growing opium poppies and marijuana, and more recently for the trafficking of methamphetamine and synthetic opioids.
Los Salazars have been fighting for control of drug routes and territory with the military wing of the Juárez cartel known as La Linea. Another point of contention between rival gangs has recently emerged—the control of the distribution and sale of cheaper gasoline coming from the U.S., which they smuggle across the border and resell.
Last week, a top Mexican general said he believed La Linea might have sent gunmen to stop Los Salazars from entering the neighboring state of Chihuahua. He said he didn’t believe the families were the intended target.
Most family members say that Los Salazars have coexisted with them peacefully. Sonora cartel men routinely man checkpoints on the roads. They take note when residents buy a new car. But in the past two years, family members say, there have been more tensions at checkpoints. “There are rules here, there is no chaos,” said Adam Langford.
Two years ago, Ben Langford recalled, a cartel gunman at a checkpoint pointed an AK-47 at him and his family as they were driving on a local road. “How safe do you feel having a guy who is high on drugs pointing an AK-47 at you?”
Since the killings, both cartels are blaming each other for the massacre. “We don’t know,” said Ben Langford, a brother-in-law of one of the slain women.
Few believe the sudden surge of Mexican army and National Guard patrols since the shootings will last.
“Most people want out of here,” said Ben Langford. “They don’t feel safe even with the military. Why would you want to live life traveling with an armed escort?”
Write to José de Córdoba at jose.decordoba@wsj.com
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