McALLEN, Texas — The death of a South Texas singer well known for his ballads, including some about the exploits of Mexican drug cartels, was being treated as a murder investigation after authorities found his body Thursday on a rural road. Jesus “Chuy” Quintanilla appeared to have been shot at least twice in the head and was found near his vehicle, Sheriff Lupe Trevino said. Irrigation workers found his body on a roadway north of Mission in an isolated area surrounded by citrus groves, Trevino said. Quintanilla's family filed a missing person report Thursday morning, saying they hadn't had contact with him since the previous night. But investigators were already on the scene, Trevino said. Trevino wouldn't release details about the investigation but said it was being treated as a murder investigation. He speculated that the singer was either lured or taken to the area where his body was found. Quintanilla is well known in the region for musica nortena, a genre of music popular in northern Mexico and South Texas, particularly for his ballads, known as corridos. Some of his songs could be considered narcocorridos, which often tell of the power of top drug traffickers or recount big gun battles in ways that can sometime draw the ire of those on the losing side. Singers of narcocorridos have been targeted in the past. — AP
