US Golf Pro and Teacher Girlfriend Gunned Down Quarantining in Mexico

An American golf pro and his teacher girlfriend were murdered while quarantining in Mexico on Monday.

Pat Landers, 32, of Baldwinsville, New York, and Karla Baca were gunned down in Juarez, a border city just south of El Paso, Texas, while driving a Jeep with New York license plates, according to KTMS.

Authorities said suspects fired at least 20 gunshots. Photos show the Jeep's windshield shattered by bullet holes, per El Paso Times.

Landers and Baca were reportedly dating for the past three or four months when they decided to isolate in her hometown of Juarez due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"He was a good dude. He had an extraordinary life," Landers' friend, Dave LaBarge, told the Post-Standard.

Landers met Baca on a trip to Texas several months ago, according to another friend, Adam Howe.

Howe told the Post-Standard that Landers would often send pictures via Snapchat from his travels in Mexico, including many with Baca. The last one sent was of the couple in a kitchen.

Howe said he spoke with Landers a few days before the gruesome death, with Landers telling Howe he was trying to learn Spanish and joking about his weight gain from too many churros.

Affected deeply by the loss, Howe said he spent Tuesday crying, thinking of Landers -- who was to be a groomsmen in his upcoming wedding -- and Lander's only child.

"I want people to know he was a great father and loved his son, Cameron,” Howe told Spectrum News. “He loved him more than anything in the world.”

According to El Paso Times, Baca had just returned to work on Monday as a physical education teacher at Federal Primary School 28, using online classes to work with her students, as the city of Juarez was under stay-at-home orders since March 23.

Violence, however, has continued in the area with more than 100 killings this month, according to the Norte Digital website.