She then went with a friend to García Márquez house. No one answered when they knocked on the door.

On the floor were the Tuesday and Wednesday editions of the newspapers that he used to read before his program.

If it were anyone else, this would not have raised any eyebrows. But in the case of García Márquez, a strict observer of routine, it was quite unusual.

Several hours later, Claudio Laguna, manager of the Grupo Radio which runs the station, opened the door with the aid of a locksmith, went upstairs to the master bedroom – and found García Márquez lying dead.

He was dressed in his underwear, lying face down across the bed, covered by a blanket. His head hung over the edge of the bed, a bullet hole to the head visible and a pool of blood on the carpet.

Shortly after this discovery, the Sonora state attorney announced that one theory was that García Márquez had committed suicide.

But experts who arrived at the scene found no weapon. After combing the small room where the body was found all afternoon, neither did they find any trace of a bullet. Also missing were his wallet, car keys and cellular phone.

There were no signs of forced entry or a struggle. Everything in the house was undisturbed. The main door had not been forced.

An autopsy found that García Márquez had been dead for 36 to 48 hours, he had been shot at close range and the bullet, of an undetermined caliber, had entered the brain from the right temple, glanced off the skull and exited near the left ear.

All this led police to come up with two theories – that García Márquez had killed himself and someone later remove the evidence, or he had been killed as he slept by someone he knew.

Four days after his body was found, his missing cellular phone and credit cards had still not been used, causing police to rule out robbery.

The state attorney’s office in its initial investigation did not work on an assumption that García Márquez might have been killed because of his work, in part because the radio station did not keep tape recordings of the "Encuentro" programs.

Six days later, on Tuesday, November 8, Army Private Manuel Enrique Márquez, 20, was arrested as the alleged self-confessed murderer. Police acted after receiving an anonymous tip.

An announcer from 7 to 10

"Encuentro" was one of the most listened-to radio programs in Hermosillo. It was not a newscast, but simply a call-in talk show, with listeners phoning in with their views. On days when there were few calls, news items were read from local newspapers and commented on.

Of the co-anchors, Biebrich was the good guy, García Márquez the bad guy.

On the air he was stubborn, ornery and skeptical. In person he was lighthearted, meticulous and very reserved.

In the days shortly before his death no one would think that his comments could have raised the ire of any politician or public official.

"In 13 years we have never had any callback, pressure or been told to ‘shut up,’" Bieberich said. "No, I don’t believe that’s the reason."

"Alfredo was not a journalist," said Carmen Alicia Espinoza Ortega, a reporter for the Hermosillo daily El Independiente and a very close friend of García Márquez. "He didn’t keep any files and he did no reporting."

García Márquez was an announcer from 7 to 10. Once he left the radio station at 10:00 a.m., he stopped being an announcer and devoted his time to his other passions.

He spent the rest of the day at home, doing repairs, working on the place and its décor. He spent hours surfing the Internet or doing translations of plays he wanted to produce. He did not hang out at bars or restaurants, but he used to go nearly every day to the movies.

He never attended any press conference nor accepted invitations to get together with politicians or public officials. His work ended when he left the station.

The final hours

Sunday, October 29 was his last day of work. As usual, he talked about potholes in the roads and the poor maintenance of the water and sewer system.

Those were his frequent targets – public utilities, attention to citizens’ complaints. And not so much drug trafficking or corruption, topics which certain newspapers in this northern Mexican city tend to ventilate without restraint.

With the Sunday program, García Márquez had got back to regular work, having been on vacation for 18 days in October, up to the week before his death.

That program, one of the few to be taped, was a normal one, with no controversial issues or excesses.

"This is Alfredo García Márquez and I’ll be back tomorrow, God willing," he signed off.

His death on Monday

The last person to see him alive was Noé Contreras, a colleague of his at the radio station. He saw García Márquez on Monday evening driving his car. He was some distance from his home, near the movie theaters he used to frequent and the local Army barracks.

The arrested soldier said in his alleged confession, as quoted by the local newspaper El Imparcial, that García Márquez approached him around 10:30 p.m. on Monday as he was coming out of a store near the barracks.

The two knew each other, having met on a previous occasion. García Márquez offered to drive him to the barracks, but asked him to go home with him first, as he was waiting for a phone call.

The call came and Márquez, the soldier, waited at the house while García Márquez talked on the phone. He showed him around the house and then, he alleged, tried to seduce him.

The soldier pulled out his revolver to defend himself. There was a struggle and the gun went off.

Márquez retrieved the spent bullet from the pool of blood on the carpet, then removed his fingerprints from around the house. He took some of García Márquez’ belongings, to make it look like a robbery, put away his bloodstained jacket and made off to the barracks as night fell.

The next day, he recounted what had happened to his girlfriend, Verónica Castro. This got to be known by her roommate and the roommate’s boyfriend, José Alfredo Pérez Barraza, who helped the soldier dispose of García Márquez’ belongings.

The news did not step there. Someone called the state attorney’s office and blew the whistle. Márquez has been released on bond as the authorities seek to strengthen their case against him.

"We want to nail the guilty, we’re not interested in García Márquez’ private life," one caller after another told the radio station throughout the week as local papers carried on their front pages what they said were details of his personal lifestyle.

The "Encuentro" program, now hosted solely by Bieberich, has been filled with memories, nostalgia and protest. "Patience, that is what we ask of everyone, patience. We don’t want any scapegoats or anything like that," she said.

The state attorney’s office appears to be satisfied with its inquiries and the known results so far. Márquez is under house arrest on court order. The state attorney’s office is seeking authority for him to return to his barracks and to sequester his weapon, which he says he left there.

Police meanwhile are continuing their inquiries about the young people that helped him cover up the crime, so as to be able to reinforce the case against him.