About two weeks ago, 29-year-old Leonardo Avendaño went missing in Mexico City. He worked as a deacon at the Cristo Salvador Church, and the church’s priest, Francisco Javier Bautista Ávalos, told Avendaño’s family next day that the young man had disappeared.

Avendaño was found dead in his truck the next day. There were signs of “torture and asphyxiation.” Bautista conducted the funeral, eulogizing his former colleague and longing for the culprit to be brought to justice:

“We are sad, but at the same time, we have faith, and it gives us strength to know that he is with God,” said Bautista at the service.

Avendaño’s family believes the two were lovers — an act which is forbidden by the Catholic Church — and Bautista feared he would go public with that information. There’s another theory that the asphyxiation was the result of a sexual kink that Bautista was trying to satisfy for his partner, and unfortunately, he just went too far. (One reason authorities suspect that is because the body showed no signs of a struggle.)