The 69-year-old retired small-business owner from Denver, Colorado, heads the Lake Chapala Society, an expatriate community center in the Mexican state of Jalisco with more than 3, 000 members.

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Then the police found some more body parts in a safe house in Chapala, a lakeside community that is popular with retired Americans and Canadians, about an hour south of the city.

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The cost of living in some remote areas like Cabo San Lucas, where almost all goods must travel a long way, can be just as high as in the U.S. But quieter and less flashy places like the Lake Chapala area, home to maybe 10, 000 American and Canadian retirees, are easier on the wallet.

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