Ciudad Juarez is a Mexican city which is near El Paso, TX, on the opposite side of the U.S./Mexico border. Since the adoption of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Ciudad Juarez has become a hub for international manufacturing, with a number of American firms opening plants there to take advantage of the city's large work force and wages far lower than their American counterparts would claim. However, Ciudad Juarez has also become known for something other than business -- since 1994, over 200 women have disappeared in the city, and a large number of them have been later found brutally murdered and left in shallow graves in the desert on the outskirts of town. Missing Young Woman is a documentary that examines this chilling crime spree, and the inability (or lack of inclination) of police to find the culprit. For some time, the police had pointed to an Egyptian immigrant as a likely suspect, but that man went behind bars -- and the killings and disappearances failed to stop. Director Lourdes Portillo also explores the theory that the arrival of American industry into Ciudad Juarez may have some link to the murders. Missing Young Woman was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival.