The bodies of nine students who went missing on vacation in southern Mexico last month have been found dismembered by the side of a local highway — with a bag of hands nearby.
The group’s gruesome remains were discovered in the trunk of an abandoned vehicle and underneath a blood-covered tarp in San Jose Miahuatlan on the border of the Mexican states of Puebla and Oaxaca.
Four of the bodies were in the trunk, while the other five corpses were left under the tarp.
The bodies of nine students who were reported missing in Oaxaca last week were found in Puebla, Mexico.
The remains of the missing individuals were found in the trunk of an abandoned vehicle.
A bag with eight pairs of hands was also found at the scene, with two more hands left in the trunk, reported Periodico Central.
The bodies of the four women and five men, ages 19 to 30, all had bullet wounds and signs of torture, according to El Financiero.
The group, which was from Tlaxcala, was reported missing Feb. 27 when they traveled to the beaches in Oaxaca for a vacation.
A dark gray Volkswagen Vento with license plates registered in neighboring Tlaxcala was discovered Sunday afternoon around 150 miles southeast of Mexico City, said Periodico Central.
Ruben Antonio was one of the victims.
Periodico Central reported that eight pairs of hands were found at the scene.
Most of the victims have been identified: Angie Lizeth Perez Garcia, Lesly Noya Trejo, Brenda Mariel Salas Moya, Jacqueline Ailet Meza Cazares, Noemi Yamileth Lopez Moratilla, Raul Emmanuel Gonzalez Lozano, Ruben Antonio and Rolando Armando.
The ninth victim has yet to be identified.
El Financiero reported that all the bodies had bullet wounds and signs of torture.
The group from Tlaxcala was reported missing on Feb. 27 when they traveled to the beaches in Oaxaca for a vacation.
Angie Lizeth was one of the victims identified from the massacre.
No suspects have yet been named, and the Attorney General’s Office in Puebla said it is collaborating with its colleagues in Tlaxcala and Oaxaca to try to track down the killers.
Video surveillance footage taken Feb. 24 shows the vehicle driving along the Atlixcayotl highway near the town of Atlixco about 90 miles west of where the students’ remains were found, Periodico Central said.
“So far I cannot offer information. There are lines of investigation, but I cannot reveal them due to confidentiality,” the head of Puebla’s State Attorney General’s Office, Idamis Pastor Betancourt, said at a press conference Monday.
The ninth victim hasn’t been identified.
“All relevant investigations are being carried out. When we have a response and the investigation is complete, we will be in a position to provide more information,” the official added.
Mexico saw 30,000 murders in 2023, the most recent figures, making it the most violent year in the country’s recent history, according to Semafor.
Many of the slayings were tied to the drug trade.
