The remains of nine vacationing students, who vanished last month in southern Mexico, were discovered in a horrifying scene near a local highway. The mutilated bodies were located in an abandoned car and beneath a blood-soaked tarp in San Jose Miahuatlan, a town straddling the border of the Mexican states of Puebla and Oaxaca. Four of the bodies were discovered in the car’s trunk, while the remaining five were found under the tarp.
In a chilling discovery, a bag containing eight pairs of hands was also found at the scene, with two more hands found in the trunk, as reported by local news source Periodico Central. The victims, four women and five men aged between 19 and 30, all bore signs of gunshot wounds and indications of torture, as reported by El Financiero.
The group, originating from Tlaxcala, was reported missing on February 27 after setting off on a trip to the Oaxaca beaches. A dark gray Volkswagen Vento, registered in Tlaxcala, was discovered on Sunday afternoon about 150 miles southeast of Mexico City, according to Periodico Central.
The victims have been identified as 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 identity of the ninth victim remains unknown.
As of now, no suspects have been identified in the case. The Attorney General’s Office in Puebla is collaborating with its counterparts in Tlaxcala and Oaxaca to track down the culprits. Surveillance footage from February 24 shows the vehicle traveling along the Atlixcayotl highway near Atlixco, about 90 miles west of where the students’ remains were later found.
Idamis Pastor Betancourt, the head of Puebla’s State Attorney General’s Office, addressed the case at a press conference on Monday. “We are conducting all relevant investigations. Once the investigation is complete, we will be able to provide more information,” Betancourt stated.
Mexico witnessed a record 30,000 murders in 2023, marking the most violent year in the country’s recent history, according to Semafor. Many of these killings are believed to be linked to the drug trade.