Nine students who went missing on vacation in Mexico have been found dismembered by the side of the road along with a “bag of hands”. According to the New York Post, the group, from the Mexican town of Tlaxcala, went missing on February 27. They had been travelling to the beaches in Oaxaca to celebrate their graduation. On Sunday, the cops found their remains in a truck of an abandoned vehicle in San Jose Miahuatlan on the border of the Mexican states of Puebla and Oaxaca.
According to the Post, four of the bodies were in the truck, while the other five bodies were left under the tarp. A bag of eight pairs of hands were also discovered at the scene, with two more hands left in the truck. Cops said that the bodies of the four women and five men, ages 19 to 30, all had bullet wounds and signs of torture.
The victims, identified so far, are Angie Lizeth, 29, Brenda Mariel, 19, Jacqueline Ailet, 23, Noemi Yamileth, 28, Lesly Noya Trejo, 21, Raul Emmanuel, 28, Ruben Antonio, and Rolando Armando. The ninth victim has yet to be identified.
A video capturing the last time they were seen alive showed their car driving along the Atlixcayotl highway, around 90 miles west of where their remains were eventually found, according to the outlet.
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Police have launched an investigation into the incident. No suspects have yet been named. The Attorney General’s Office in Puebla said it is collaborating with its colleagues in Tlaxcala and Oaxaca to try and track down the killers, as per the Post.
“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.
“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.
Notably, the murder rate in Mexico continues to rise. According to the Post, 30,000 people were killed in 2023. It reportedly marked the most violent year in the country’s recent history.