The bodies of 59 people who were reported missing were found by a Mexican search group who uncovered secret graves in the state of Guanajuato in north-central Mexico, Wednesday.
According to authorities, the group ended in the site after they received a tip from at least one of the victim's relatives just last week. The tip then prompted a chain of excavations in the area which resulted in the discovery of the dozens of bodies that were buried.
In a statement, Karla Quintana, head of the Nationa Search Commission, called the uncovering of the secret graves " a sad and terrible discovery." She also stated in a news conference on Wednesday that crews are still working in the area and warned that there are more graves discovered, Yahoo! News reported.
The remains were found in 52 pits that were dug on a property located near Salvatierra City. the site was considered very dangerous that the National Guard and the army were deployed for security during the excavations.
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Quintana stated that the main goal at the moment is to recover the bodies and identify them in order to return the remains to the families. She also noted that the remains seemed to have belonged to young people and that a concerning number of them were women.
Guanajuato, the site where the bodies were excavated, is known to have the largest number of homicides in Mexico. Moreover, the site is also in the middle of a growing turf battle between one of the most brutal cartels in Mexico, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and the notorious Sinoloa cartel backed by local gangs.
Back in July, 24 people became casualties after armed men ambushed a drug rehabilitation center in the city of Irapuato in Guanajuato. The gunmen showered the center with bullets leading to dozens of deaths. At the time, Gov. Diego Rodríguez Vallejo stated that the massacre likely involved the drug gangs.
According to CBS, the burial site that was discovered on Wednesday is the largest to be found in Guanajuato up to date. However, gruesome discoveries of the same magnitude are not new in Mexico.
Just last month, reports stated that some family members who have missing relatives told authorities that they believe that their loved ones may be buried at the site after it was announced that several human fragments were found in Guanajuato.
Over a year ago, in October of 2019, more than 40 bodies were also found by a group of volunteers. The bodies were scattered near a Mexican resort which is close to its border with Arizona, Puerto Peñasco.
In addition, two months earlier than the October 2019 incident, nine bodies were discovered hanging from a bridge while seven other bodies were dumped in a nearby road just 250 miles west of Mexico City in the city of Uruapan, New York Daily News reported.
One of the locals stated that even if their lost family is not found they will still help in finding the others that are missing, adding that it would bring peace and satisfaction to the families.
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