On Sunday, March 2, 2025, authorities announced the discovery of the mutilated remains of nine students, who had disappeared during a beach vacation in southern Mexico last month. Their bodies were found along a highway.
The horrific discovery took place in San Jose Miahuatlan, a border municipality between the Mexican states of Puebla and Oaxaca, roughly 150 miles southeast of Mexico City. Four bodies were found in the trunk of an abandoned vehicle, with the remaining five bodies found under a blood-soaked tarp nearby, as reported by numerous sources.
Adding to the grisly scene, a bag holding eight pairs of severed hands was found, along with two more hands in the vehicle’s trunk, as reported by Periodico Central.
The victims, consisting of four women and five men aged between 19 and 30, all showed signs of torture and bullet wounds, according to El Financiero. The group was reported missing on February 27 after they left their hometown of Tlaxcala to vacation at beaches in Oaxaca state.
A dark gray Volkswagen Vento with Tlaxcala license plates was found by authorities on Sunday afternoon. Surveillance footage reviewed by investigators showed the vehicle driving on the Atlixcayotl highway near the town of Atlixco, Puebla, on February 24. This location is about 90 miles west of where the remains were later discovered.
Most of the victims have been identified through their ID cards and other means: Angie Lizeth Perez Garcia, Leslie Noya Trejo, Brenda Mariel, Jacqueline Ailet Meza, Noemi Yamileth Lopez Moratilla, Raul Emmanuel González Lozano, Ruben Antonio, and Rolando Armando. The identity of one victim remains unconfirmed by authorities.
“So far I cannot offer information. There are lines of investigation, but I cannot reveal them due to confidentiality,” said Idamis Pastor Betancourt, the head of Puebla’s State Attorney General’s Office, at a Monday press conference.
While early reports stated that all the victims were students, some sources suggested that they may have had ties to criminal organizations. However, this has not been confirmed by official sources.
The Attorney General’s Office in Puebla is collaborating with its counterparts in Tlaxcala and Oaxaca to find those responsible for the murders. As the investigation continues, no suspects have been publicly named.
It was reported that one of the victims, Jacqueline Ailet Meza, was allegedly “taken” from a beach in Huatulco, Oaxaca, but the details surrounding this are still unclear. Other victims, such as Raúl Emmanuel González Lozano and Noemí Yamileth Lopez Moratilla, also went missing from the same general area.
The savage nature of the crime has shocked local communities, even though violent crime remains a persistent issue in many parts of Mexico. Recent statistics reveal that Mexico recorded roughly 30,000 murders in 2023, marking the most violent year in the country’s recent history, with many of these homicides linked to drug cartel activity.
This case draws parallels to other high-profile disappearances in Mexico, notably the infamous 2014 abduction of 43 male students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in Guerrero state. That case, which remains partially unresolved despite extensive investigations, involved local police, drug cartels, and allegedly members of the military.
A special truth commission investigating the 2014 Ayotzinapa case declared it a “crime of the state,” unveiling systematic cover-ups and involvement of multiple levels of government. Currently, there’s no evidence linking the current case to the earlier disappearances.
According to human rights organizations, Mexico has faced a growing crisis of disappearances in recent years, with over 110,000 people having gone missing across the country. Many of these cases remain unsolved, with families continuing their search for their loved ones amidst a climate of violence and impunity.
The investigation into the recent murders is ongoing. Forensic teams are conducting further analysis of the crime scene and remains, while police continue to gather evidence and locate potential witnesses.
