Following an anonymous tip, the bodies of 27 people were discovered earlier this month in a mass grave at a secret burial site in Reynosa, Mexico, which is only four miles south of the border.
An anonymous tip led investigators to 27 bodies found at the Mexico/ U.S. border. (Source: WISH-TV/YOUTUBE)
Investigation on the Identification of 27 Dead Bodies Found
The Attorney General’s Office in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas said in a statement earlier this week that the mass graves were discovered by a volunteer “colectivo,” made up of relatives of people who have vanished, on July 14. The office noted that it has initiated an inquiry into the location. The office claims that forensic experts spent four days on the scene and recovered 27 skeletons. The work will continue until forensic experts in human identification complete the necessary laboratory tests to identify the bones by the Protocols of Human Identification, which are based on international standards.
According to volunteers, four people were recognized by loved ones using distinctive tattoos that had been preserved in skin fragments. However, a large number of the bodies were fragmented into six pieces, which made identification more challenging.
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Rampant Mass Graves in Mexico
These mass graves are popular in Mexico especially close to the border, where cartels and other groups frequently dump the bodies of victims into these graves. A report by WOLA, the Advocacy for Human Rights in the Americas, published in 2022 estimates that there are about 100,000 “disappeared and missing” individuals in Mexico. According to CBS News, 13,000 of the missing are from Tamaulipas, the state with the second-highest number of missing individuals after Jaliso, with nearly 15,000 people missing from the state.
Sometimes it’s impossible to count the bodies. The AP reported from the “extermination site” in Nuevo Laredo, a Tamaulipas municipality only a few miles from the border, that six months after the site was discovered, forensic specialists were still weighing burned remains and unable to calculate the number of dead. There are tens of thousands of bodies that have been found but have not yet been identified.
