On Sunday, March 2, 2025, authorities reported the grim discovery of the dismembered remains of nine students who had vanished during a beach vacation in southern Mexico the previous month. The bodies were found discarded along a highway.
The remains were uncovered in San Jose Miahuatlan, a municipality situated on the border of the Mexican states of Puebla and Oaxaca, roughly 150 miles southeast of Mexico City. Reports have indicated that four bodies were found in the trunk of an abandoned car, while another five were discovered under a blood-soaked tarp nearby.
Adding to the horrific scene, investigators located a bag containing eight pairs of severed hands at the site, with another two hands left in the vehicle’s trunk, as reported by Periodico Central.
The victims, comprising of four women and five men aged between 19 and 30, all had signs of torture and gunshot wounds, according to El Financiero. They were reported missing on February 27 after they left their home in Tlaxcala to vacation at the beaches in Oaxaca state.
Authorities found a dark gray Volkswagen Vento with Tlaxcala registration plates on Sunday afternoon. Surveillance footage reviewed by investigators showed the vehicle driving along the Atlixcayotl highway near Atlixco, Puebla, on February 24, about 90 miles west of where the remains were later found.
Most of the victims have been identified through ID cards and other methods: 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 has yet to be confirmed by authorities.
“So far I cannot offer information. There are lines of investigation, but I cannot reveal them due to confidentiality,” stated Idamis Pastor Betancourt, the head of Puebla’s State Attorney General’s Office, during a press conference on Monday.
While initial reports identified all the victims as students, there have been suggestions that they might have had ties to criminal organizations. However, no official sources have confirmed this information.
In subsequent reports it was revealed that the nine students were lured to the area by a gang leader who had encouraged them to commit minor crimes. José “El Jocha” Lavariega, a former mayoral candidate who became a gang leader, allegedly invited the students to Oaxaca and allowed them to carry out robberies before they were found dead last week, the Daily Mail reported, citing a prosecutor’s office official involved in the investigation.
Local media reported that Lavariega was discovered in his car in Oaxaca on Sunday, March 2, fatally shot, with a note left next to his body that read, “This is what you get for being a thief.”
The authorities have not yet revealed a motive for the students’ killings, but an official speculated that a local gang in Oaxaca may have committed the murders as revenge for the students’ alleged involvement in a series of crimes in the area.
The Puebla Attorney General’s Office has announced that it is working with authorities in Tlaxcala and Oaxaca to apprehend those responsible for the murders. As the investigation continues, no suspects have been publicly identified.
Reports state that Jacqueline Ailet Meza was allegedly “taken” from a beach in Huatulco, Oaxaca, although the details surrounding this remain unclear. Other victims, including Raúl Emmanuel González Lozano and Noemí Yamileth Lopez Moratilla, also went missing from the same area.
The brutal crime has sent shockwaves through local communities, as violent crime continues to plague many regions of Mexico. Recent statistics reveal that Mexico recorded around 30,000 murders in 2023, making it the most violent year in the country’s recent history, with many homicides linked to drug cartel activity.
This case has been compared to other high-profile disappearances in Mexico, including the infamous 2014 kidnapping of 43 male students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in Guerrero state. Despite extensive investigations, this case remains partially unresolved a decade later, with local police, drug cartels, and allegedly military members involved.
A truth commission investigating the 2014 Ayotzinapa case eventually labeled it a “crime of the state,” uncovering systematic cover-ups and involvement of multiple levels of government. However, no evidence currently links the current case to these earlier disappearances.
Over the past few years, Mexico has been grappling with a crisis of disappearances, with human rights organizations reporting over 110,000 people missing across the country. Many of these cases remain unsolved, with families still searching for their loved ones in a climate of violence and impunity.
Forensic teams are conducting a further analysis of the crime scene and remains as the investigation continues. Police are also gathering more evidence and seeking potential witnesses.