The bodies of nine students, dismembered and accompanied by a bag containing eight pairs of hands, were discovered on a local highway a month after they went missing. The victims, all from Tlaxcala, had been on vacation in southern Mexico and were traveling to the beaches in Oaxaca when they disappeared on February 27, reportedly while celebrating their graduation.
Remains were found inside the trunk of an abandoned vehicle and beneath a blood-stained tarp in San Jose Miahuatlan, located on the border between Puebla and Oaxaca. The group, consisting of four women and five men aged between 19 and 30, exhibited bullet wounds and signs of torture, according to reports by El Financiero. So far, eight of the victims have been identified, including individuals named Angie Lizeth (29), Brenda Mariel (19), Jacqueline Ailet (23), Noemi Yamileth (28), Lesly Noya Trejo (21), Raul Emmanuel (28), Ruben Antonio, and Rolando Armando.
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No suspects have been named yet. At a press conference on Monday, Idamis Pastor Betancourt, the head of Puebla’s State Attorney General’s Office, stated that while investigations are ongoing, he could not disclose further details due to confidentiality. He mentioned that once the investigation concludes, more information will be provided.
Video surveillance from February 24 shows the victims’ car, a dark grey Volkswagen Vento with Tlaxcala-registered plates, traveling along the Atlixcayotl highway near Atlixco, approximately 90 miles west of the discovery site. The vehicle was found on Sunday afternoon about 150 miles southeast of Mexico City.
This tragic incident is set against a backdrop of a grim security situation in Mexico, where 30,000 people were murdered in 2023—mostly linked to the drug trade—and where, as of September that year, 111,521 people were reported missing due to crime, according to the National Registry of Missing Persons.
