Mexicans searching for missing relatives uncover possible mass killing site

Associated Press

TEUCHITLAN, Mexico — When a group of citizens searching for missing relatives in the western state of Jalisco arrived at a remote ranch outside Mexico's second-largest city last week on an anonymous tip, all they had to do was push open the unlocked gate.

Inside they went to work with simple tools — picks, shovels and metal bars — doing the work that state investigators supposedly had done six months earlier.

What they found embarrassed state authorities and shook Mexico: dozens of shoes, heaps of clothing and what appeared to be human bone fragments. Distraught families from across the country have already started reaching out about clothing items they say they recognize.

It was a shocking reminder of Mexico's more than 120,000 disappeared and enough to push the federal government to take over the troubled investigation.

A 'training base' for cartel recruits The ranch in Teuchitlan, about 37 miles (60 kilometers) west of Guadalajara was allegedly being used as a training base for cartel recruits when National Guard troops found it last September.

Authorities then said 10 people were arrested, two hostages were freed and a body was found wrapped in plastic. The state prosecutor's office went in with a backhoe, dogs and devices to find inconsistencies in the ground.

But then the investigation went quiet until members of the Jalisco Search Warriors, one of dozens of search collectives that dot Mexico, visited the site last week on a tip.

They found the shoes, as well as heaps of other clothing and what appeared to be burned bone fragments.

Shoes at the Izaguirre Ranch where skeletal remains were also discovered in the municipality of Teuchitlan, Mexico, Tuesday, March 11, 2025.

Jalisco State Attorney General’s Office | AP