TLALMANALCO, Mexico — Mexican authorities said Thursday they have found a mass grave east of Mexico City and are testing to determine if it holds some of the 12 people who vanished from a bar in an upscale area of the capital nearly three months ago.
At least seven corpses had been recovered from the grave in Tlalmanalco, Mexico City prosecutor Rodolfo Rios told reporters at a news conference. He said the victims could not be identified from clothing, and the cause of death had not been determined.
The federal Attorney General’s Office said agents had received information about possible illegal weapons on the property known locally as Rancho La Negra, and obtained a search warrant. When they started looking around, they discovered the grave, Renato Sales Heredia, an assistant attorney general, told reporters.
The young bar-goers vanished from the after-hours Heaven club at midday May 26, just a block from Mexico City’s leafy Paseo de Reforma, the capital’s equivalent of the Champs-Elysees. Some of their relatives showed up on the property being excavated, crying and covering their faces from the media.