Some of the students were reported missing from beaches on Mexico’s Pacific coast at the end of February
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Nine bodies, believed to have been missing students, were found dismembered on a highway in Mexico, according to local reports.
The remains of four women and five men from Tlaxcala, Mexico were found on the evening of Sunday, March 2 in the municipality of San José Miahuatlán, state of Puebla, El Financiero reported on Tuesday, March 4.
Mexico’s national guard did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
“So far I cannot offer information, there are lines of investigation, but I cannot reveal them due to confidentiality,” Idamis Pastor Betancourt, head of the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE), said at a press conference on Monday, March 3.
“All relevant investigations are being carried out. When we have a response and the investigation is complete, we will be in a position to provide more information,” Betancourt continued.
Betancourt declined to name the victims on Monday. Only two of the bodies could be identified via their ID cards, reports Central Puebla Irreverente: Angie Lizeth P.G., 29, who was reported missing from Santa María Huatulco in Oaxaca on Feb. 28, and Leslie N.T., 21, reported missing from San Pedro Pochutla in Oaxaca on Feb. 28.
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Angie Lizeth P.G. was previously identified by the Oaxaca Attorney General as Angie Lizeth Perez Garcia. She had been traveling in a Ford Fiesta with a Yucatan license plate with Brenda Mariel Salas Moya, who had also been reported missing but was later found alive in Puebla.
A city official from Tetla, Tlaxcala, meanwhile, identified Leslie N.T. as Lesly Noya Trejo on Facebook. “I express my sincere condolences to her family and friends,” wrote the official, Yolanda Carrillo Garcia.
Others reported missing by the Oaxaca Attorney General include Raúl Emmanuel González Lozano and Noemí Yamileth Lopez Moratilla, both 28, who were last seen in an Audi with Guerrero license plates at San Pedro Pochutla on Feb. 28.
Central Puebla Irreverente added that the abandoned dark gray Volkswagen Vento car, with Tlaxcala license plates, where the deceased individuals were discovered was found on the Cuacnopalan-Oaxaca highway near San Jose Miahuatlán, Puebla.
Also among the missing is Jacqueline Ailet Meza, who was reported missing from Zipolite on Feb. 28. Her mother said on Facebook that she was “taken,” El País reports.
“My daughter disappeared last night on a beach in Huatulco, called Zipolite. They took her and until now we know nothing about my daughter,” the mother reportedly wrote, per El País. She wrote that her daughter had two young children, ages 5 and 3, “waiting for her.”
Four of the bodies were reportedly found in the vehicle’s trunk, and a bloodied tarp was discovered inside the Volkswagen Vento along with five more bodies. Officials also reportedly recovered a bag with eight pairs of hands, per Central Puebla Irreverente.
