Forensic personnel are examining the remains of at least 42 people found on ranches in Lagos de Moreno and Tlaquepaque on the outskirts of Guadalajara, Jalisco, state Attorney General Gerardo Octavio Solís Gómez reported.

All of the bodies found over the past 10 days showed signs of violence, authorities say. 

Some were bound hand and foot, others were decapitated or otherwise dismembered, making the process of determining exactly how many people were found difficult for investigators. 

One of the sites was located next to an abandoned mine where the bodies of two men and one woman were found lying on the ground covered in lime. One man has been identified after going missing in May, as has a woman who was last seen on June 11.

At another site, nine men and one woman were found. Some had been handcuffed and all but one of the men had been decapitated.  

In the Santa Anita neighborhood of Tlaquepaque, 60 bags of human remains have been recovered belonging to at least 26 people. 

Two bags containing human remains were found half-buried on a farm in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga. 

“When the officers arrived, they located a 1-by-2-meter grave in the courtyard of an abandoned home, inside it were two black plastic bags which contained decomposing human remains,” police reported. The National Guard was dispatched to protect the crime scene.

State forensics experts have been working all week to identify the bodies and verify the number of dead.

From January to May alone, the state Attorney’s Office located 17 clandestine graves. More than 100 bodies and 500 body parts have been recovered.

Between January and May of this year, Mexico has recorded 14,631 homicides, with the highest murder rates occurring in Guanajuato, the state of México, Baja California, Chihuahua and Jalisco, respectively.

Source: El Financiero (sp), Informador (sp), Infobae (sp), 24 Horas Puebla (sp)