Two from search group that uncovered Mexico's 'ranch of horror' killed

By Lizbeth Diaz

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Gunmen connected a motorcycle changeable and killed 2 members of a civilian hunt enactment that discovered a now-infamous tract known arsenic Mexico's "ranch of horror," the radical and authorities said connected Thursday.

The 2 victims, Carmen Morales and her lad Jaime Ramirez, died aft they were changeable by 2 men connected Wednesday night, the Jalisco authorities prosecutor's bureau said successful a statement. The suspects person not been identified.

Morales and Ramirez were members of the national hunt radical Guerreros Buscadores, successful the occidental authorities of Jalisco, which was instrumental successful the find of what section media dubbed the "ranch of horror" successful March.

Searchers recovered hundreds of items of covering and skeletal remains astatine the tract successful Teuchitlan, a agrarian country extracurricular Guadalajara, the authorities capital. Officials person said the tract was a cartel grooming camp.

"Unfortunately, (Morales) had already been threatened respective times. ... It's bittersweet and achy that these things are happening. All we families privation is to find our loved ones," said Raul Servin, a typical for the group.

The Jalisco authorities prosecutor's office, however, ruled retired a transportation to the hunt radical successful its statement.

Morales and Ramirez had been searching for a comparative who disappeared successful February 2024.

Their deaths travel the sidesplitting of different subordinate of the hunt group. Teresa Gonzalez, who had been searching for her missing brother, was killed earlier this month, according to the group.

Members of hunt groups for missing household members often person threats, which rights groups allege mostly travel from the transgression groups liable for their disappearances.

Jalisco is 1 of the states with the highest fig of reported missing persons, according to authoritative data. It is the location basal of the almighty Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which authorities person accused of forcibly recruiting young people.

More than 124,000 radical are missing successful Mexico, according to authorities data. Most cases are ne'er solved, breeding a heavy mistrust of authorities among those searching for the missing.

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Writing by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Leslie Adler)