Search Group Makes Grim Find in Mexico City

Volunteer searchers say they have found a clandestine crematorium on the edge of Mexico City. It's the first time in recent memory that anyone claimed to have found such a body disposal site in the capital. In northern Mexico, drug cartels often use drums filled with diesel or caustic substances to burn or dissolve bodies, but up to now there has been little evidence of that in Mexico City, the AP reports. More:

• Ceci Flores, a leader of one of the groups of so-called "searching mothers" from northern Mexico, announced on social media late Tuesday her team had found bones around a charred pit on the outskirts of the city. Flores said the team had found bones, clandestine burial pits, and ID cards at the site in a rural area of the city's south side.

• Mexico City prosecutors issued a statement saying they were investigating the find to determine the nature of the remains found, and whether they were human. The prosecutors office said it was also reviewing security camera footage and looking for possible witnesses.
• The discovery, if confirmed, would be a political embarrassment for the ruling party, which has long governed Mexico City and claims the capital has been spared much of the drug cartel violence that afflicts other parts of the country.
• More than 100,000 people are officially listed as missing in Mexico, CBS News reports. Volunteer searchers like Flores often conduct their own investigations, sometimes relying on tips from former criminals, because the government has been unable to help.

(More Mexico stories.)