Mexico: Remains May Match Missing Call Center Workers

Law enforcement officials in Mexico said they might have found the remains of seven employees of a Guadalajara call center who were reported missing in late May. The remains were found in 45 bags that had been thrown into a ravine. The remains have not been identified, CNN reports, but "match the physical characteristics of some of the young people missing," the Jalisco State Prosecutor's Office said. A helicopter was used in recovering the remains in an operation that could take another few days, per the Los Angeles Times.

Five men and two women are missing in what appears to be a kidnapping, and officials said the remains found were of men and women. All are in their 20s and 30s. A federal security official said an investigation points to the workers being participants in "some type of fraud" and telephone extortion. The sister of one of the missing men said he was selling vacation packages. Disappearances in Mexico are rampant, with government data listing roughly 110,000 people as officially missing—15,000 in Jalisco. Since 2018, more than 1,500 bodies have been found in the state. (More Mexico stories.)