Half of 117 bodies found in mass grave not linked to file

Academics and human rights activists in Mexico say a preliminary analysis shows that little attempt was made to identify bodies buried by government officials in a common grave in Tetelcingo, Morelos.

Roberto Villanueva from the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos said Tuesday that of the 117 bodies exhumed in June, only about half had legible tags that could match them to their case files.

Villanueva says the careless way in which state authorities disposed of the unidentified bodies makes it much more difficult, if not impossible, to ever discover their identities and alert their families. Many were buried with items of clothing or jewelry that could have helped in their identification.

Morelos Gov. Graco Ramírez used his official Twitter account to denounce the "total carelessness."