With more than 100,000 people missing in Mexico, locals have taken it on themselves to find their missing loved ones, even if that means digging through dirt, looking for human remains.
The women of Las Rastreadoras del Fuerte have found 423 bodies, according to their records. But only 218 of those have been identified and returned to families.One who has is Mirna Medina, who founded the group in the sweltering Sinaloan town of Los Mochis after her son Roberto went missing when he was 21 in July 2014.
She later learned that Javier and a friend had stolen a motorbike after the party. Then, his friends told her, they were abducted and never seen again."Of course, I would like to hope that he walks through this door one day … But I don't think so," she said while sitting at the kitchen table. Two dogs scuttled about, strays she rescued off the streets.Mayra Gonzalez, 48, had searched for her younger sister across three Mexican states with another group for more than two years.
Local authorities in Hidalgo state had been unable to identify the body, but Ms Gonzalez believed it could be her sister Gloria who had gone missing in 2016, aged 38, while travelling across the neighbouring state of Puebla, in central Mexico."I was worried they would hand me over any body just to close the case," she said.After analysing the case files, Ms Gonzalez said she noticed bones were missing from the body.
"We didn't trust the authorities," Ms Gonzalez said, sitting at a roadside cafe near her home in Mexico state.