Mothers find six bodies in trash-filled canal over eight months in Mexico

The stench of decay hangs heavy in the air, but Carmen Zamora, representative of the Colectiva Feminista Ehécatl, urges her fellow searchers on. "There are many flies here, come help me here," she calls, her voice tinged with the grim hope that the insects signal human remains within the trash-strewn bags. Sometimes it's a false alarm, just food waste. Other times, it's something far more grim.

These mothers, united by the pain of disappearance, work alongside national and state search commissions, their hands sifting through the refuse of the Gran Canal. They've secured a dredge, a powerful machine with a long arm and a basket, to lift mountains of garbage from the canal. The debris is then piled onto the banks in Nextlalpan, Mexico state, where the painstaking search continues.

This specific location has become a focal point after the discovery of six bodies and numerous bone fragments between November 2025 and July 2026. "Disappearances don't just happen in clandestine graves on land," Zamora explains. "Criminals have become sophisticated. Before, bodies were found in abandoned houses, and now it's this. They take advantage of the trash, the lack of cameras, and the fact that no one comes looking."

Dressed in latex gloves and protective gear, or sometimes just in jeans and boots, these women fund their own search efforts. The work is exhausting, especially without consistent government support. Among the recovered remains were those of Father Ernesto Baltazar Hernández Vilchis in November 2025 and primary school teacher Olaff Pedraza Vargas on December 4th of the same year, stark reminders of the lives lost and the ongoing search for answers.

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hermanas