Post by : Meena Ariff

Photo: AFP

Police have discovered 381 dead bodies piled up in a private crematorium in Ciudad Juarez, northern Mexico. The Chihuahua state prosecutor’s office said on Sunday that the bodies were found due to negligence by the crematorium owners.

According to Eloy Garcia, the communications coordinator of the prosecutor’s office, the bodies were deposited irregularly and were not cremated. He said the corpses were stacked in different rooms without any proper arrangement. “They were just thrown like that, indiscriminately, one on top of the other, on the floor,” he said.

All the bodies had been embalmed before being stored. Instead of giving ashes to the families, the crematorium gave them other materials. Authorities believe some bodies may have been kept there for up to two years.

Garcia blamed the crematorium owners for carelessness and irresponsibility. He said all crematoriums know their daily cremation capacity and should not accept more bodies than they can handle.

One of the administrators of the crematorium has surrendered to the prosecutors. Authorities did not confirm if the bodies were victims of criminal violence.

Mexico has been facing a crisis in its forensic system for years due to organized crime. The large number of bodies needing processing, lack of staff, and limited budgets have caused severe problems in handling dead bodies properly across the country.