Backyard grave in Juárez contains multiple bodies

By Daniel Borunda / El Paso Times

Article Launched: 02/27/2008 12:00:00 AM MST

A macabre discovery of up to nine bodies was made by Mexican federal police in a clandestine grave found in the backyard of a Juárez home, federal authorities said Tuesday.

More bodies could still be discovered because investigators so far have only dug up half of the property at a home in the 1800 block of Cocoyoc street in the Cuernavaca area of Juárez.

The federal public safety office reported nine bodies had been found, while the federal attorney general's office, known as the PGR, reported that five bodies had been found plus two severed heads and three torsos.

Last week, federal police raided the home and seized more than 1,000 packs of marijuana and arrested two people, Francisco Javier Chavez Nieto, 47, and Sulema Yanir Felix Pinuelas, 37, officials said in a news release.

The first body was discovered last Thursday, and other corpses were found in each of the past four days.