The bodies of 60 men, women and children have been found piled in an abandoned crematorium in Acapulco, the authorities in Guerrero State said Friday, but they appeared to have been prepared for cremation and then left behind rather than dumped there by drug gangs. “It is another kind of crime,” said Osbaldo Berber, an adviser to the state prosecutor. The crematorium, Cremaciones Pacífico, above, had been closed for a year, and the bodies, which were found Thursday night, had been embalmed and doused with quicklime to cover the scent of decomposition, officials said. Investigators are gathering local funeral home records to determine the identities of the bodies, the prosecutor’s office said, and are considering charges of improper burial and abuse of a corpse. The owner of the crematorium, Guillermo Estua Zerdain, is missing, officials said. With no sign of organized crime, the discovery of the corpses appears to be unconnected to the case of 43 missing college students believed to have been rounded up by corrupt police officers and turned over to a drug gang in Guerrero in September.
A version of this brief appears in print on February 7, 2015, on page A5 of the New York edition with the headline: Mexico: State Officials Find 60 Bodies Inside an Abandoned Crematorium. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
