MEXICO COPS FIND ROTTING CADAVERS

ACAPULCO: Mexican police are hunting the owner of an abandoned crematorium after 60 bodies, including those of children, were found rotting in the Acapulco facility that closed a year ago.

Authorities made the grim discovery of bodies covered in white sheets, some piled on top of each other, late Thursday after neighbours called police to complain about the stench coming from the “Cremations of the Pacific” building.

The fading resort of Acapulco has been plagued by drug gang violence whose victims are regularly found around the city, but this time, authorities indicated that they were investigating a macabre case of funerary fraud.

The bodies of men, women and children were found “perfectly embalmed” in the crematorium, officials said.

Guerrero state chief prosecutor Miguel Angel Godinez said authorities had requested assistance from federal agencies and Interpol to find the owner, Guillermo Estua Zadai.

“It could be a possible fraud by the owner of the building against the people who thought the remains of their relatives would be cremated,” he later told Radio Formula, adding that officials are investigating whether people were given the wrong ashes.

The bodies were covered in white sheets that were brown from what appeared to be fluid from the decomposing corpses.

Lime was scattered on the bodies and around the crematorium in an apparent bid to mask the stench, but neighbours said they began to detect a nauseating smell two days ago.

Authorities said the crematorium stopped paying taxes three years ago and closed last year. AFP