Mexico’s crematorium scandal: The slow and painful identification of 383 bodies

Fernanda Carrera is searching for her grandfather, José de la Cruz Carrera, among the 383 bodies recovered by authorities from the Plenitud crematorium in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez.

In June, authorities discovered the bodies piled up in unsanitary conditions, some dating back to 2020, in a facility without electricity or gas, whose furnace had been non-operational for at least three years. Six local funeral homes subcontracted the crematorium, delivering urns with fake ashes — made of dirt and stones — to grieving families.

Last week, Carrera went to the State Attorney General’s Office to provide all the information needed to identify the body. She handed over photos from the wake and the clothes her grandfather wore that day. The family had held the grandfather’s wake at the Latinoamericana funeral home, one of the facilities that had worked with Plenitud.

Carrera explained to investigators that her grandfather had a fractured finger that remained misaligned; he had a catheter that left a mark on one of his wrists, wore a silver necklace, and had full dental plates.

At first, workers from the State Attorney General’s Office informed them that there was a body matching Mr. Carrera’s characteristics. But days passed, and no one called to confirm or to deliver the remains of their relative. Fernanda and her family now live in this limbo, a space they share with other families who believe that one of the 383 bodies piled up at the Plenitud site could belong to a mother, an uncle, a grandmother, a brother...

So far, experts have analyzed 323 bodies. In 133 cases, a hydration process has been started in an effort to recover fingerprints to confirm the identities of the deceased, according to the Attorney General’s Office. In total, authorities have fully identified six bodies. Additionally, they have probable names for another 67. As of this Wednesday, several weeks after the crematorium scandal erupted, the agency has not yet delivered a single body.

“For us, what has happened has been a lot of uncertainty,” says Fernanda Carrera, “because we don’t really know what we have in the urn. We honestly don’t know what’s worse anymore — whether the body is there or not, because if it’s not, then where is our family member’s body? What was actually done with it?” she asks.

“We understand that this kind of work can make people insensitive,” Carrera continues, referring to those responsible for the crematorium. “But they can’t just leave bodies like they’re garbage bags. It’s been really difficult for us because we’ve made some progress, but then it’s like going back — it’s like a wound that never heals,” she adds.

The handling of her grandfather’s body was plagued with irregularities from the moment his wake ended. He died on July 2, 2022, at 72 years old. “As soon as we left the Mass on July 4, they took him to the crematorium. They took a month and a half, putting obstacles in our way, and weeks went by. Until my mom went at the end of August and they told her that the ashes were there, but they only had urns of the most expensive kind — not the package we had already paid for, so they wouldn’t give it to us,” Carrera explains.

Upon learning about the news of the bodies left discarded at Plenitud, and after reviewing the death certificates and confirming that their grandfather was cremated there, the family went to Funeraria Latinoamericana to request the cancellation of three other services they were still paying for and to demand a refund. But the response was not what they expected. Not only were they denied a refund, but staff from the funeral home even came on Tuesday to collect the monthly payments they still owe. “We don’t want this to become just another case that gets filed away and never resolved,” says Carrera.

The Plenitud crematorium case, which has been in the national press for the past week and a half, has authorities on edge. This past Tuesday, Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection Omar García Harfuch confirmed that in many cases, the ashes handed over by those responsible for the crematorium were not human. So far, 1,237 people have been interviewed at the local Attorney General’s Office, in hopes of locating relatives who passed away in the last five years and were laid to rest in one of the six funeral homes that worked with Plenitud.

The Attorney General’s Office said it will complete the identification of the bodies in the coming days, and begin the process of burial or cremation, depending on each family’s decision.

Police investigation

Meanwhile, investigations continue. This Tuesday, the local Attorney General’s Office reported the search of two residences in Ciudad Juárez, in a bid to locate documents that could help identify the bodies found embalmed at the Plenitud crematorium, most of them in advanced stages of decomposition.

During one of the raids, documents related to the crematorium were seized. Unofficially, it was revealed that the residences searched belong to the two detainees: the owner of the company, José Luis A.C., 39, and the crematorium’s sole employee, Facundo M.R., 64. The Attorney General’s Office accuses them of clandestine burial and improper handling of bodies, although they are also considering charging them with fraud.

The investigation will also expand to government agencies and regulatory bodies responsible for supervising and issuing permits to these types of establishments, according to State Attorney General César Jáuregui Moreno. This includes agencies such as the State Commission for the Protection Against Sanitary Risks, whose head, Luis Carlos Tarín Villamar, reported that the last health inspection of the facility was on March 7, 2022. And the Municipal Ecology Department, given the crematorium’s environmental impact permit expired on March 3, 2023.

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