On Location in Mexico's Drug War: The Ghosts of El Diamante Ranch Deborah Bonello - GlobalPost
go to original July 12, 2014

Berta Diaz Torres lost her daughter and four grandchildren to unknown killers. Their mutilated remains were found with the bodies of 26 others at an abandoned Veracruz ranch. (GlobalPost)

VERACRUZ, Mexico — At an abandoned ranch in Tres Valles called "El Diamante," the marines made a grim find: a grave containing the remains of at least 31 people. Only eight have been identified so far. Five of them belonged to the family of Berta Diaz Torres.

"[They were] my daughter and my four grandchildren," she says, seated quietly in front of her small home. "Imagine my surprise when I saw that [my daughter] died from being stabbed and having her throat cut. I can't sleep at night thinking about it."

The origin of the crime is still under investigation. But it's not a new phenomenon, in a country that's suffered a string of massacres and mysterious mass graves since 2010.

"I don't know what my daughter got up to," Torres says. "But if she owed something then I think she's paid it."

More from GlobalPost: The worst massacres and mass graves in Mexico’s drug war

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!