Eight family members decapitated in north Mexico

CIUDAD JUAREZ: Eight people from the same family, including two minors, were kidnapped by masked gunmen and their decapitated bodies were found days later in northern Mexico, authorities said Wednesday. The bodies were found after a ninth member of the Martinez family escaped Sunday's abduction near Casa Quemada, in the state of Chihuahua, and alerted the authorities, prosecutors said. The disappearance triggered a massive military operation in the region and the bodies were found this week. They were all men, with the youngest aged 15 and the oldest 42. The family was traveling in a vehicle when it was kidnapped by armed men wearing masks and dressed in military-like fatigues, the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office said. It is common for drug cartel operatives to wear military-like gear in Mexico. The bodies of three men were found on a rural road on Wednesday. One was 18 years old and the two others were 25. "People travelling on a trail found the victims," the prosecutor's office said in a statement. A day earlier, authorities recovered five other bodies that had been dumped in different parts of Casa Quemada...more