Phoenix Mom Thinks Son Among 42 In Mass Burial Pit In Mexico

PHOENIX — Two families in Arizona, including a Phoenix mom, are among those looking for closure with the discovery of 42 bodies in a clandestine burial pit in the Mexican desert near the Gulf of California beach town of Puerto Penasco, often called Rocky Point by U.S. tourists.

About a dozen bodies were discovered in the mass grave last week, but continued digging revealed many more. Only two of the bodies in appeared to be recent. The pits often are used by drug and kidnapping gangs to dispose of bodies, and the Sinaloa drug cartel is known to be active in the area.

The pit was discovered by volunteers whose relatives have disappeared and are known as Searching Mothers of Sonora and the Searchers of Puerto Penasco.

Phoenix mom Maripaz Ramirez told news station KPHO that her son, Alejandro Ramirez, rented a house in the Rocky Point area in 2015 and that it was “beautiful and secure.” She said she got a phone call from one of her son’s friends about 10 months later saying “something bad had happened to him.”

“The only thing I know is that he was picked up, and I think they killed him,” Ramirez said.

She made the more than three-hour drive to Rocky Point and found his house had been vandalized, but there was no trace of him.

“I've never stopped searching for him," Ramirez told the Arizona Republic. "I searched for him in shelters, medical examiners, all over the region here, in Caborca. But I had never given a DNA sample, that's the only other thing I needed to do.”

Ramirez and her daughter gave a blood sample to authorities in Mexico’s Sonora state to see if the DNA matches any of the skeletons found in the pit.

Ramirez said the discovery of the mass grave confirms her fears.

"I wouldn't want it, but at the same time, I know that it's been a long time. ... My hopes of finding him alive are small because he would've already found a way to contact me one way or another," she told the Republic.

“At least I’m going to have peace of mind,” she told KPHO. “I’m missing him so much.”

Two other Arizonans, sisters from Casa Grande, located about 50 miles south of Phoenix, think their two brothers — Luis and Joel Robles — might have been buried in the pit. The brothers lived in Puerto Penasco, but vanished about four years apart. The sisters also gave DNA samples to authorities in Mexico.

"We had that lingering doubt that maybe our family members will be among the 40-something people. But this is how we clear up that doubt, at least that's the idea," Miguel Muñoz, the husband of one of the sisters, told the Republic.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.