EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Funeral homes that used the services of an inoperable crematorium in Juarez, Mexico, gave grieving sons and daughters boxes with crushed stones and animal ashes instead of their relatives’ remains, law enforcement officials south of the border say.

The revelations come as Chihuahua state forensic experts examine some of the 383 bodies found in the offices and warehouse of the Plenitud crematorium on June 26 and June 27 in southmost Juarez. The bodies were unrefrigerated and piled on top of each other in a building that reportedly did not have gas service and had been cited in 2022 for failing local health codes.

Crematorium operators nonetheless continued to receive bodies and collect payment from five Juarez funeral homes until June 26.

“They are investigating and identifying bodies. We know sometimes they handed over ashes that did not correspond to their relatives and in many occasions not even to humans but (were) animal remains,” Mexico Public Safety Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch said Tuesday in a news conference in Mexico City.

Previously, Chihuahua prosecutors said crematorium operators gave funeral homes boxes filled with crushed rocks or with ashes whose origin remains a mystery.

Crematorium owner Jose Luis A.C. and an employee only identified by authorities as Facundo M.R. remain in custody on charges of improper disposal of cadavers.

Chihuahua Attorney General Cesar Jauregui said a judge has found sufficient evidence of a crime to hold the two men for trial.

Jauregui said forensic experts have examined 148 of the bodies so far and investigators are now trying to determine identities to contact relatives. Twenty-seven bodies have been tentatively identified; some still had hospital bracelets on their wrists, he said.

“We are making efforts so this can proceed swiftly and without delay. We are utilizing hydration techniques on manyo of the bodies” to reconstruct features, Jauregui said. “We are now looking for the families; some families have come forward with ashes when a body is there.”

The detainees face up to 17 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said.

ProVideo in Juarez, Mexico, contributed to this report.