Municipal police in Ensenada discovered human remains beneath a storm drain bridge near kilometer 8 of the Ojos Negros highway on Tuesday morning, June 30. Officers responded to a citizen report at 11:00 a.m. and confirmed the find in an unpopulated area off the rural road that connects Ensenada to the small agricultural community of Ojos Negros, about 30 miles east of the city center.
The remains, described as a partially buried skeleton, were located on a dirt path near a hillside close to the federal highway. Authorities have not released information about the identity of the deceased or a possible cause of death. An investigation is underway.
Pattern of Grim Discoveries in Ensenada
The find is the latest in a series of similar discoveries across the Ensenada municipality in recent weeks. In the Santa Anita area of El Sauzal de Rodríguez, a community north of Ensenada popular with expats, members of a missing persons search collective found four separate sets of skeletal remains during June. Two were located on June 1 and two more on June 28.
On June 10, members of another search collective recovered a portion of a human jawbone during a search along Arroyo Guadalupe in the town of Francisco Zarco, located in the Valle de Guadalupe wine region. In January of this year, state prosecutors found skeletal remains during a court-ordered search of a ranch in the Ojos Negros area itself.
Rising Homicide Numbers
Ensenada has recorded 56 intentional homicides so far in 2026, according to Zeta Tijuana. The Ojos Negros highway runs through a sparsely populated stretch of desert and scrubland east of the city, passing through areas that have seen repeated recoveries of human remains in recent years. In October 2025, remains were found in a streambed in the Real del Castillo community within the Ojos Negros delegation.
The highway to Ojos Negros branches off Mexican Federal Highway 3, which connects Ensenada to Tecate. The area around kilometer 8 sits in the foothills east of the city, well beyond Ensenada’s urban core.
Authorities have not announced any arrests or named suspects in connection with Tuesday’s discovery. The case is expected to be taken over by the Fiscalía General del Estado (FGE), Baja California’s state attorney general’s office, which handles homicide investigations. This story was first reported by Semanario Zeta and El Vigía.