Members of the civilian search collective Unidos Fe y Esperanza discovered scattered human remains and men’s clothing on May 18 in the Lomas del Mar section of Tijuana’s Santa Fe delegation. The bones were found on a hillside near a clandestine dump site, just steps from occupied homes.
The group had mobilized that day to search for Mónica Virginia Salas Parada, a woman reported missing since April 24. Instead, they found skeletal remains and garments consistent with a male victim. Forensic personnel from the Fiscalía General del Estado (FGE), Baja California’s state attorney general’s office, responded to the scene and collected the bones for DNA testing.
Remains May Be Over a Year Old
A preliminary assessment by FGE forensic staff indicated the remains had likely been exposed for more than a year, based on the degree of bone scatter and weathering. The individual has not been identified. DNA results will be compared against a national database of missing persons reports.
Mexico has nearly 100,000 open missing persons cases at the federal level. In Baja California, civilian collectives have become the primary force locating clandestine graves and surface remains that authorities have not found on their own. In Tijuana alone, multiple collectives conduct weekly searches across hillsides, vacant lots, and ravines on the city’s eastern and southern periphery.
Collective Reports Friction With Forensic Teams
The leader of Unidos Fe y Esperanza accused the arriving FGE forensic team of nearly destroying evidence the group had carefully preserved for hours before officials arrived. Tension between volunteer searchers and state forensic personnel has been a recurring complaint across Baja California’s search collectives, who say they often wait long periods for official response and then face dismissive treatment.
The collective said it suspects a larger clandestine burial site may exist in the same area. A follow-up search is planned in coordination with a second group, Operación Rescate A-Rodríguez. Similar joint operations between collectives have uncovered multiple sets of remains at single locations in Tijuana in the past. In April 2025, a clandestine grave was found in Tijuana beside an altar to Santa Muerte, and 72 bodies were recovered from 38 graves across Chihuahua in January of that year.
Santa Fe sits on Tijuana’s southeastern edge, an area of steep hillsides and informal development roughly 20 minutes from the San Ysidro border crossing. This story was first reported by Punto Norte.