Members of the Colectivo Todos Somos Erick Carrillo located the buried body of a man in the Colonia Anexa Buena Vista neighborhood of Tijuana on Wednesday afternoon, marking the volunteer group’s 2,010th body discovered over seven years of searching for clandestine graves.
The discovery was reported around 4:00 p.m. near the intersection of Calles Libertad and Tercera Norte, alongside Boulevard Cuauhtémoc Norte. Collective leader Eddy Carrillo announced the milestone during a Facebook live stream from the scene. A member of the group noted the body showed no visible signs of violence.
Suspected Clandestine Grave Site
At least three other bodies have been found in the same zone over the past month. The collective suspects the area is a clandestine burial site and plans to return in the coming days to continue searching.
The Mexican Army responded as first responders to secure the scene. The Baja California State Attorney General’s Office (FGE) processed the site and transferred the remains for genetic identification, a step required to match the body to one of the state’s thousands of missing persons cases.
A Grim Milestone in Mexico’s Missing Persons Crisis
The 2,010 figure represents bodies found by just one of several volunteer search collectives operating in the Tijuana area. At least eight parent-led collectives work across Baja California, according to previous reporting by the Los Angeles Times. These groups, formed by families of the missing, conduct field searches that government agencies have often been unable or unwilling to carry out.
Mexico’s clandestine grave crisis extends well beyond Tijuana. In April 2025, a grave was found in the city next to an altar of Santa Muerte, and 72 bodies were discovered across 38 graves in Chihuahua earlier that year. Baja California state prosecutors have previously acknowledged they lack the personnel to investigate every missing persons case.
The Colonia Anexa Buena Vista neighborhood sits in central Tijuana, south of the Zona Río commercial district and east of the international border crossing area. Residents in the area live in proximity to sites where buried remains continue to surface with regularity.
The collective’s planned return to the site in the coming days could yield more discoveries, given the pattern of multiple recoveries in the same zone. This story was first reported by Punto Norte.