Roberto Mora watches workers dredge along a canal in Chalco, State of Mexico. (Photo by Rafael Castillo/VICE News)
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, center, at a Mother's Day event with State of Mexico governor Eruviel Avila (third from left), first lady Angelica Rivera (fifth from left), women members of his cabinet, and other guests. (Photo via Presidencia de México)
A view of the Chalco office of the State of Mexico prosecutor agency. (Photo by Brett Gundlock/VICE News)
'Another dead young woman found in State of Mexico' reads a headline in a recent edition of a local daily. (Photo by Brett Gundlock/VICE News)
Parallel to our inquires, VICE News also submitted a freedom of information request to obtain the official figures on female murders in the State of Mexico in the last decade. After six months of legal wrangling, authorities handed over a three-page file — containing information already made public with the National System of Public Safety — with a tally of murders that didn't distinguish between female and male victims."That tally isn't even correct," said a former investigator in the State of Mexico forensics service. "They are hiding the real figures."The source declined to be identified due to fears that he — or worse, his family — could face retribution for revealing damaging insider information about how Edomex handles homicide investigations.The former investigator showed us unpublished photographs of state morgue labs, which showed bodies rotting with flies, or piled haphazardly into open refrigerators. He told us these conditions were commonplace.The canal in Chalco where the team was excavating in search of Valeria Mora is one of several that feed into the longer Remedios River. In recent years, the canal has also served as a clandestine grave for murdered women. Locals refer to it as "a river of death."'Any woman in Mexico could be in my daughter's place.'
Maria de la Luz Estrada and other activists and relatives of victims have repeatedly attempted to meet State of Mexico governor Eruviel Avila in Toluca. (Photo by Rafael Castillo/VICE News)
Irinea Buendia hugs a supporter after the landmark Supreme Court ruling on the case of her daughter Mariana. (Photo by Rafael Castillo/VICE News)