Heart of darkness: Women dare not walk alone in central Mexico

ECATEPEC, Mexico – Guadalupe Reyes clings to thoughts of her daughter one day flying a plane, a dream for the 18-year-old girl.

Until the teenager vanished 10 months ago in central Mexico.

Mariana is the latest in a growing number of girls and women who have disappeared, or worse, in the populous State of Mexico, which has become the most dangerous region for women in a country that is all too used to violence.

The authorities believe they found Mariana’s remains and buried them in a common grave without the presence of her family.

But like many Mexicans looking for their missing kin, Reyes has little trust in the authorities.

Late last month, the desperate mother convinced officials to exhume fragments of skull and bones to conduct her own DNA tests.

“I’m not losing hope that she’s alive. But we have to wait for the DNA results,” Reyes said, almost whispering, after independent forensic experts dug up the remains in a cemetery of the rural community of Nextlalpan.

She was never allowed to see the remains before the burial.

“They said that we were not psychologically ready and that we had to accept what happened,” Reyes said.

The willowy, black-haired girl, who took violin lessons online, left her home on September 17 last year to make photocopies of documents she needed to get a pilot scholarship. She never came back.