Spanish
The Search Unit for People Reported Missing (UBPD) recovered the remains of three bodies in a rural area of the Colombian department of Antioquia (northwest), after some workers found a boot with human bones while building a road.
The finding, which occurred on the top of a mountain in the municipality of San Francisco, was reported by the community and the local Mayor's Office, which immediately alerted the UBPD, that entity reported this Wednesday.
Upon arriving at the site, investigators confirmed that they were human remains possibly linked to events of the armed conflict that occurred in the early 2000s.
The forensic team first excavated an individual grave, where they recovered a "skeletonized body with clothing and personal items," explained the UBPD in a statement.
Then he detected a terrain anomaly a few meters away and, by expanding the work area, found a second pit with two other bodies, also with associated clothing and belongings, including a student ID card that helped to provide information about the identity of one of the victims.
According to the UBPD, that possible identity corresponds to a person who disappeared in Medellín, capital of the department of Antioquia, located about 100 kilometers from the discovery site.
The victim's family members have already submitted DNA samples so that the National Institute of Legal Medicine can advance the identification process.
After the recovery of the three bodies, anthropologist Andrea Romero, regional leader of the UBPD, called on citizens to report possible clandestine burial sites.
"We invite people who work on the land, farmers, miners or builders, to contact us if they find structures that may seem human, because that person may be the relative of someone who is looking for them," he expressed.
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To date, the Search Unit has recovered 13 bodies in the Antioquia municipalities of Argelia, Nariño, San Carlos, San Luis and San Francisco, several of them also thanks to fortuitous findings.
According to the UBPD, Antioquia is the territory with the highest number of missing persons in the country, with 25,794 cases, followed by Medellín with 4,168 and Bogotá with 4,024. In total, Colombia has 132,877 missing persons within the framework of the armed conflict.
