Mexico. The mother of a teenager who disappeared in March 2023 after forced recruitment has reported that the state of Jalisco's prosecutors' office handed over incomplete and commingled remains to federal authorities. Alejandrina Orozco Romano, the mother of 17-year-old Pablo Gómez Orozco, stated that the Attorney General's Office (FGR) was scheduled to hand over the body on November 18 in Mexico City. However, during the official procedure, she was informed that the jaw sent by Jalisco did not belong to Pablo. Furthermore, among the remains were bones from other individuals found at the same location where the young man's body was discovered. 'Yesterday was supposedly the handover of my son's body, but I couldn't bring him home again,' Alejandrina recounted. She explained that during the inspection, the FGR's multidisciplinary team informed her that the jaw included in the Jalisco case file 'is not her son's' and belongs to 'a person around 40 years old.' She added that a 'duplicate bone in the pelvis' was also identified, which proved the remains were mixed with those of other victims. The mother stated that these irregularities are because there were two other bodies alongside Pablo's, and she has requested the FGR conduct independent forensic tests on the two additional sets of remains to determine which fragments belong to whom. 'I requested forensic tests for these two bodies to see which jaw is my son's.' A chain of omissions since the disappearance. Pablo's case has been marked by a lack of coordination and cooperation between prosecutors from the start. The 17-year-old vanished on March 30, 2023. On that day, he had gone out to look for temporary work during Holy Week, but a few days later, Pablo managed to send his mother messages pleading for help, warning that he was in the hands of organized crime and feared he would be killed if he tried to escape. His phone's location history showed pings in different states, including Jalisco; his mother reported that Nayarit, Zacatecas, and Jalisco initially refused to take on the search, claiming it was not their jurisdiction. The search documentalist documented that at least two years passed without Jalisco initiating a full investigation, even when the phone's location indicated it could be found in Tala, Jalisco, a site linked to forced recruitment. In September, Alejandrina Orozco denounced that the Jalisco Prosecutor's Office had been holding the young man's remains at the Forensic Medical Service (SEMEFO) in Lagos de Moreno since April 2023, just days after he asked his mother for help. For these three years, they withheld information and the body, despite the woman having requested information from all SEMEFOs in that entity. 'It's exhausting and painful every time they tell me my son isn't there, they aren't looking for him, it's not him, this is too much,' Alejandrina stated when recalling the institutional omissions she has been a victim of. The frustrated handover in Mexico City. On November 18, the FGR summoned the mother for the body handover in Mexico City after she requested that this agency verify that the remains were indeed her son's. She traveled from Nayarit accompanied by a funeral home, believing she could finally bring her son home. Although the Forensic Medical Service acted professionally, she reported that the Public Ministry revictimized her. 'They treated me in the cruelest way possible, the prosecutor was very rude, arrogant, angry because I was asking for copies, because I was requesting things,' she said and asked Human Rights personnel to file a formal complaint against the official. Afterwards, when she was informed the remains did not match Pablo's, she said they forced her to view her son's body, despite her having asked not to, to avoid remembering that image. 'I came with mixed feelings, one wants to bring their son home and see him resting in peace... they forced me to see my son that way, because it was not my decision and she knows why they forced me, because if I don't see it, I don't trust anyone.' Alejandrina Orozco reiterated that she will not accept the body until complete tests are done on the two additional remains found with Pablo and his jaw is found. 'I ask that the FGR bring the other two bodies to do the forensic tests and recover the missing part of my son, and deliver what is not my son to the corresponding body,' she stated. She emphasized that this new irregularity confirms her distrust in the Jalisco Prosecutor's Office. 'How much longer? First, they denied his disappearance, then they refused to search for him, then they refused to hand him over, and now they hand over remains that don't correspond to him, that's not right.' For Alejandrina, the process has been a path of exhaustion, negligence, and institutional revictimization, and her priority, she said, is for the federal authorities to complete the tests to correctly reconstruct the remains, respecting the young man's rights and her family's grief. 'Let them give me my son as he should be, let them give him to me complete and with dignity.' On April 7, 2023, Pablo sent two messages to his mother asking for help and telling her he had been recruited by a criminal group. He managed to contact her through Facebook, telling her he was in El Obraje, Zacatecas, but call tracking and GPS records show the young man was in Jalisco, Aguascalientes, and Zacatecas. Even in March 2025, his sneakers were found at Rancho Izaguirre in Teuchitlán, Jalisco, where 400 pairs of shoes from possible victims of forced recruitment were displayed. He is expected to be buried soon in Tepic, Nayarit, the city from which he was taken.
