Mexico City, Mexico – The mariachi band had just struck up its first ranchera when Axel grabbed his mother’s hand.

“Come on, mama!” the lanky 16-year-old shouted, spinning Daniela beneath a canopy of paper lanterns glowing in the warm night air.

The courtyard pulsed with music and laughter as cousins joined in, skirts twirling and shoes scuffing the ground. When Daniela tried to slip away to rest, her son pulled her back, draping his favourite grey hoodie over her shoulders and tugging her by the sleeves.

That was in April 2022.

Six months later, Daniela Gonzalez was knee-deep in a ravine filled with refuse searching for her son.

Two months after the family wedding where they’d danced until the early hours, Axel disappeared.

Searching for graves

It is a sunny, cloudless morning in

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