Clues From Inside an ‘Extermination Camp’ Promise Despair and Hope. In the central Mexican state of Jalisco, a group of Mexican volunteers dedicated to searching for missing persons discovered an abandoned ranch with crematorium ovens, human remains and piles of shoes. A trail of evidence indicated that the ranch was used by organized crime as a recruitment center and extermination camp. The news of this macabre discovery ricocheted around the world. I traveled to the ranch for The New York Times and was confronted by a sense of horror but also -- surprisingly -- hope, because it meant that the victims´ family members could finally bury them. Irma Gonzalez traveled to the ranch after recognizing in the news a picture of a gray backpack that looked similar to the one used by her son Jossel Sanchez, who went missing in 2022. The case reflects an alarming pattern in Jalisco, the state with the most disappeared people in Mexico.