GUATEMALA CITY – The dismembered bodies of a mother and her two teenage daughters were found Monday by emergency teams in southeastern Guatemala, authorities said.

The spokesman for the Volunteer Firefighters, Sergio Vasquez, told reporters that on Monday morning in the village of Cienaga Grande de San Jose Pinula, local residents found a head and a hand and alerted the National Civil Police, or PNC, and the Public Ministry so that they could begin investigating the matter.

Later, authorities reported that a hand and a foot were found in the village of El Pajon de Santa Catarina Pinula and, soon thereafter, the remaining body parts of a woman and a teenage girl were found inside a well.

Vasquez said that the woman was missing a hand and the girl was missing her head.

In another nearby well, the remains of the other girl were found, he said.

The victims were identified by the husband and father of the victims, Jose Luis Lima, as Toribia Perez, 38, and her daughters Jesica and Karen, 16 and 14, respectively.

In remarks to reporters, Lima said that his family had gone to a party and added that they had been threatened by members of Mara 18 because his daughters refused to join that gang.

The PNC is not ruling out the hypothesis that the triple murder was carried out by the gang and announced that an investigation has been launched to locate the killers. EFE