Thirty-one bodies have been discovered in a mass grave in northern Mexico. The Mexican government has identified eight and is working to identify the rest.

Police received an anonymous call this week informing them of the location of the grave. This led them to El Diamante ranch in the Tres Valles region of Veracruz state near the Oaxaca border. Police first reported the discovery of various bodies, then corrected the number to 31.

The government doesn't know who is responsible for the massacre but suspects cartels that prey on migrants crossing Mexico bound for the United States. Veracruz state police have been policing their borders to prevent groups like Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel from further encroaching on their territory. Officials say marines are guarding the site, and they ask anyone who has had friends or relatives go missing in the past month to report to the prosecutor's office, the Latin American Herald Tribune reported.

The bodies have been reported as 24 men and seven women. The ranch is in the town of Cosamaloapan, and once the bodies were discovered, they were moved to the town's morgue.

A state police officer told reporters 11 bodies were decapitated and many had had their hands, fingers or ears cut off. Mass graves have been a common find in Mexico recently because cartels and gangs are fighting and many innocent people find themselves in the crossfire.

"My daughter disappeared [on] May 31. She was on her way to a friend's house for dinner, and since then, I've heard nothing from her. Her name is Wendy Cruz, and she's 33 years old," a pleading mother said to AFP.

To help identify the bodies, lab analysts are using dental records and DNA. Eight were first identified as local residents who had gone missing recently.