Couple 'lured women back to house, murdered them and chopped up bodies for pet food'

Couple admitted to selling one victim's baby after being stopped by police with buggy containing body parts

A slum in Ecatepec, which is notorious for its high murder rate (AFP/Getty Images)

Police in Mexico have arrested a couple on suspicion of murdering 20 women and chopping up their bodies for pet food.

The man and women, identified only as Juan Carlos N and Patricia N, are alleged to have lured victims to their home in Mexico City on the pretence of selling them clothes.

They were arrested on Thursday while pushing a baby buggy that was found to contain body parts.

Detectives had placed the couple under surveillance after linking them to three women who had gone missing, including one who had disappeared along with her two-month-old girl.

Police had hoped the buggy would contain the missing child, but instead found human remains in a bin bag.

The couple admitted they had sold the baby for 15,000 pesos (£600.) The girl was later tracked down by police and returned to her grandmother.

Mexico state attorney general Alejandro Gomez said the couple had planned to dispose of the body parts in nearby derelict land.

Police recovered further remains from the scene, as well as two other addresses in Ecatepec, one of the poorest suburbs of Mexico City.

Some of the remains were found in plastic buckets covered in cement, while other body parts were in fridges.

The number of women killed and the couple’s alleged motive is unclear.

The pair were arrested on suspicion of 10 murders, but Juan Carlos N told a court on Sunday he had killed 20 women. He claimed to have used their bones to make fertiliser and used their flesh as pet food, Mexican newspaper El Universal reported.

Some of the victims were reportedly sexually assaulted before they were killed.

Patricia is alleged to have helped lure women to the couple's home and dispose of their bodies.

Thousands of women have disappeared or been murdered during a sharp increase in violence in Mexico in recent years.

According to government statistics, there were at least 2,585 suspected murders of women last year, up from 1,755 in 2015.

The largest number of victims were in the state of Mexico, the most populous region of the country. Ecatepec has become notorious as a centre of the killings.