Authorities believe that human remains found in Mexico may belong to Harry Devert, a Pelham High School graduate who has been missing since January.
Update 7/18: According to AOL, the remains found were those of Harry Devert
Devert, 32, was traveling by motorcycle through Mexico to Brazil for the World Cup when he went missing on Jan. 25.
He had been traveling through areas known for confrontations between drug cartels and local vigilantes. Devert’s girlfriend was the last to have contact with him, when she received a text saying he had just been escorted “out of some area it was too dangerous for me to be,” according to The Journal News.
Mexican authorities found a bag containing human remains in a shallow grave in Guerrero. A Kawasaki motorcycle, muddy and stripped of parts, was also found with the remains.
Devert’s mother, Ann, has led an active social media campaign dedicated to finding her son.
“I want the world to have his presence in it,” she said, in a video taken by The Journal News.
After receiving a picture of the bike found in Mexico, Ann asked Harry’s childhood friend, Danny Garcia, to confirm that the bike had belonged to her son. Garcia wasn’t immediately sure, but the identification number on the bike proved it was Harry’s.
“Harry wanted to bring the world to us. He was doing it through his travels and everything. He had so much more to show us,” said Garcia, in a video recorded by The Journal News.
Prior to the finding of the remains, information had been circulating in news stories from Mexican media outlets, claiming that Devert may have been mistaken for a DEA agent and kidnapped by members of a drug cartel, according to the Pelham Daily Voice.
Ann Devert was on her way to Mexico as of Sunday to possibly identify her son’s remains, said the Devert family laywer, Darren Delsardo.
The remains must first be sterilized before DNA testing because they appear to have been disinterred, according to Del Sardo. He added that the tests could take up to two months, a process that would be much more expedited in the US.
