Mother and daughter killed, dismembered in Mexico

The dismembered bodies of a Russian immigrant woman and her 12-year-old daughter were discovered inside a home in the northwestern Mexican city of Tijuana, the Baja California state Attorney General's Office said.

Investigators are questioning the woman's husband and older daughter, Spanish news agency Efe on Friday cited prosecutor Jose Maria Gonzalez Martinez as telling the media.

The bodies of Yulya Masney Safonchik, 42, and Valeria Lechenko Masney were discovered on Wednesday night by police responding to a complaint from neighbours about a foul smell coming from the family's home in the Playas de Tijuana neighbourhood.

Homicide detectives found the victims' remains stuffed in plastic bags.

The killings would have taken place on Tuesday, Gonzalez Martinez said, adding that Valeria's older sister and the girls' father were being interrogated.

Investigators have found evidence that the older daughter, who was not at home when the bodies were found, might have been involved in the crime, the prosecutor said.

Authorities eventually located the older daughter with several friends, who were also detained briefly until investigators were satisfied that they were not connected to the double-murder.

The older daughter has a history of substance abuse and the family had reported her missing on several occasions, Gonzalez Martinez said.

The girls' father, also a Russian immigrant, told interrogators he did not live with Yulya and his daughters and that he only came to the house on Wednesday night because neighbours informed him about the police activity at the residence, the prosecutor said.