Some of the victims appear to have been killed about two years ago [AFP]

San Salvador, May 16 (RHC)-- The buried bodies of seven women and three children were discovered on the property of a former police officer in El Salvador.  Hugo Osorio Chavez Osorio, 51, is being investigated on suspicion of sex crimes and 13 murders, the country’s attorney general’s office said.

He was originally arrested last week for the murder of a woman and her adult daughter, to which he confessed, according to The Associated Press.  That arrest came after neighbours in the western city of Chalchuapa called the police and reported hearing a woman crying for help.

Investigators work in the vicinity of Chavez Osorio’s home in Chalchuapa, El Salvador [AFP]
Officers found the bodies of a 57-year-old woman and her 26-year-old daughter in the house in a pool of blood with signs of sexual abuse.

The investigations led to excavations in various places on the property. Among the bodies found were a 7-year-old girl and two boys aged 2 and 9.  Police did not elaborate why the number of murders being investigated was 13.

Some of the people appeared to have been killed about two years ago, the attorney general’s office said on Twitter.  Seven other possible graves on the property are still being investigated. At least 25 people are considered missing in the area.

Chavez Osorio had been fired from his job as a police officer in 2005 for sexually aggressive behaviour and spent five years in prison, investigators said.

Based on the information in the case, prosecutors issued arrest warrants for nine other suspects who may have acted as accomplices in 13 killings, including the murders of eight women.