Dominican authorities said Monday they found the bodies of at least four decapitated women near the border they share with Haiti, an unusual discovery amid a region where gang violence remains common, according to Dominican police.
Police spokesman Diego Pesqueira said the victims were Haitian and that the bodies were found along the southern part of the border, with Dominican investigators treating the case as cross-border in scope even as they work within the limits of where each body was recovered.
Pesqueira said Dominican authorities were investigating only one of the four deaths because only one body was found on the Dominican side of the border. He said investigators believe the women were killed and then thrown into a river that carried the bodies away and deposited them where they were later discovered.
Dominican police detained one man, Pesqueira said, who denied involvement. Pesqueira said authorities later turned the man over to Haitian National Police, though it was not immediately clear whether he was charged.
A Haitian police spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Police said the discovery stood out in part because, while violence attributed to gangs continues to surge across Haiti, it is rare for investigators to find the bodies of decapitated women.