Yucatan’s state music director found strangled in southern Mexico 3 days after disappearing

MEXICO CITY – The music director of the southern Mexico state of Yucatan has been found strangled to death, three days after he disappeared.

Luis Luna Guarneros served as music director of the Yucatan government department of arts and was formerly director of a state orchestra.

The state prosecutor’s office said his body was found Wednesday in a vacant lot in the state capital, Merida.

Luna Guarneros had reportedly been planning to make a trip on Sunday when he disappeared. Local media reported his vehicle was later found abandoned.

Several musicians have been killed in Mexico in recent years, but they were singers of popular music styles including “narco-corrido” drug ballads, not classically trained musicians.

Yucatan has largely been untouched by the wave of violence affecting other parts of Mexico.