Mexican mother dismembered and cooked in kitchen pots by her ex-husband, say police

The ex-husband of a Mexican murder victim is the prime suspect in a horrific case that saw a woman killed, dismembered and cooked on a stove.

Mother of two Magdalena Aguilar Romero went missing on 13 January and police believe they have found her remains inside kitchen pots. Police also discovered other body parts in plastic bags being kept in a fridge. The gory evidence was uncovered at the home of her former husband, Cesar Lopez Arciniega.

According to the Daily Mail, State security spokesman Roberto Alvarez said: "It is presumed that she was cooked."

28-year-old Romero had left her home in Taxco, a capital city in Mexico's south, to pick up her children from Arciniega. She has not been seen alive since. Arciniega is now on the run from police after he learned that they were hunting him.

A motive for the murder is not yet known however authorities have suggested it could be a case of femicide.

Femicide has become a widespread problem in Mexico: An estimated seven women a day were victims of gender-related killings in 2016, according to United Nations Women. Although there are laws in place that are meant to prevent such murders, they persist because the laws are rarely enforced.

Men kill women "because they believe women are worth less or they believe that their lives belong to them," women's rights activist Ibrahim Zamora Salazar told Al Jazeera.