A devastated mum has demanded justice after her missing daughter was found tortured and murdered with all her teeth pulled out in Mexico.
Mum-of-two Lizbeth Flores, from Brownsville, Texas, had part of her scalp removed and was beaten to death with a rock after she crossed the border on foot to visit her boyfriend.
Speaking for the first time, the 23-year-old's grieving mum Maria Rubio said it feels like her heart has been "ripped out" and she wants her daughter's killers "to pay" for the gruesome murder.
Mrs Rubio spoke to her daughter by phone on August 9 - two days before the victim's body was found - as Miss Flores told her she planned to return to her home in Brownsville, Texas, that night.
But Miss Flores didn't return home and her mum was unable to contact her the next day, so she reported her missing.
The American woman's battered body was found in a grass field in the border city of Matamoros, Mexico, on August 11.
A rock that was used to kill her was found next to her.
Mrs Rubio told Telemundo 40: "Losing a child is like having your heart ripped out.
"I feel very sad for what they did to my daughter. How they left her is what pains me. The pain that my daughter went through there at that time is what pains me.
"She was young, she had many things ahead of her and more because she had two children,' Rubio said. 'And I want those who did that to my daughter, each one who participated in her death, I want them to pay."
She is now working to repatriate her daughter's body.
Distressing photos of her body were posted on social media.
Investigators said her teeth had been pulled out and part of her scalp had been removed.
The cause of death was given as blunt force trauma to the head.
Police in Mexico have not made any arrests or identified a possible motive.
The FBI is now involved in the investigation.
Mexico's northern Tamaulipas state, which includes the city of Matamoros, has been a battleground for cartels fighting for control over drug and gun trafficking routes.
