Bodies of kidnapped Ecuador couple found in Colombia

July 5 (UPI) -- The remains of an Ecuador couple missing for nearly three months have been identified after they were found on the country's border with Colombia, officials said.

The discovery partly solves the disappearances of Oscar Villacis, 24, and Katty Velasco, 20, who were last seen April 16.

The Colombian National Communications Secretariat sent a statement of sympathy to family and friends of the couple.

"We condemn the criminal acts carried out on our northern border and we will not rest until we find those responsible for these reprehensible acts," it said.

The couple was kidnapped by the Oliver Sinisterra Front, a group operating along the Colombia-Ecuador border headed by "El Guacho," Walter Patricio Artizala Vernaza.

Days later, the Ecuadorean government published a video showing the couple with ropes around their necks.

The discovery this week brings the number of bodies recently found in the rural area of Nariño to nine.

On June 21, bodies of three staff from Ecuador's El Comercio newspaper were found in the same area, one of the most conflict-ridden areas of Colombia because of illegal armed groups and the rule over the production of coca plantations.