MEXICO CITY -- The remains of a young woman who disappeared over a week ago in southern Mexico were discovered Monday by authorities who said she is believed to have been slain, dismembered and cooked on a stove. Her ex-husband is suspected in what is being investigated as a "femicide," or the killing of a woman when the motive is directly related to the victim's gender.

Guerrero state prosecutors said in a statement that the woman left her home in the city of Taxco the morning of Jan. 13. She later said that she would pick up her children at her ex-husband's home in the afternoon, but was not heard from again, it said.

State security spokesman Roberto Alvarez confirmed later that the woman's "dismembered" remains had been found Monday inside pots atop a stove.

"It is presumed that she was cooked," he said.

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Alvarez said the divorced husband is the chief suspect.

According to a report last month by the Mexican government and the U.N. Women agency, murders of women in Mexico rose sharply over the last decade following two decades of declines during which the rate had fallen by half.