Mexican crime reporter's half-naked, bound body found by side of road (photos)

Half-naked, bound and with a plastic bag over her head,was how they found the body of a Mexican crime reporter who was murdered after being abducted by 8 armed men wearing military uniforms.

Mother-of-two, Anabel Flores Salazar, who was a journalist for the newspaper El Sol de Orizaba, was snatched from her home by men with guns claiming they had a warrant for her arrest.

She was forced into one of three gray trucks and driven away from her home in Orizaba, in the state of Veracruz, her aunt, who was at the home, said.

Ms Flores Salazar's body was found tied up and abandoned by the side of a road in the neighboring state, Puebla, on Tuesday, a day after she was abducted.

Veracruz Governor Javier Duarte Ochoa said officials were investigating whether she had been targeted because she was a journalist.

Flores Salazar's aunt, Sandra Luz Salazar, told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) that the men pointed guns at family members as they bundled the reporter into the truck.

'We pleaded with them not to take her. I told them that she recently had a baby,' she said.

Ms Flores Salazar, 32, had a four-year-old son, as well as a baby.

The journalist's aunt said she did not know of any threats against her before she was murdered, but the Veracruz state prosecutor's office said the reporter had been with an alleged gang member when he was arrested in August 2014.

A statement from the prosecutor did not say why or if this was a significant part of the investigation into Ms Flores Salazar's death.

However, an official told the CPJ that she was in the same restaurant when he was detained, but was not directly with him.

Eleven journalists have been killed in Mexico because of their reporting since 2011, with six of those deaths in Veracruz, making the country one of the most dangerous in the world for reporters.

The CPJ - a non-profit group that promotes press freedom around the world - is investigating seven more suspicious deaths of reporters in Veracruz.

The organization called on federal authorities to take over the investigation, saying Gov Ochoa 'has a dismal record of impunity'.

Carlos Lauría, the CPJ's senior program coordinator for the Americas, said the governor was 'incapable and unwilling to prosecute crimes against the Press'.

The investigation has been passed to Mexico's Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Freedom of Expression, the state attorney general said.