A baby named Faith survived the Mexico ambush killings. Her slain mother may have saved her

(CNN) — The carnage was so horrific, family members didn’t recognize the remains of nine relatives.

“All they found was charred remains, ash, and bones,” family member Kendra Lee Miller said. “There were remains inside and outside of the vehicle.”

Yet inside a torched car riddled with bullet holes, a tiny sign of life emerged.

A 7-month-old baby — aptly named Faith — was alive. She survived a grisly ambush attack in Mexico that killed her mother and eight relatives as their caravan of cars was headed to see other family members Monday.

In this remote, mountainous part of northern Mexico, extended family members found the horrific scene before authorities did.

“When we opened the passenger door, there was a car seat there with a bullet hole through the canopy of the car seat and two bullet holes through the bottom of the car seat,” said relative Julián LeBarón, who was the first to find Faith.

He said Faith “sat in that car seat for over nine hours when we found her.”

But Faith’s mother, Christina Marie Langford Johnson, didn’t survive.

“She was just laying on the ground when we found her,” LeBarón said. “I can tell from the bloodstains that they aimed for her heart.”

Moments before she was killed, Langford Johnson apparently hid her baby daughter on the floor of the back seat. That’s how Faith was able to survive, Miller said.

As relatives in both the US and Mexico grieve the loss of three mothers and six of their children, the family is grateful that other children survived — including some who walked for hours trying to save each other.

“It’s a miracle any of them are alive,” Willie Jessop said. “Only God knows how they can here’s so much carnage and so much damage to the vehicles and to their bodies and have them still be alive.”