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Mexico's 43 missing students not incinerated at garbage dump: forensics experts

Xinhua, February 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

A group of Argentine forensics experts on Tuesday rejected the Mexican government's conclusion that the 43 students who vanished in late 2014 were incinerated at a garbage dump in violence-torn Guerrero state.

At a press conference to present its findings, the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF) said: "So far, the EAAF has not found scientific evidence to link the elements recovered at the Cocula garbage dump with the missing students."

The team said it did detect burnt skeletal remains of at least 19 people, but almost all of them belong to an older age group.

The students of a teachers college in the town of Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, went missing on the night of Sept. 26, 2014, following a clash with local police in the nearby town of Iguala.

Their buses were intercepted by police who had reportedly been ordered by the mayor to stop the students from participating in a protest against his wife. The mayor and his wife are currently in jail.

In November 2015, Mexico's then Attorney General Jesus Murrillo Karam said the students had been handed over to a local criminal ring, and gang members had confessed to killing the students and incinerating their bodies in Cocula.

Only two of the students match the DNA studies of samples taken at the site. Following the EAAF's press conference, Mexico's Attorney General's Office said it has not closed its file on the case, and will examine the latest findings by the Argentinian team. Enditem