Investigators find no sign of missing students in Mexico

Forensic experts said on Tuesday that a search of a dump site in southwestern Mexico had turned up human remains but not necessarily those of the 43 students who went missing in 2014.

Members of the Team of Argentine Forensic Anthropology (EAAF), pictured above, could not shed light on where the students might be, but their report undermines the government's account of the crime. Mexican officials had originally stated that a drug cartel killed the students and incinerated their bodies at the dump in the town of Cocula, Guerrero state.

The Argentine experts spent a year combing the site, analyzing various elements, including human remains, rocks, glass, bullet shells, insects, vegetation and tires. They found teeth and bone fragments from 19 different people, but ultimately concluded there was no biological or physical evidence connecting the material to the students.

"Until now, the EAAF has not found scientific evidence to establish any link between the remains recovered in the Cocula dump and the missing students," the report said.

The findings appear to support a 2015 report by independent investigators from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which rejected the claim that the students were burned at the tip.

Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez has vowed to form a new team of forensic experts to conduct another analysis of the dump. Her office said Tuesday it had received the Argentine team's report and that it would be reviewed.

The student teachers disappeared in the city of Iguala on September 26, 2014. So far the remains of only one of the group has been positively identified.

The southwestern state of Guerrero, where the incident took place, is home to a number of warring drug gangs and is considered one of Mexico's most violent regions.

nm/bw (AFP, AP, Reuters)