Missing Mexican Students Were Burned At Garbage Dump

Austrian forensic experts have confirmed that a charred eye socket found at the scene of one of the most bloodcurdling mass murders has been identified. A charred human eye socket was from Alexander Mora Venancio, one of the 43 student teachers who went missing 10 weeks ago stated by Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam, per the Charlotte Observer.

“The remains found at one of the scenes coincide with the genetic profile of Alexander Mora Venancio.”

According to MSN, Murillo revealed that drug gang members confessed to murdering the students, setting their bodies on fire, and burning them for almost a half a day in a “pyre of tires” at a garage dump, before attempting to bag what was left of the remains and discard them along a riverbank.

Presently, 17 bone fragments recovered from the dump and a nearby river are being tested in Austria. Only the one of of the 17, Alexander Mora Venancio, has been identified. The remaining 16 are still being tested.

According to BBC News, the students had gone to Iguala in order to protest what they believed were “discriminatory employment practices for teachers which favor urban students over rural ones.”

Jose Luis Abarca, Iguala’s mayor, was accused by Mexican officials of ordering police to confront the 43 students to prevent them from disrupting a public speech his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, was giving at the time. It has been reported that Mayor Abarca ordered the police to “get rid of the students from a radical left-wing college after they staged a demonstration in his town,” per MSN.

The unthinkable happened next when police actually opened fire on the students as they were on buses on their way back to their college. During the shooting, three of the students were killed and three more bystanders in nearby vehicles were also killed, according to BBC News.

Municipal officers captured the students as they tried to get away, and brought them to the local police station, where they were then handed over to a drug gang called Guerreros Unidos (United Warriors).

Numerous officers, Mayor Abarca, and his wife have been arrested. The New York Times reports that family members were devastated to hear the news of the identification of the remains as one of the students. The families had clung to the hope that the students were still alive and would be found and returned safely home.

Ernestina Jacinto, mother of 19-year-old Israel Jacinto, one of the students, emotionally spoke with the New York Times.

“Imagine how we feel, we have kept the hope that they were alive, and then this announcement came. What hurts the most is that they were so young, and they did not deserve the death they got. No mother can imagine her own son is dead.”

MSN reveals that 80 people have been detained, but Murillo is determined to see this investigation through to the end.

“We will continue with the probe until all the guilty have been arrested.”

[Photo Credit: Time, New York Times]