Search for 43 Students Yields 129 Other Bodies in Mexico: What We Know

Mexico's attorney general said 129 bodies were discovered after 43 went missing.

ByABC News
July 27, 2015, 12:12 PM
Relatives of the 43 missing students from the Isidro Burgos rural teachers college march holding pictures of their missing loved ones during a protest in Mexico City, July 26, 2015.
Relatives of the 43 missing students from the Isidro Burgos rural teachers college march holding pictures of their missing loved ones during a protest in Mexico City, July 26, 2015.
Marco Ugarte/AP Photo

— -- Mexican authorities have discovered 129 other bodies while searching for 43 missing college students over the last 10 months.

Authorities have not made a connection between these bodies and those of the 43 young men who disappeared after clashing with police in Iguala, Mexico, on Sept. 26, according to the Associated Press.

Former Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said in October that Mayor Jose Luis Abarca ordered the police to detain the students who were going to protest a speech by his wife Maria de los Angeles Pineda. Students from Raul Isidro Burgos Ayotzinapa Normal School, about an hour away from Iguala, have a history of protesting, though it's not clear what they were specifically planning to protest, Fusion reported.

The police confrontation led to six confirmed deaths, the AP reported.

The 43 missing students attended Ayotzinapa teacher's college. Since their disappearance, protesters at massive gatherings have called on the government to find the missing students, accusing authorities of failing to seek justice. Protests have been held in Mexico on the 26th of each month since the disappearance.

Here's what we know about these 129 bodies:

1. 60 hidden graves

The 129 bodies were found in 60 graves over the last month after the start of the investigation to find the 43 students missing from the southern state of Guerrero, where drug violence is rampant. The locations of the 60 graves have not been released.

2. Identities of the bodies

Only 16 of the 129 remains have been identified as of July 13, according to a freedom of information request from the AP, but names have not been released to the public.

Last week, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission listed omissions in the government's investigation into the disappearance of the 43 students. The commission questioned prosecutors' statements that the students were detained by local police and given to a drug cartel. The cartel allegedly killed and incinerated their bodies, the government has said.

3. Both women and men

The remains of the 129 people including 92 men and 20 women, and the remaining bodies were undetermined. the AP reported.

4. When they were found

The 129 bodies were discovered between October and May, the attorney general's office said.

PHOTO: Forensic personnel load onto a van the body of one of the ten bodies found in clandestine graves in the tourist city of Acapulco, Guerrero State on June 22, 2015.
Forensic personnel load onto a van the body of one of the ten bodies found in clandestine graves in the tourist city of Acapulco, Guerrero State on June 22, 2015.

5. More bodies could be discovered

The AP's freedom of information request covered only instances in which Mexico's mass grave specialists became involved, so the count could be higher. More than 20,000 people are listed as missing across Mexico, the AP reported. The government has not responded to the information released by the attorney general's office.