http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/world/americas/remains-of-student-in-mexico-identified.html 2014-12-07 03:12:14 Remains of Student in Mexico Identified A lab’s finding lends credence to a theory that the police abducted the students and turned them over to a drug gang, which killed them. === MEXICO CITY — At least one of 43 students missing since September has been identified among remains largely burned to ashes, family members and a federal official said Saturday, adding considerable weight to The federal attorney general’s office scheduled a news conference Sunday to announce the discovery, which has yet to be declared officially. However, an official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said one set of remains matched a student, and family members of other students said they were told the same at a late-night meeting Friday with Argentine forensic investigators assisting the Mexican government with the case. Prosecutors had previously said that some gang members in custody had described in detail the abduction of the students from a rural teachers college in southwest But family members had insisted authorities continue the search, in the hope that the students could be alive, and tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in a series of marches across the country — including one Saturday in Mexico City — and some cities abroad with demands to resolve the case and fix a Mexico that they feel is riddled with corruption and organized-crime violence. The case has exposed the deep links between many local officials and organized-crime gangs and has helped push President The news of the identification of the student came as a shock to family members, who have maintained a vigil at the school in Ayotzinapa, Mexico, an hour’s drive from Acapulco, and have expressed deep mistrust of the authorities and the way they have been conducting the investigation. Families have clung to hope as well as occasional rumors of the students’ being held alive in a cave, a warehouse or in the hills, with only a few accepting the prospect of their deaths. “Imagine how we feel, we have kept the hope that they were alive, and then this announcement came,” Ernestina Jacinto, the mother of Israel Jacinto, 19, one of the missing students, said in a soft, exhausted voice. “What hurts the most is that they were so young, and they did not deserve the death they got,” she said, adding that she did not have the strength to attend Saturday’s march in Mexico City as she absorbed the news. “No mother can imagine her own son is dead.” She said members of the Argentine forensic team, who could not be reached for comment, told the families that it may be difficult to make further identifications because the remains, reduced to ash and bone fragments, are in a condition that challenged even the high-tech laboratory in Austria that analyzed them and has a reputation for handling the most difficult cases. The case of the missing students has already led to the resignation of the governor of the state where it occurred, Guerrero, and to the arrest of dozens of people, including the Mr. Peña Nieto last week unveiled a series of