MEXICO CITY — Federal authorities on Friday said three men detained in the investigation into the death of 43 missing college students had confessed to killing a "large group of people" — but the bodies had not been positively identified.
Mexico's attorney general, Jesús Murillo Karam, said in a news conference the men who confessed were Patricio Reyes Landa, Johnatan Osorio y Agustín García Reyes, presumed members of the local drug cartel, Guerreros Unidos.
Karam played some of their video confessions, where they described how they burned some of the bodies, placed them in garbage bags and dumped them in a river. Still, he acknowledged these were witness statements and stressed the investigation was ongoing.
Some relatives of the students said Friday afternoon that they would not believe the students are dead until they had DNA proof.