A team of Argentine forensic experts has cast doubt on Mexico’s claims about the disappearance of 43 students in September. Mexico’s attorney general has said local police in Guerrero state turned the students over to members of a drug gang who killed them and incinerated their bodies at a garbage dump. But reports by the Mexican magazine Proceso have implicated federal authorities, accusing them of torturing local police to force them to confess. The Argentine investigators now say satellite images show fires at the garbage dump years before the students’ disappearance, and human remains found at the site include dentures, which none of the students wore. They also say authorities left the site unsecured for weeks and made errors in genetic profiles from the students’ relatives. Only one student’s remains have been identified. Felipe de la Cruz, a spokesperson for the parents of the missing students, said the findings bolster claims the students are still alive.

Felipe de la Cruz: “Today we can say to the world that we were not wrong. We always said that until it was proven scientifically with elements of truth that are credible for us, (we would not believe the students’ deaths).”

The office of Mexican Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam has disputed the findings as speculation and questioned the expertise of the Argentine team.