Mexican authorities may have discovered the remains of nearly four dozen students who vanished after their bus was raided by police in late September.

After running into dead ends for a month and a half, investigators uncovered what might have served as the suspected mass grave: black plastic garbage bags filled with scorched bones, teeth, and ashes that they believe may belong to the 43 college students who were abducted by police. The students, who attended Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Teachers College of Ayotzinapa, were raising money in the town of Iguala to protest teacher hiring practices before they disappeared.

Mexico's Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said Friday (November 7) that the remains found by investigators match descriptions given by suspects who confessed to having killed the students, burned their bodies, and dumped them in a river. The order to detain the students allegedly came from the then-mayor of Iguala, Jose Luis Abarca, who was arrested this week after fleeing the town and going into hiding.

The missing students will still be very difficult to identify, however. Murillo Karam stated that most of the remains found in the bags were so badly burned that they crumbled when touched.

Parents of the missing young men remain hopeful that their sons may have survived. "For us, as long as there is no proof, our sons are alive," said Felipe de la Cruz, a father of one of the missing.