In an effort to find clues regarding what happened to the 43 students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers' College who went missing in 2014, Mexican forensic experts have gone to the town of Carrizalillo to examine human remains discovered in several mass graves.

Carrizalillo is located 47 miles south of Iguala, where the group of all male students disappeared.

According to the BBC, residents of the town have claimed that on the night of the mass disappearance there was a high level of gang activity in the area. According to the locals, Carrizalillo has come under the control of a gang called the Guerreros Unidos (United Warriors) over the last few years.

On Sept. 27, 2014, dozens of armed men belonging to the gang reportedly arrived in Carrizalillo in pick-up trucks. The missing students were last seen the day before.

Telesur reports that federal authorities announced that three mass graves containing an estimated 60 bodies were discovered in Carrizalillo.

Nelson Figueroa, the farming commissioner of Carrizalillo, confirmed the discovery of the graves, and said that there were at least six corpses found there. Figueroa informed that the residents of his town claimed that the Guerreros Unidos might have been responsible for excavating the graves and putting as many as 60 bodies inside.

The official government story about the missing 43 is that students were taken into custody by corrupt local police officers who then handed them over to the Guerreros Unidos gang.

An independent group of experts has claimed that the government's version of the story was not possible.

Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, said the report provided a damning indictment of Mexico's handling of the worst human rights atrocity in recent history.

"Even with the world watching and with substantial resources at hand, the authorities proved unable or unwilling to conduct a serious investigation," he said, according to The Associated Press.