Furious protesters burned several vehicles and threw firebombs at a southern Mexican state’s headquarters on Saturday after authorities indicated that gang hitmen slaughtered 43 missing students and dumped their charred remains in a river.

The confessions may have brought a tragic end to the mystery, but parents of the victims refuse to accept they are dead until DNA tests confirm their identities, saying the government has repeatedly told them lies.

“It appears that the federal government, with great irresponsibility, is interested in closing this matter because it’s all based in testimony. There is nothing definitive,” Meliton Ortega, uncle of a missing student, told AFP news agency on Saturday.