It's been a decade since 43 students disappeared in Mexico. Their parents still fight for answers

TIXTLA, México (AP) — Clemente Rodríguez has been documenting the long search for his missing son with tattoos.

First, it was an ink drawing of a turtle — a symbol of 19-year-old Christian Rodríguez's school — with a smaller turtle on its shell. Then, an image of Mexico's patron saint, the Virgin of Guadalupe, accompanied by the number 43. Later, a tiger for strength and a dove for hope.

“How else is my son going to know that I have been looking for him?” asked Rodríguez. To the heartbroken father, the body art is evidence that he never stopped searching — proof he could perhaps one day show to his boy.

On Sept. 26, 2014, Christian Rodríguez, a tall boy who loved to folk dance and had just enrolled in a teachers college in the southern state of Guerrero, disappeared along with 42 classmates. Every year since, on the 26th of each month, Clemente Rodríguez, his wife, Luz María Telumbre, and other families meet at the Rural Normal School at Ayotzinapa and take a long bus ride to the capital, Mexico City, to demand answers.

They will do so again next week, on the 10th anniversary of their sons’ disappearance.

“It is hard, very hard,” Clemente Rodríguez said.

Rodríguez and the other parents are not alone. The 43 students are among more than 115,000 people still reported as missing in Mexico, a reflection of numerous unresolved crimes in a country where human rights activists say violence, corruption and impunity have long been the norm.

Over the years, authorities have offered different explanations. The previous administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto said that the students were attacked by security forces linked to a local drug cartel, and that the bodies were then turned over to organized crime figures, who burned their bodies in a dump and threw their ashes in a river. A bone fragment of one of the students was later found in the river.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's administration confirmed the source of the attack. But the current justice department — along with the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights and a Truth Commission formed specifically to investigate the students’ disappearance — refuted the story about the incineration of the bodies in a dump. They accused top former officials of planting the bone fragment in the river to suit their narrative. They also unearthed clues in a different location, including bone fragments from one of Christian's feet.

But the families still don't have any solid answers about what happened to the students. For his part, Clemente Rodríguez is far from convinced that his son is dead.

Not long after the students disappeared, parents took matters into their own hands, charging into remote, often gang-controlled mountain towns to search for their children. They encountered others who had been displaced by violence. Fear was everywhere.

“When I left the house, I never knew if I would come back alive,” Rodríguez said.

During the search, Christina Bautista, the 49-year-old mother of missing student Benjamin Ascencio, says strangers told her they'd been searching for a son for three years or a daughter for five. She had thought it would be a matter of weeks.

“I couldn’t take it, I took off running,” she said. “How could there be so many disappeared?”

Dozens of bodies were found, but not those of their children.

A decade of fighting to keep the case alive has turned the parents’ lives inside out. Before his son’s disappearance, Rodríguez sold jugs of water from the back of his pickup and tended a small menagerie of animals in the town of Tixtla, not far from the school. Telumbre sold handmade tortillas cooked over a wood fire.

When the students vanished, however, they dropped everything. Parents sold or abandoned their animals, left fields untended and entrusted grandparents with the care of other children.

Rodríguez, 56, has since managed to partially reassemble his clutch of livestock and has planted some corn on the family's plot of land. The family's main income, however, comes from homemade crafts sold on trips to Mexico City: mats woven from reeds; bottles of an uncle's locally brewed mezcal decorated with twine and colorful tiger faces; and cloth napkins embroidered by Telumbre.

Sometimes the stocky, soft-spoken Rodríguez visits his land to think or to release his anger and sadness. “I start to cry, let it all go,” he said.

Parents also find solace at the Rural Normal School at Ayotzinapa.

The school, which trains students to teach in poor remote villages, is part of a network of rural educational facilities with a long history of radical activism. School walls painted with slogans demanding justice for the missing students also display murals honoring Che Guevara and Karl Marx.

For the poorest families, Ayotzinapa offers a way out: Students receive free room, board and an education. In exchange, they work.

The atmosphere has militaristic undertones: New students’ heads are shaved and the first year is about discipline and survival. They are tasked with tending cattle, planting fields and commandeering buses to drive to protests in the capital. The students who disappeared in 2014 were abducted from five buses they had taken over in the city of Iguala, 120 kilometers (75 miles) north of the school.

Parents arrived at Ayotzinapa little by little from villages deep in the mountains. They gathered on the school’s basketball court, a concrete pad under a pavilion where 43 chairs still hold photos of each of the missing students.

In the years since, a certain codependency has developed. The school's fight for justice is fueled by the parents' grief and anger. The school's students, meanwhile, “are our strong arm,” Bautista says. “Here is where the movement started.”

Students treat the parents respectfully and affectionately, greeting them as “aunt” or “uncle” as they pass through the guarded gates.

In late August, Rodríguez and other parents met for the last time with López Obrador, who leaves office at the end of this month.

The exchange was a grave disappointment.

“Right now, this administration is just like that of Enrique Peña Nieto,” Rodríguez said. “He’s tried to mock us” by hiding information, protecting the Army and insulting the families' lawyers, he said.

López Obrador continues to insist that his government has done its best to find answers. He cites dozens of arrests, including that of a former attorney general charged with obstructing justice. He has downplayed the role of the military, however. Years ago, López Obrador declared the students’ abduction a “state crime,” pointing to the involvement of local, state and federal authorities, including the Army.

The families met in July with López Obrador’s successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, who will take office Oct. 1, but she made no promises or commitments.

After the August meeting, Rodríguez posed for a portrait in the National Palace, his gaze firm and his fist raised.

Like other parents, he vows to keep fighting.

“During these 10 years, we have learned a lot about obfuscation ... lies,” Rodríguez said. Top military and government authorities “have the answers,” he added.

“They can reveal them."

Luz María Telumbre, whose son Christian is one of 43 missing students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School, protests for justice in the 10-year case in Mexico City, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Jesus Castro Rafaela, a first-year student at the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School protests for justice in the 10-year case of 43 missing classmates, in Mexico City, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Indigenous women protest for justice in the 10-year case of 43 missing students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Mexico City, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Posters of the 43 missing students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School hang on the roadside, seen from the bus of their families who are traveling from Tixtla, Guerrero state, to the capital to protest for justice 10 years since their disappearance, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Christian Rodríguez's sister Carmen busses to the capital to protest for justice in the 10-year case of 43 missing students, including her brother, after departing Tixtla, Guerrero state, Mexico, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. The missing students were all from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

First-year students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School bus from Tixtla, Guerrero state, to the capital to protest for justice in the 10-year case of their 43 missing classmates, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

A religious altar that reads in Spanish "We are missing 43!" stands inside the home of Cristina Bautista in Tixtla, Guerrero state, Mexico, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. Bautista is the mother of Benjamin Ascencio, one of the 43 missing students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Cristina Bautista, whose son Benjamin Ascencio is one of 43 missing students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School who went missing 10 years prior, embroiders her son's name at home in Tixtla, Guerrero state, Mexico, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Mayrani Ascencio, whose brother Benjamin is one of 43 missing students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School stands at home in Tixtla, Guerrero state, Mexico, late Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Clemente Rodriguez, whose son Christian is one of 43 missing students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School attends his corn crop in Tixtla, Guerrero state, Mexico, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Clemente Rodríguez and Luz María Telumbre, whose son Christian is one of 43 missing students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School bottle mezcal at home in Tixtla, Guerrero state, Mexico, to sell in the capital, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

A student walks at the dormitory of the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

A student plays with a dog outside his dormitory at the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Erick de la Cruz jokes around on the first day of class at the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

First-year students line up before starting cleanup work at the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

A student walks on the campus of the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, late Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

First-year students gather in the dining hall at the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Murals and the number 43 decorate the dormitory area at the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School, the teachers' college from where 43 students went missing 10 years ago, in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Students cut each other's hair at the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Political posters and stickers hang inside the print shop at the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

First-year students at the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School sweep the parking lot of their school in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

A mural covers the dormitories of the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Students leave the dormitory area of the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

First-year student Jesus Castro Rafaela walks inside the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School where a sign memorializes Julio Cesar Mondragon Fontes, a student who died on the night that 43 fellow students went missing, in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

First-year students walk by a mural featuring some of their 43 missing classmates at the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Students check their schedules on the first day of classes at the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, state, Mexico, Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Students' clothes hang to dry in a field at the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

The entrance of the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School features a turtle and the words "We want the 43," referring to the number of students who went missing 10 years ago, in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. Ayotzinapa means "The place of the turtles" in the Nahuatl Indigenous language. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

The Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School stands in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

Photos of 43 students who have been missing for 10 years cover the stairs at their former Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural Normal School in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico, Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

RIO RICO, Ariz. (AP) — A person was detained for questioning Tuesday in the kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie, hours after the FBI released surveillance videos of a masked person wearing a handgun holster outside Guthrie’s front door the night she vanished from her Arizona home.

Deputies detained the person during a traffic stop south of Tucson, according to the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. It did not immediately provide details about the person or the location. The FBI referred questions to the sheriff’s office.

A Phoenix, Arizona, television station, KNXV-TV, interviewed a delivery man who said he had been detained by police on suspicions of kidnapping Guthrie. He said he was innocent and that police released him after several hours. Local and federal authorities have not confirmed that the person who they had detained was released.

The department and the FBI were conducting a court-authorized search Tuesday night at a location in Rio Rico, about an hour’s drive south of Tucson, the department said in a statement. It was expected to take several hours.

Guthrie disappeared on Feb. 1 and since then the case has gripped the nation. Until Tuesday, it seemed authorities were making little headway in determining what happened to the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie or finding who was responsible.

Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings have released a series of video statements pleading for the return of their mother and indicating a willingness to pay a ransom. Authorities have described Nancy Guthrie as mentally sound but with limited mobility. She takes several medications and there was concern from the start that she could die without them, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has said repeatedly.

The community of Rio Rico — population 20,000 — is roughly an hour's drive from Guthrie's home and about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

The videos released earlier Tuesday show a person wearing a ski mask and a backpack. At one point, they tilt their head down and away from a doorbell camera while approaching Guthrie's front door. The footage also shows the person holding a flashlight in their mouth and trying to cover the camera with a gloved hand and part of a plant ripped from the yard.

The videos — less than a combined minute in length — gave investigators and the public their first glimpse of who was outside Guthrie's home in the foothills outside Tucson. But the images did not show what happened to her or help determine whether she is still alive.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the “armed individual” appeared to "have tampered with the camera." It was not entirely clear whether there was a gun in the holster.

The videos were pulled from data on "back-end systems” after investigators spent days trying to find lost, corrupted or inaccessible images, Patel said.

“This will get the phone ringing for lots of potential leads,” said former FBI agent Katherine Schweit. “Even when you have a person who appears to be completely covered, they’re really not. You can see their girth, the shape of their face, potentially their eyes or mouth.”

Tuesday afternoon, authorities were back near Guthrie’s neighborhood, using vehicles to block her driveway. A few miles away, law enforcement was going door-to-door in the area where daughter Annie Guthrie lives, talking with neighbors as well as walking through a drainage area and examining the inside of a culvert with a flashlight.

Investigators have said for more than a week that they believe Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will. She was last seen at home Jan. 31 and reported missing the next day. DNA tests showed blood on her porch was hers, authorities said.

Until now, authorities have released few details, leaving it unclear if ransom notes demanding money with deadlines already passed were authentic, and whether the Guthrie family has had any contact with whoever took Guthrie.

Savannah Guthrie posted the new surveillance images on social media Tuesday, saying the family believes their mother is still alive and offering phone numbers for the FBI and county sheriff. Within minutes, the post had thousands of comments.

Investigators had hoped cameras would turn up evidence right away about how Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her home in an secluded neighborhood.

But the doorbell camera was disconnected early on Feb. 1. While software recorded movement at the home minutes later, Guthrie did not have an active subscription, so Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos had initially said none of the footage could be recovered. Officials continued working to get the footage.

Heartbreaking messages by Savannah Guthrie and her family shifted from hopeful to bleak as they made pleas for whoever took Nancy Guthrie. In a video just ahead of a purported ransom deadline Monday, Savannah Guthrie appeared alone and spoke directly to the public.

“We are at an hour of desperation,” she said. “We need your help.”

Much of the nation is closely following the case involving the longtime anchor of NBC’s morning show.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump watched the new surveillance footage and was in “pure disgust,” encouraging anyone with information to call the FBI.

The FBI this week began posting digital billboards about the case in major cities from Texas to California.

Connor Hagan, a spokesperson for the FBI, said Monday that the agency was not aware of ongoing communication between Guthrie’s family and any suspected kidnappers. Authorities also had not identified any suspects, he said.

Three days after the search began, Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings sent their first public appeal to whoever took their mother, saying, “We want to hear from you, and we are ready to listen.”

In the recorded video, Guthrie said her family was aware of media reports about a ransom letter, but they first wanted proof their mother was alive.

"Please reach out to us,” they said.

The next day, Savannah Guthrie’s brother again made a plea, saying, “Whoever is out there holding our mother, we want to hear from you. We haven’t heard anything directly."

Then over the past weekend, the family posted another video — one that was more cryptic and generated even more speculation about Nancy Guthrie's fate.

“We received your message, and we understand. We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her,” said Savannah Guthrie, flanked by her siblings. “This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”

Golden reported from Seattle and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press reporters Darlene Superville in Washington, Ed White in Detroit, and Mike Balsamo, Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.

An investigator looks inside a culvert in the neighborhood where Annie Guthrie, whose mother Nancy Guthrie has been missing for more than a week, lives just outside Tucson, Ariz., on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)

Sheriff's officials block the entrance to a road where a home was being searched in Rio Rico, Arizona, on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in connection to the investigation of Nancy Guthrie's disappearance. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)