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On a rainy night in September 2014, a caravan of five buses is making its way back to a rural teachers college in Southern Mexico. As the buses snake through the narrow streets of a town called Iguala, they are stopped by police. Officers surround the buses; students have no idea what’s going on. Then suddenly the police draw their weapons, and start shooting. Chaos, screams, bloodshed. When the shooting stops six people lay dead. But the police are not finished. Survivors see officers take dozens of students at gunpoint, load them into vehicles, and drive away. They vanish into the night.

Eight years later, the boys still are missing, the case is not solved, and no one has been held accountable.

This crime shook the country to its core and ultimately confirmed Mexicans’ worst fears about their government. Despite promises to find the missing students and bring the perpetrators to justice, government investigators actively obstructed the investigation, destroyed and fabricated evidence, tortured detainees to confess to outlandish versions of what happened, and promoted a false narrative about the crime.

“After Ayotzinapa” tells the story of a determined group of families from a rural part of Mexico who stood up to some of the most corrupt and powerful people in the country. It is also the story of the dogged investigators and a resolute young prosecutor seeking truth and justice. Reveal not only reported the story, our own investigations made major headways in the case.