Leader of group searching for 43 missing Mexican students killed

The leader of a group searching for 43 missing students in Mexico has been killed near the resort town of Acapulco, authorities said, AFP reports.

The body of Miguel Angel Jimenez was found Saturday night behind the wheel of his taxi on a highway connecting Acapulco to Mexico City, authorities in the southern state of Guerrero said Sunday.

Jimenez had in 2013 started a self-defense group to fight back against drug cartel violence, and he led a civilian group that was trying to find the 43 students who went missing in September 2014. 

Authorities say corrupt local police abducted the students and handed them over to a drug gang, which slaughtered them and burned their bodies.

Jimenez had participated alongside families scouring the region for signs of their loved ones. He alerted authorities to dozens of graves of other victims of drug violence.

So far, only the remains of one student have been found.