information regarding the progress of that investigation either. During the public hearing, expert witness Michael Paul Hermann Mörth indicated that “there is an investigation in the Xococ case […] an investigation that began with the exhumation […] with a result of 44 victims […]. Some statements were taken and, to [his] knowledge, no further action was taken in the investigation.” 214. During the public hearing, the Court asked the State to submit a copy of the case file of the investigation into the Xococ massacre with its final written arguments. However, the State did not provide this file.299 215. In other cases, the Court has established that the State’s refusal to forward certain documents cannot be detrimental to the victims. Therefore, the Court may consider proved the facts presented by the Inter-American Commission and complemented by the representatives, when it is only possible to disprove them by evidence that the State must submit and it has failed or refused to do so.300 216. In the instant case, the State did not provide relevant information that would allow the Court to know the current situation of the investigation; in other words, the Court does not have information indicating whether the investigation is open; whether the search for the victims and the exhumation and, where appropriate, the identification of their remains has continued, and whether the corresponding individual responsibilities have been determined. In this regard, in accordance with the extensive acknowledgment of responsibility made by the State for the violation of Articles 8 and 25 of the American Convention (supra para. 17(h)), the Court finds that it has been established, as alleged by the Commission and the representatives, that following the exhumations performed in 2001 – in other words, 11 years ago – there has been no further activity in the investigation. Therefore, since the facts of the Xococ massacre remain in impunity, the Court finds that Guatemala is responsible for the violation of the rights recognized in Articles 8(1) and 25(1) of the American Convention, in relation to Article 1(1) of this instrument (infra para. 237) B.4. Exhumations of osseous remains 217. In cases of grave human rights violations, such as the ones in this case, the exhumation and identification of the deceased victims forms part of the State's obligation to investigate. Thus, this is an obligation that must be fulfilled ex officio, because “the obligation to investigate includes the right of the victim’s next of kin to know the victim’s fate and, as appropriate, the whereabouts of his or her remains.”301 Hence, the State must satisfy these reasonable expectations using the measures available to it. 218. According to the case file some exhumations have been performed at the request of the victims, such as Jesús Tecú Osorio, Francisco Chen Osorio and Víctor Mendoza (supra paras. 92 and 93). First, an exhumation was performed in which the remains of 44 individuals presumably executed during the Xococ massacre were recovered. Of these, only two have been identified: Tereso Osorio Chen and Crispin Tum Iboy (supra para. 90). In addition, in another exhumation performed in the context of the investigation into the 299 In response to the Court’s request, the State presented the file of the investigation into the Pacoxom and Agua Fría massacres. 300 Cf. Case of Radilla Pacheco v. Mexico, supra, para. 92, and Case of Torres Millacura v. Argentina, supra, para. 41. 301 Case of Velásquez Rodríguez v. Honduras. Merits, supra, para. 181, and Case of Contreras et al. v. El Salvador, supra, para. 129. 78