(CNN) — Before a Monday news conference announcing that Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 ended in the Indian Ocean, relatives of passengers learned the tragic news via a text from the airline.

The text read: “Malaysia Airlines deeply regrets that we have to assume beyond a reasonable doubt that MH370 has been lost and that none of those on board survived. As you will hear in the next hour from Malaysia’s Prime Minister we must now accept all evidence suggests the plane went down in the Southern Indian Ocean.”

Some relatives were in Kuala Lumpur, and others were in Beijing.

The text msg Malaysia Airlines sent to inform Chinese #MH370 families about flight's fate ending in S Indian Ocean pic.twitter.com/Ys3azWL7WB — Adrienne Mong (@adriennemong) March 24, 2014

“They have told us all lives are lost,” a relative told a CNN producer as that person left a conference room at Beijing’s Lido Hotel, where family members were meeting with airline representatives Monday.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 “ended” in the Indian Ocean, far from any possible landing site, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told reporters Monday night in Kuala Lumpur.

For more than two weeks, relatives of passengers have held out hope that their loved ones were alive. Baring a vulnerability to journalists around the world, the family members have wept and begged authorities for answers. Some have been caught on camera so overcome with rage because they believed authorities were not giving them answers, they have even been dragged out of news conferences.

CNN’s Sara Sidner, who has been in Kuala Lumpur over the past few days, has spent time with family members. “These families have been through absolute hell,” she reported on air shortly before the news conference with the Prime Minister began.

Family members have tended to move in groups, Sidner said, clinging to one another for support. Counselors are with them. Upon hearing the news that the flight ended in the Indian Ocean, Sidner said, some relatives said they felt they had some answers.

But since their nightmare began on March 8, many family members have “felt they’d been left out,” she said. “That was very upsetting. They felt they were disrespected. That has changed” since family members met with authorities.

At the Beijing hotel, four emergency medical workers, dressed in bright orange uniforms, entered a conference room where family members were given the news. A bed on wheels was pushed inside, too, presumably for relatives who are physically overcome by the news that their loved ones are dead.

CNN’s Atika Shubert said relatives knew the news they were about to receive was “something big.”

Criticism of investigation

Malaysian authorities and Malaysia Airlines have faced increasing criticism of how they handled the investigation of the missing plane. The airline has defended its actions, explaining that it takes time to verify satellite signals and analyze those signals’ significance before releasing information.

Last week, three women who are relatives of the passengers staged a protest at the Kuala Lumpur hotel where the world’s media are staying. Their efforts were cut short by security guards who removed them through a crush of reporters, dragging one as she screamed.

One woman cried: “My son … I just want my son back.”

She and the other family members said they aren’t satisfied with “the Malaysian government’s inaction.”

“What we need is to know the truth, to know where the plane is,” she shouted. “We have had enough. Malaysian government are liars.”

Another woman shouted, “I don’t care what your government does, I just want my son back!”

“We need media from the entire world (to) help us find our lost families and find the MH370 plane,” the woman said. “We have no information at all. … They only say ‘keep searching’ — from South China Sea to Malacca Strait to Andaman Sea.”

Also last week, in Beijing, Ye Lun, whose brother-in-law was on the missing plane, spoke about the pain of how every day is the same — no answers.

Ye’s sister — the wife of one of the passengers — has become very unstable, he said.

“Every morning, she feels that she’s got hope when she comes to the briefing. Then they simply say those blurry things again,” Ye said. “Then she loses hope again.”

Holding out hope for weeks

Sarah Bajc has been writing her boyfriend on her personal Facebook page; notes that are tender and anguishing. She tells him that she misses him and wishes he would hurry up and come back to her. A Facebook page called Finding Philip Wood has become a repository for kind notes to her and notes from others who have watched the flight mystery closely.

Just days ago, Bajc told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that she was frustrated that authorities were not searching more on land rather than across the water.

“There’s been no exchange of information with authorities,” she said, “so that is exactly why I’ve been engaging with the media.”

Nine days after the plane went missing, family members’ patience with officials was wearing thin.

Before a packed room, one man told them that the families had lost faith.

“A liar can lie once, twice or three times, but what’s the point (to) keep lying?” he said. “What we ask for is the truth. Don’t hide things from us.”

At a briefing on March 16, a majority of the people in the room stood up when the man asked how many had lost trust in the airline and the Malaysian government.

Another man rushed to the front of the room and tried to throw a punch but was stopped.