What problems did you find with the Mexican forensic investigation of this case?
In some cases, Mexican laboratories were just not that experienced on doing DNA on bone samples, but in other cases I think there was willful misconduct. These remains had gone through several DNA analyses in Mexican state and federal laboratories, and they came back with different results. It was one of the few places in the world where we arrived and the families said, "We don't trust DNA." There were other problems as well. Some forensic experts produced results based on anthropological techniques that contradicted most of the DNA results. Some of the remains were not with their original clothing—they had male clothing on them. In one case most of the biological and documental evidence had disappeared—we found the spine at the medical school.

So what we did was start from scratch. We read all the different forensic results for the eight cases. We ran new DNA tests of the eight bodies, comparing them not only against these eight families but against 75 families that were part of a larger DNA database of missing women. This is how we confirmed some of the original identification and found misidentifications as well.

How did spending time in the border region introduce you to the plight of immigrants?
Working in Juárez was very hard—hard to get the information, hard to get the files and hard because of direct obstruction from officials. At the end of our work there, we had 50 female remains that did not match any of our families. So we thought these girls must be coming from somewhere else, either from another state in Mexico or from Central America, but there was really no fluid, efficient mechanism in place to exchange data with these places.

How have you tried to solve the problem?
What we are trying to do with the Missing Migrants program that we started in 2009 is improve the search of missing migrants among unidentified remains by creating a regional exchange system. We take background information interviews with the families to know when the migrant left; when was the last time that that person called; what else the family found out after that person stopped calling; what was the route that the person was thinking of taking; were they planning to cross by Arizona, by Texas, by California; was that person going with other people or just by themselves. Then, we collect the antemortem information—the classic dental information, fracture data, anything that can happen to them in life.

Previously, in most of these cases, unless there was a specific hypothesis related to a body, families were not asked to provide blood samples. There isn't a regional system, and a lot of people were not getting identified. We are setting up forensic banks in El Salvador, Honduras and Chiapas, Mexico, to collect background and physical information about missing migrants as well as blood samples from relatives. Each family will now have its forensic file ready to be considered against any morgue or place that has remains in the U.S. or Mexico. There was nothing like this before.

What is the biggest scientific challenge to identifying the remains of migrants?
Because these migrant cases involve people from several countries where we don't know yet how large the problem is, even with the support of DNA, it is often complex to distinguish between a random and a real match, which creates several technical and practical challenges. We have to test as many relevant relatives per family as possible and often perform complementary and additional genetic testing, combined with background and antemortem data to see if an initial genetic result is random or biologically significant. We now have 710 relatives tested in Chiapas, Honduras and El Salvador corresponding to 272 missing migrants.

You're even testing relatives here in the U.S.
Yes, the rhythm of this office has changed. Families here in New York or in the United States now call about once a week and tell us, "My daughter, my son, whoever, has disappeared and are missing."

How many remains have you identified from these families living in America?
We have identified eight from Arizona and one from Texas, with five more in process. We are just starting to exchange information. The main goal is to provide a better service to families who have a missing migrant. That's the main thing—to respect them, to be transparent and to provide them with the best available technology that exists.

Brendan Borrell is a writer based in New York City and is researching the plight of missing migrants with a grant from Investigative Reporters and Editors.

3 Comments

1. 1. brooknm 02:20 AM 10/9/12

   Thanks, Mr. Borrell, for a great article. Forensic anthropologists need more cheerleaders. Ms. Doretti provides an invaluable service in identifying these bodies to help their families find closure.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

2. 2. mmorgan 05:08 PM 10/9/12

   I wonder if the American Taxpayer is funding this work. While I sympathize with the loss of life, I cannot fathom the mentality that on the one hand encourages these people to come here and on the other hand decrys the fate that is sure to befall them. Politicians that encourage this illegal migration by establishing "sanctuary cities" are responsible for the deaths and the other fates, like human sex trafficing, and exploitation. It is convenient to blame "business" but it is disengenous and dishonest. "Business" is fashionable to blame because there is a culture of envy being making business a bad thing but without business there would be no jobs, there would be no income, there would be no income tax and hence there would be no politicians. Have you ever tried to buy your home, your cars, your cell phones, your clothing, your bread and your food from the "government "?
   All government does is consume vital resources, every penny of tax they take adds a penny to the cost of everything you buy. The idiots that think government can provide tangible assets or prosperity are fools.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

3. 3. supersoygrrrl in reply to mmorgan 03:37 AM 10/10/12

   This article is not the place for right wing rants. This is about a terrible problem affecting all of America -both north and south and to come in here griping about your own ill informed world views in the face of an issue that's literally life and death is incredibly callous and heartless. Perhaps you should take those views over to the comments section at Fox News where they'll fit in better and be more well received.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this