The Texas state nonprofit is filling gaps in rural counties caused by a shortage of medical examiners

SAN MARCOS, Texas — A Texas State University nonprofit has worked to identify hundreds of people who died trying to cross the southern border.

The process of identifying human remains in the field includes fingerprinting, documenting personal items, and photographing features. However, this process does not work on every person’s remains.

Many remains are returned to the Texas State University campus, where scientists involved in Operation Identification conduct various processes to identify individuals.

The reason Operation Identification steps in to provide resources to identify unknown people who die in border towns is because there are no county medical examiner offices in some rural areas along the border.

“When we talk about this humanitarian crisis where people in Texas are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in a very rural region of the state, El Paso and Webb County are the only counties that have a coroner’s office,” Courtney Siegert said. said a postdoctoral researcher working for Operation Identification.

As of October 17, the organization positively identified the remains of 180 people. These remains are currently being returned to their families.

Without a medical examiner’s office, these affected counties like Maverick County have limited resources to identify human remains.

“Our main priority is to identify them and find family members and next of kin so we can provide answers,” Siegert said. “You don’t really get closure, but at least they have answers to what happened and they have a place to go to visit their brother, their daughter, their father, whoever that may be for them. “

However, for individuals who cannot be identified quickly, the organization delves deeper into the identification process at the organization’s laboratory on the Texas State campus.

“When they’re mostly skeletonized, we bring them here and process the remains,” Victoria Soto said. “We also wash personal items, anything we find.”

Soto, who has been working in the field of Operation Identification for years, is currently a doctoral student and research associate. ????????????????????????????

“We’re honestly just trying to give them back their individuality so we can figure out who they are,” Soto said. “So we will create a biological profile that includes age, gender, stature and population affinity. It’s also about looking at any trauma, for example if you break a bone and it has healed, you can recognize that.”

In the “processing room” skeletal remains and items of clothing are subjected to individual cleaning and drying processes.

“Then we place them here in an anatomical position,” Soto said. “Once everything is dry and the analysis is complete, photos are taken and all documentation is ready. Then we place everything [in a storing location].”

Hundreds of personal items are hidden with as much information as Operation Identification could find. Once the articles are documented and photos are taken, postdoctoral researchers upload the information to NamUs.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System provides the public with a database so people can search for their loved ones using unique identifiers.

“We have had family members and others and community advocates who have pulled these images from a missing person’s profile on this website and disseminated them throughout their community, both on this side of the border and across the border across America,” Siegert said.

Many of the families that Operation Identification communicates with are located in Mexico and South America, so the organization ensures that communications are always accessible.

“I talk to a lot of consulates,” Soto said. “I talk to a lot of family members. If someone calls and speaks Spanish, I usually answer the phone.”

Soto said she understands how frustrating it can be for families to find out where their loved ones are when they are unable to communicate in another language.

“Families don’t really know where to go to find answers, so they just cast a wide net,” Soto said. “They call anyone they think can help them.”

Through state and federal donations and grants, Operation Identification can continue to identify people who have died at the border. Currently, the program is funded through 2025, but Operation Identification is still awaiting approval of its request for legislative action.

If approved, the funding could provide $150,000 per year to keep the organization available to counties and families.

“Our hope is that everyone will be identified and repatriated,” Soto said.

Operation Identification said it was looking for more volunteers in the border districts. Further information on how to get involved can be found here.

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