This is KPBS Midday Edition, I'm Maureen Cavanaugh. The bodies of nearly 900 people remain on to identified -- on identified in Pima county. The new program is underway to use DNA to match those remains to thousands who've been reported missing. From KJ's easy Fronteras Desk, Michael Marizco reports. A border patrol agent tracking a group of people who had crossed illegally came upon the lonely remains of what was likely a person of -- who would cross the border. The remains were scattered in incomplete. It's an old story in this quiet desert. Smugglers are paid to guide people through trails that slither through pile of 30. They often leave clients behind. Some migrants choose to bypass the criminal networks and go it alone and are quickly overwhelmed by the magnitude of the long walk through a hard country. This desert holds bones and the guards their identities like secrets. Inside the Pima county medical examiner's building in Tucson, researchers are trying to change that. Dr. Greg Hess. Here in the cooler, you can see that the remains to the right side in these white body bags are generally undocumented remains. We can look here, where we have these smaller body bags. The one that I'm looking at is labeled 15-3103, these are recovered in 2015. The bag holds a lower jawbone. It's brittle specimens will be interred, they now have a digital ID card. The DNA from the person. Last year they provide 138 autopsies on people in the desert. It's been this way since 2001 when the state became the predominant region for eager legal -- illegal border crossings. No one knows who 900 of these people were, they were all resume a bleak migrants and found within 100 miles of the border. Catharina Santa Cruz lives in a tiny home. I visited her, she was rehearsing a song. It's been three years since her son disappeared. August 17, Marco Antonio left with two friends, days later his friends told her they did not make it. [ spoken in spanish ] She has faith he is still alive. Santa Cruz was part of the non-profit program. Kat Rodriguez. Her son may very well be missing three years and he could be one of them, those 900. The nonprofit has fielded 2500 calls from people now living in the US who called into report missing family members. Rodriguez dolls the woman from Phoenix whose brother went missing in June 2014. The centers may match the DNase. Sometimes knowing either way is important. DNA samples happen throughout the US. Santa Cruz and thousand more like her weight. First, for a DNA swab and then for the results to see if those lonely remains, like the lower jawbone, belonged to their loved ones. That report by Fronteras Desk Michael Marizco and he joins me now. Welcome. You told us about the hazardous journey across the desert that proves too much for many people who cross illegally. How exactly are these people dying? Do we know if it's thirst, exposure? The short answer is yes. People are dying because they are spending upwards of three and four and sometimes a week in the desert in the summertime when temperatures are upwards of 105 degrees. You cannot carry enough cold water with you. Hot water doesn't do anything, scientists have said hot water expedites the process of overheating the body. You can't carry enough cold water with you. This is why we have upwards of 100 cold water with you. This is why we have upwards of 130 cold water with you. This is why we have upwards of 132 150 people year who die in the desert. What had medical examiner's been doing before this program? Are their bodies that have gone on to identified for years? There are. I've been covering the border from Arizona since 2003. Every year the forensic anthropologists say they do a phenomenal amount of work, given the clues and resources they have. A lot of these people do not have identification. They have been able to identify upwards of 65% of the people who have come across, that left a few hundred, adding to the total from every year. For the most part, they are able to find them, there are so many, the number has been growing among the I'd on identified. Why is this more so? California stopped being a major thoroughfare in the mid-1990's. This was a time that Arizona became a major point of ingress for people trying to cross the border. In more recent years, we have returned to a flow of people at the Rio Grande Valley, California is fortified. I also look at the communities and the smuggling routes, interstate Interstate 8 which is not terribly far from the border, smugglers are able to get the people there. In Arizona, the major highway is Interstate 19 which runs north to south, it's manned by the border patrol pretty heavily. That drives people out into areas that are more remote. The medical examiner has created this DNA base, for the unidentified bodies. Other areas of the country tried to tackle this problem? Yes. South Texas has been instrumental in developing its own DNA program through Baylor University and Texas State University. They have worked in conjunction with the nonprofit in Tucson. At the time, one issue was that people were being asked to check in with the federal database of DNA fingerprints. What Colibri Center for Human Rights is trying to do is to reach out to people who may be afraid to go and law enforcement or health officials or government officials. What is the process like for these families? What exactly are they providing and how long do they have to wait? I interviewed a woman who lost her son three years ago, here in the Arizona desert. She was part of the pilot program for the Colibri Center for Human Rights , she was swabbed for DNA and last October and it was turned in by January. She should find out in two months, October of this year. What the center is intending to do, is to reach out to people in that area and have them come in for a DNA swab or they will go to them. Ostensibly, they may have to wait a year to find out if one of these 900 people, who are in the morgue are loved one or a family member. Colibri Center for Human Rights will be working in California for family members waiting for answers . Is there a similar program coming up in California that you know of? Not that I know of. It's a unique program, they are trying to get all around the United States. They want to reach into Central America and Mexico, I don't think so. It would be, it seems that San Diego and the LA area would be to places where program like this would be highly desired because of the sheer number of immigrants living there. I've been speaking with Michael Marizco , Fronteras Desk senior editor. Thank you.
On August 8, a U.S. Border Patrol agent tracking a group of illegal immigrants from Mexico came upon the lonely remains of what was likely a person who’d crossed the border into the U.S. some time ago. The remains were scattered, incomplete; and the person they once comprised was unidentified, unknown.
It’s an old story in this quiet desert: a slow and and very lonesome death. Smugglers are paid to guide people through trails that slither through green mesquite and palo verde. But too often, they leave clients behind in the rush to keep moving and avoid detection. Some migrants choose to bypass the enterprising criminal networks and go it alone. But in doing so, they risk the possibility of becoming overwhelmed by the magnitude of a long walk through hard country.
This desert holds bones and it guards their identity like secrets.
The bodies of nearly 900 people remain unidentified in Pima County, the result of years of illegal border crossings that funneled people through the Arizona desert. Now, a new program is underway at the Pima County Medical Examiner in Tucson to use DNA to match those remains to thousands of people who’ve been reported missing.
"We’re here in the cooler. You can see that the remains to the right of the cooler or the north-facing side in these white body bags are generally undocumented border crosser remains," Dr. Greg Hess said. "As an example of what we have, we can look over here, where we have a number of smaller body bags on a particular tray. The number I’m currently looking at is labeled 15-3103, which means these remains were recovered in 2015, at the end of 2015. The bag holds a lower jawbone and several smaller bones. Case 15-3103’s brittle yellow specimens will be interred but now forensic anthropologists have a digital ID card, the DNA of the person this lower jawbone belonged to."
Last year, Hess’s staff performed autopsies on 138 people found in the desert. It’s been this way since 2001 in Arizona when the state became the predominant region for illegal border crossings. Since then, 2,600 people have been found dead. Of those, nearly 900 remain unidentified. All are presumably undocumented migrants, and all were found within roughly 100 miles of the border.
Camerina Santa Cruz lives in a tidy home in a Tucson neighborhood. She is a Jehovah’s Witness, and on this day, she's rehearsing a song from the religious studies class she attends at night. She’s a U.S. citizen who arrived here in the 1980s.
It’s been three years since her son disappeared. On August 17, 2013, Marco Antonio Ramirez left Nogales, Sonora, with two friends. Three days later, those friends told his mother he didn’t make it.
She has faith he’s still alive. A mother’s faith, Santa Cruz said.
She joined the nonprofit Colibrí Center for Human Rights' test DNA match program last year.
"It's just waiting on the results," said Kat Rodriguez, a missing migrant specialist at the Colibrí Center. "So she might have answers. Her son’s been missing almost exactly three years, and he very much could be one of those 900."
The nonprofit has fielded 2,500 calls from people now living in the U.S. who call in to report missing family members.
Rodriguez called a woman from Phoenix whose brother went missing in June 2014.
"We have all the information that we need from him," she said. "We have photos of him. Even a pretty big photo of a tattoo he has. So basically from here, there’s nobody that’s come through the medical examiner’s that seems to be him."
But the Colibrí Center’s DNA program could end up matching one of the unidentified 900 bodies with the woman’s brother.
"It’s also a way to give families the answer that he’s not here. And sometimes knowing that is also really important," Rodriguez said.
The DNA samplings will be processed throughout the U.S., the first one this fall in San Francisco.
So for now, Santa Cruz and thousands more family members like her wait — first for a DNA swab and then for test results to see if any of those many lonely remains belong to their loved one.
