FALFURRIAS, Texas – In response to published reports of mass graves at a Falfurrias cemetery, Brooks County Judge Raul Ramirez said a local funeral home had been paid to transport and “dispose” of immigrant remains.
Ramirez said at a cost of $450 per body in 2005 to $740 now, he understood they would be buried in pauper's graves.
"Plastic bags are not pauper's graves," Ramirez said.
Dr. Lori Baker, a Baylor University forensic anthropologist, also said they were not in mass graves.
"That was an unfortunate term that was used," Baker said.
She said actually, there were several plots unearthed with co-mingled remains in plastic body bags or even trash bags.
"I think one of them had five or six bodies. We're still doing analysis," Baker said.
Baker has led student field trips to Sacred Heart Cemetery over the past two summers, to identify immigrant remains.
"We're not happy with the things we found, but we just want to make clear about what we did find," Baker said.
She said it was nothing like the mass graves she encountered years ago working in Peru.
"Usually some sort of genocidal event, some sort of conflict of war -- those are horrible connotations," Baker said.
Even still, Ramirez said he has been inundated with media inquiries about the discovery. Ramirez also said he and Brooks County Chief Deputy Benny Martinez will be in Austin Tuesday for a meeting with a representative of the Governor's Office, arranged by State Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-Dist. 20.
Baker said she was preparing notes and photos for the chief deputy, showing exactly what was found.
"We've never seen this kind of response, even though we've found these things many times before," Baker said.
She said based on her past experience, finding co-mingled remains is not unusual because so few are recovered after a body has been out in the elements.
But as for how they were buried, "While they're highly inappropriate, disrespectful and demeaning, I don't know if they break any laws," Baker said.
Martinez said the Texas Rangers had been in contact with him, along with Hinojosa's office.
State Rep. Terry Canales, D-Dist. 40, said his staff also is researching what laws or health codes may have been violated. Canales said he wanted the cemetery declared a crime scene.
Martinez said that was not likely, and he expects immigrant burials to continue.
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