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Texas State nonprofit fills in gaps in rural counties left by a lack of county medical examiners

‘Our hope is that everybody is identified and repatriated,’ a doctoral research assistant reflects on the work of identifying human remains

SAN MARCOS, Texas – A Texas State University nonprofit has worked to identify hundreds of people who have died while attempting to cross the southern border.

The in-field process of identifying human remains includes fingerprinting, documenting personal items and taking pictures of distinctive features. However, this process doesn’t work for every person’s remains.

Many remains are taken back to Texas State University’s campus where the scholars involved with Operation Identification perform different processes to identify individuals.

The reason Operation Identification steps in to provide resources to help identify unknown individuals who die in border towns is because of the lack of county medical examiner offices in some rural areas along the border.

“When we’re talking about this humanitarian crisis where individuals are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas in a very rural region of the state, the only counties that maintain a medical examiner’s office are El Paso and Webb County,” Courtney Siegert, a postdoctoral scholar working for Operation Identification, said.

As of Oct. 17, the organization positively identified the remains of 180 people. Those remains are in the process of being returned to their families.

Without a medical examiner’s office, these impacted counties, like Maverick County, are left with limited resources to identify human remains.

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

However, for the people who can’t be identified quickly, the organization dives deeper into their identification process at the organization’s lab on Texas State’s campus.

“Whenever they’re mostly skeletonized, we bring them in here and we will process the remains,” Victoria Soto said. “We also wash the personal effects, anything that we find.”

Soto, who has worked with Operation Identification for years, is currently a doctoral research assistant. ????????????????????????????

“We honestly just try to give them their individuality back so we can figure out who they are,” Soto said. “So, we’ll be conducting a biological profile, which is age, sex, stature and population affinity. It’s also looking at any trauma, such as, if you’ve broken a bone and it healed, you can tell.”

Inside the “processing room,” skeletal remains and clothing items undergo individual cleaning and drying processes.

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

Hundreds of personal items get tucked away with as much information as Operation Identification could find. Once items are documented and pictures are taken, postdoctoral students upload the information into NamUs.

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

“We’ve had family members and other and community advocates that will pull those images from an individual’s missing person’s profile on that website and circulate it in their community, both on this side of the border and transnationally throughout the Americas,” Siegert said.

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

“I talk to a lot of consulates,” Soto said. “I talk to a lot of family members. Usually, whenever somebody calls and they speak Spanish, I answer the phone.”

Soto said that she understands how frustrating it can be for families trying to find where their loved ones are when they aren’t able 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 everybody that they think can help them.”

Through donations and grants at both the state and federal levels, Operation Identification can continue identifying people who have died at the border. Currently, the program is funded through 2025, but Operation Identification is still waiting for its legislative action request to be approved.

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

“Our hope is that everybody is identified and repatriated,” Soto said.

Operation Identification said it is looking for more volunteers in border counties. For more information on how to get involved, click here.

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Zaria Oates is a news reporter for KSAT 12. She joined in June 2024 from Memphis, where she worked at ABC24. Oates graduated from Clemens High School in Schertz and earned a journalism degree from the University of Oklahoma. She's passionate about learning, traveling and storytelling.

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Ricardo Moreno Jr. is a photojournalist at KSAT. Ricardo, a San Antonio native, isn't just a journalist, he's also a screenwriter and filmmaker, bringing a unique perspective to the news. When Ricardo isn't reporting, you might find him working on his fitness or spending time with his family and his Chow Chow.

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