October 2019_Esquire 1032012 2013
May:
Christian is
arrested by ICE
and deported.Lori Baker, founder of
the Reuniting Families
Project, offers to help local
authorities in south Texas
exhume bodies.June 15: Obama introduces
DACA, which grants
protections to Christian’s
younger siblings.September 6: Christian’s
father receives a call
after his son had crossed
the Rio Grande.September 14: The remains
of a young man are found
by Border Patrol agents
on the La India Ranch.Researchers begin
exhuming remains at the
Sacred Heart Burial Park
in Falfurrias, Texas.Donald Trump is
elected president.April 19 to May 31: Two thousand
children are separated from their
parents at the U. S.–Mexico
border and held without a clear
plan for reunification.July 2017: Christian’s
sister, Zaira,
discovers his case on
a national database.April 7:
Christian’s
funeral is held.2016 2018
tem (CODIS) used by law enforcement, which compares the DNA
found at crime scenes with that of people who have been arrested.
But the NamUs database is different. NamUs merges information
from missing-persons reports and data collected from unidenti-
fied remains into one system that can be accessed and searched by
government agencies and the public. Because its daily operations
are run out of the University of North Texas Health Science Cen-
ter, staffers at UNT’s Center for Human Identification are able to
upload DNA data from NamUs cases into CODIS, creating another
possible route to a positive match. When the first OpID cases were
entered into NamUs in the fall of 2013, there were only eight re-
cords of missing persons from Brooks County. As of this writing,
there are forty-eight.
Once the skeleton has dried, all of the bones except for the left
fifth metatarsal (the bone in the foot right below the pinkie toe) are
placed in a custom cardboard container slightly bigger than a shoe
box. The skull is stored upright in its own compartment of the box,
the long bones of the arms and legs are laid
in the lower compartment, the ribs are bun-
dled together with a black Velcro cable tie,
and the teeth are put in a small paper bag.
The box is labeled with its case number and
stored on a shelf in a cool, dry room until it is
ready to be analyzed. The metatarsal is sent
off for DNA sampling.
Matching an OpID case’s DNA to that of
a living relative is challenging for many rea-
sons, especially if the deceased migrant has
no family members in the United States. Even
if there are family members in the U. S., that
can be tricky, too, because the law requires
that a relative’s DNA sample (a cheek swab)
be taken in the presence of law enforcement. Those closest to a per-
son who tried to enter the United States illegally might be wary of
providing their DNA to police, so NamUs staff members work with
law-enforcement agencies, nonprofits, and human-rights groups to
facilitate Missing Persons Days in counties across Texas. At these
events, the families of missing migrants can give samples without
worrying about possible arrest or detention.
Only after all these steps have been taken can the OpID case be given
a comprehensive forensic analysis, which begins with the assembly of
the full skeleton on a gurney or table lined with brown paper so that
key features can be noted and arrows drawn. The skull is placed on
a small pillow the size of a beanbag to keep it still, with the lower jaw
beside it. If any of the teeth have fallen out during the cleaning pro-
cess (which is common once the tissue that holds them in place has
dissolved), they are lined up in order next to the jaw.
Using statistical models, Spradley and her staff can usually esti-
mate an individual’s age, sex, and ethnicity from the skull alone. If the
long bones of the limbs are recovered, they canas a life, rather than as a number. If the lab is able to make a positive
identification, friends or relatives of the deceased are invited to the
facility so that the process can be fully explained to them. Spradley
will also assemble a skeleton on black velvet and enlist the help of a
priest in order for the loved ones to say goodbye in a private, less clin-
ical setting before the remains are released for burial.
When an OpID case arrives at the lab, the body bag is opened, the
remains are photographed and documented, and any personal effects
found with it are recataloged and stored in a freezer to keep them from
degrading or getting damaged. If the remains are “fresh”—meaning
they have not yet fully decomposed—the body bag is zipped closed
and driven to the outdoor “decomp” area, which is secured behind
another locked gate for privacy. There it is laid out, still in the bag,
inside a large chain-link enclosure designed to protect it from wild-
life and weather damage.
Depending on the condition of the remains and seasonal tem-
peratures, the decomposition process can take anywhere from six
months to a year.
When I visited FACTS this past April, there
were roughly a dozen white bags inside the enclo-
sure. They were neatly arranged in two rows, with
tall grass growing between them. Two faded fu-
neral wreaths were affixed to the outside; a woman
in Rio Grande City who wanted to show her sup-
port for migrant families donated them last year.
“It’s much better than it was,” Spradley said as
she drove me through the ranch on a Kubota util-
ity vehicle. “When we started, we had to stack
them. It was full.”
Once a case has fully skeletonized, it is taken
inside the main building to the ORPL. Students
unzip the bag on the floor and check for any be-
longings. The next part, in which the bones are placed in one of two
steam-jacketed kettles to dissolve the remaining tissue, always takes
some getting used to. (“People usually know right away whether or not
they can handle it,” Spradley said.) If there is still tissue on the bones
after they’re cleaned in the kettle, they are taken to an autopsy sink
and lightly scrubbed with a soft toothbrush. Then the entire skele-
ton is laid out on a gurney.
While the skeleton is being cleaned, students remove the personal
effects associated with its case number from the freezer and wash the
clothes in five-gallon buckets before hanging them on a line to dry.
Items in the migrants’ pockets—kids’ drawings, letters, family pho-
tos, prayer cards, rosaries—can often be the most important keys to
their identities and a much faster route than DNA testing, which can
take several months. When all the effects are clean, staff members
photograph them against a black background and upload the photo-
graphs into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System,
or NamUs, a database overseen by the National Institute of Justice.
Many people are familiar with the Combined DNA Index Sys-
WHILE HIS MOTHER
WAITED FOR HIM TO TA K E
HER TO THE GROCERY STORE,CHRISTIAN WA S
ARRESTED BY ICE—
PA RT OF AN APPARENT
SWEEP OF UNDOCUMENTED
IMMIGRANTS.(continued on page 112)