Forensic Anthropology

Abstract

Previous articleNext article FreeCurrent ApplicationsForensic AnthropologyE.R.WaymanE.R.Wayman Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreIdentifying Bodies and Reuniting FamiliesHundreds of thousands of Mexicans cross the U.S.Mexican border into the United States annually, often seeking employment. Each year hundreds of these individuals die in the attempt. Because many of them have made the journey without identification or documentation, it is extremely difficult for officials to identify them when their bodies are discovered on the U.S. side of the border.Lori Baker, assistant professor of anthropology and forensic science at Baylor University in Texas, is working toward finding a way to provide names for these individuals/bodies. Applying her knowledge and expertise in DNA analysis to the situation, she is trying to identify as many bodies as she can.Bakers academic research uses the analysis of ancient DNA to study the peopling of the New World. Therefore, Baker is better prepared than local medical examiners to analyze the DNA of decaying bodies. As she explained during a telephone interview, county medical examiners cannot solve all of these border cases because they dont have the money and they dont have the laboratories in mtDNA or bone DNA.Baker first began applying her knowledge of forensics to body identification while doing human rights work in Central and South America during graduate school. In Peru, she recalled, everyone was appalled by the U.S.Mexico border situationthat nothing [was] being done to identify people. When she joined the faculty at Baylor University in 2002, she had the opportunity to be in close proximity to the U.S.Mexico border and to use her forensic skills to help correct this problem.For Baker, the granddaughter of a migrant worker, this work is especially meaningful. She considers it important not only to offer families closure but also to give them the opportunity to have their stories told. With that in mind, she initially thought that exhuming graves and solving cases would be just a summer project. That was before she discovered the true magnitude of the problem. With the help of her husband, Erich Baker, an assistant professor of computer science at Baylor, she has created a database of unidentified bodies found near the border. She collects DNA samples from these bodies and records them in her database. She also records an individuals physical attributes, including clothing. The Bakers have created a web site, http://www.reunitingfamilies.org, through which the database can be accessed. By visiting the web site, family members can search the database for a description that matches their missing relative. When they find a match, they can send Baker a DNA sample from a maternal relative. She then analyzes the mtDNA to determine whether the body is a match.During the first three years after the databases creation, Baker had solved one case in Pima County, Arizona, when she identified the remains of Rosa Cano, a 31yearold woman from Mexico's Yucatn Penninsula, and there were more than 7080 cases waiting to be entered into the database from Pima County alone. The volume of cases is too great for one person to handle. Baker points out that it is difficult for many of these families, who often do not have access to a telephone, let alone the Internet, to access the database. Fortunately, the Mexican government has recently offered her some assistance, both contributing to the cost of the testing and helping families to access the database. With this support she intends to continue her work and has already solved three more cases.Identification card, found under a barbed wire fence along the road near the border town of Douglas, Arizona, of an 18yearold Mexican man. (Photo Orlando Lara)View Large ImageDownload PowerPoint Previous articleNext article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 47, Number 1February 2006 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/498951 Views: 83 PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.