Death on the Border: The Things that Migrants Leave Behind

 

When migrants die in South Texas, the objects they leave behind hold clues to their identities. In the fall of 2013, Texas Observer reporter Melissa del Bosque and photographer Jennifer Reel visited Baylor University’s forensics lab, one of several Texas labs that handles the remains of unidentified migrants who die in Texas after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The forensic anthropologists at Baylor and elsewhere perform skeletal analysis and/or DNA testing in the hopes of gleaning enough information to identify people and return them to their families.

KJ

 

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