All posts by lathamke

Last week over 40 forensic anthropologists and their students converged on Boulder City, NV for the 34th annual meeting of the Mountain, Desert & Coastal Forensic Anthropologists.  This provided the backdrop for amazing connections and motivation for the UIndy team that is focusing on issues of migrant death.  While the meeting emphasized scholarship and casework in all areas of forensic anthropology, the team was able to connect with some prominent people working in the trenches of this human rights issue.

The UIndy team was able to spend quality time with Dr. Lori Baker, the director of the identification efforts in Brooks County.  This allowed us time to formulate an archeological plan for the field efforts that will begin next week in the Sacred Heart Burial Park. Ryan suggested that each student group do daily presentations on their progress in the field during our evening debriefings, an idea favored by Dr. Baker.  Each UIndy student team member will have a leadership role this field season and they were ecstatic to share their ideas with Dr. Baker.

We were also able to connect with Robin Reineke, executive director of the Colibri Center for Human Rights.  The mission of the Colibri Center is to improve the identification of human remains found on the US-Mexico border and to inform the public of this human rights issue by building a unique system for the collection, management, and sharing of data about the deaths and disappearances. Robin and her team are instrumental in reaching the families of the missing and collecting invaluable missing persons information to aid in the identification efforts. I tried to get a nice photo with Robin, but notice we were photo bombed by prominent forensic anthropologist Dr. P. Willey from California State University, Chico. You can’t say forensic anthropologists don’t have a sense of humor! 

We spent time interacting with Dr. H. Gill-King, Dr. Wendy Potter McQuade, and John Servello of the University of North Texas center for Human Identification. This Texas laboratory will be generating DNA profiles from all of our unidentified individuals with the hope of matching the genetic information to a family reference sample.

Dr. Eric Bartelink of California State University, Chico graciously offered to run isotope analysis on the 13 individuals currently being analyzed at UIndy. This type of molecular analysis has the potential to identify the country of origin of these migrants and will provide a geographic reference point to begin searching for families of the missing.  Dr. Bartelink is providing a valuable service and important step in returning these unidentified individuals to their families. He offered to cover the cost of supplies (which will run over $2000) out of his own pocket. Our hope is to continue our fundraising efforts to help compensate him for his efforts.

Our team was most humbled and most honored when Dr. Bruce Anderson of the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner proposed that the MD&C donate some of it’s annual fundraising efforts to our mission.  Each person at that meeting has noble missions they support and the sincere gesture and assistance for our mission was overwhelming.  It gave us a boost of confidence and assurance that we are doing the right thing and making a difference.

Dr. Krista Latham

Tomorrow we leave for the Mountain, Desert & Coastal (MD&C) Forensic Anthropologists meeting being held in Boulder City, NV on the shores of beautiful Lake Mead.  Jessica, Erica, Ryan, Justin and I will be traveling to present about our work on migrant death and interact with other forensic scientists involved in the same type of human rights work.  Cheneta is currently enrolled in a class for the first summer semester and unfortunately will not be able to join us.

 At this year’s MD&C meeting we will give a presentation on the skeletal analysis of the unidentified migrants we are currently analyzing in the University of Indianapolis Archeology & Forensics Laboratory.  This will allow us the opportunity to present the challenges associated with the identification of these individuals to the forensic science community.  In addition, we will get to interact with other forensic anthropologists working with issues of migrant death.  Dr. Lori Baker, who is directing the identification efforts in Brooks County, will be at the meeting.  Dr. Bruce Anderson of the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner (PCOME) who works with unidentified migrants in AZ and Robin Reineke of The Colibrí Center for Human Rights will also be in attendance.  This will provide an invaluable opportunity to discuss the various approaches and challenges to migrant death issues with other individuals who work with these types of cases on a constant basis.

The University of Indianapolis will be well represented at the meeting this year. In addition to the presentation on human rights in South Texas, Jessica, Erica, Justin and Ryan each have a second presentation focusing on forensic casework or projects at UIndy, giving us a total of five presentations this year (An Interesting Case Study from Indiana by Jessica Campbell & Stephen Nawrocki, A Case of Dismemberment in Northern Indiana by Erica Christensen & Krista Latham, Over the River and Through the Woods by Justin Maiers & Krista Latham and No Bones About It: Projects at UIndy Outside of Forensic Anthropology by Ryan Strand) .  I will be moderating this year and organized the conference schedule. UIndy alum Meg Madonna will be handling fundraising.  The conference raises money for student travel and research grants.   Justin is coordinating the annual bone quiz, which tests the skeletal knowledge of its attendees.  Jessica is in charge of organizing the conference center and Ryan and Justin will be the grill masters at our annual Buffalo Chip dinner.

In addition, the students will get to interact with some of the founders of the field of forensic anthropology and meet award winning author Aaron Elkins.  We will have time for some fun while we are there as well. We will get to do some climbing, swimming and sightseeing.  It will be a nice mix of work and a little relaxation before we leave for two hard weeks of digging in the Texas sun.

 Dr. Krista Latham