Category Archives: Human Rights, Migrant Death

Talking about the project itself

Intake at Missing Persons Day

Community, Human Rights, Migrant Death

Today we were given the opportunity to volunteer at “Missing Persons Day in Harris County”.  My role today was to help with the intake.  I was one of the volunteers responsible for taking personal information from the families who are missing loved ones.  While this event was open to everyone, we were charged with recording information for the people who went missing along the border.  I was eager to help, except there was a problem…  I don’t speak Spanish particularly well.

I took Spanish in high school, but I feared that my remedial language skills might jeopardize any chance of identifying the missing.  Lucky for me I was paired with a native Spanish speaker.  I couldn’t have asked to be paired with a better partner.  Not only did she translate, but she helped our families to feel welcome and cared for during this incredibly trying experience.  She made sure that every member of the family was treated with compassion and respect.  She made them laugh, comforted them while they cried, and even played with the children.  I cannot express how much I learned from her, and how grateful I am for all of her help.

The intake process started by going over an informed consent form.  The form itself was fairly short but was essential.  The most important part of the form was the “informed” portion.  We spent a lot of time making sure that every detail was combed over, so that the families understood and were comfortable with everything we were doing.  Many people were naturally hesitant to sign anything.  Many of these families are fearful of police and border patrol, and are understandably reticent.  It was important that the families knew how the information collected will be used.

The next step was collecting information about the family members themselves.  After that came the difficult part, collecting information about the missing.  These questions included where the person was last seen, the clothes that they were wearing, and any information that could help to identify them.  The questions themselves were simple, but forced the families to reflect back on their loss.  I cannot imagine the pain of reliving the feelings of grief, or the sorrow of not knowing what happened to their loved one.  Finally, DNA samples were collected from family members in order to compare them against the different missing and unidentified persons databases.

This event helped me to realize that we are just a very small part of issue that is much, much larger.  Our work is important, but is only one cog in the machinations of something meaningful and significant.  Even in my modest role, I am proud incredibly proud to play my part.

Justin

Helping at Missing in Harris County Day

Human Rights, Migrant Death, Reflections

Helen: Today our team participated in Missing in Harris County day.  This was a really exciting opportunity for me as I’m used to being objective and distant from the families I want to help.  We arrived early this morning to help set-up for the event, and then began to prepare for our respective duties.  Originally Amanda and I were designated as greeters, but since there were so many volunteers, we ended up helping those who were conducting interviews for intake.  My computer became the central hub for all intake and consent forms, photos, and documents from the event today.  Once an interview was completed, I would receive their intake forms and any other documents that needed to be scanned.  Amanda would then scan the documents and I would create a folder with the missing individual’s name to hold all of the items.

Beyond Borders Team Members greeting individuals at Missing in Harris County Day
Amanda and I greeting families as they enter

While families were going through the welcome orientation and first starting their interviews, I worried that I wasn’t contributing enough to the event, as I had nothing to do but wait.  However, after an hour or two, I was constantly uploading scanned documents, saving files, and trying to keep it all organized without time for a break.  At the end of the day, I combined all of the individual’s folders into one and handed them off to Ryan Strand.  At first I was nervous I wasn’t helping enough, but by the end of the day I felt like I had made the interviewer’s jobs much easier by being a central location for them to bring their forms, so that they could better attend to their families.  Having the opportunity to work with these families reminded me of why I’m so passionate about helping these people find their loved ones.  I am really thankful that we got to help today, and I hope that the information gained from this event will help find and identify more missing individuals.

Beyond Borders Team Members working the Missing in Harris County Day intake table
Our work station

Amanda: My role at Missing in Harris County Day was assisting Helen in organizing the intake files. I handled documents, pictures, and consent forms that needed to be scanned and added to the intake files. I stayed mostly in my one little area of the room scanning papers, but everywhere else around me was an explosion of noise and movement. There were families talking to the intake volunteers, different organization representatives were walking around and helping out, documents were changing hands, and kids were running around. It was slow in the beginning, but then it picked up and it was non-stop work. I didn’t have an important job, but I was glad that I could be useful in some way.

The best and most rewarding part of my day was the kids. Several of the families that came in to report their missing family members brought their children with them. Kids are magic, they can take a tense and emotional moment and make you smile and laugh. There were two little kids, a brother and a sister, that got bored during the intake process and came over to see what I was doing. At the time, my work was slowing down and I decided to help keep them occupied. I taught them how to use the scanner, which they found endlessly entertaining. They were adorable and full of energy. We had a lot of fun and they made so many people in the room smile. I guess this was another job I did. Keeping kids occupied, so that their other family members could do the intake without having to worry about keeping an eye on them. I’m glad I got a chance to participate in this event. Hopefully, the information collected today will help reunite families with their missing loved ones.

–Helen and Amanda

Day 5

Human Rights, Migrant Death, Reflections

Today marks the last day of skeletal analyses at Texas State.  Our time in San Marcos seemed to fly by.  The majority of our time here has been spent creating biological profiles for the individuals exhumed from Sacred Heart Cemetery (where my journey originally started).  The creation of the biological profile is an essential part of the identification process.  We use our knowledge of the human skeleton to discern what physical characteristics a person would have had during life.  The biological profile includes traits like age, sex, ancestry, and stature.  These trait are generally pretty vague.  If I use myself as an example, I would be described as a white male between the ages of 25-40, and somewhere between 5’6” and 6’2”.  While I match that description, it also describes a whole gaggle of other people.  In order to positively identify someone, we need to be more specific. To do this we try to find anything that may be individualizing, for example we record dentition and past health and injuries.  We also collect skeletal DNA samples so we can match them to family reference samples.

Beyond Borders Team Member performing measurements using a spreading caliper
Helen Measuring up

Usually this is a slow and arduous process.  In our lab in Indiana, the careful construction of a biological profile is a teaching process.  Since we are part of the University, our students learn this process as we offer our services to police and coroners throughout the state.  Each methodically crafted profile can take days, or sometimes longer (like if it is finals week).  Luckily, every time we come to Texas we bring our most highly trained students, like Helen and Amanda, which greatly speeds up the process.  Sometimes, they even let me tag along.

We also have the added benefit of working alongside the amazing people of Texas State University.  The two teams have completed a total of 17 skeletal analyses over the course of a week.  This is an astronomical accomplishment.  It has been my honor and pleasure to work with such an amazing cast of players.  I could not have asked for a more intelligent and talented group of people.

After the last skeleton was analyzed this morning, we all drove to Houston.  Today we had a meeting to prepare for tomorrow’s “Missing in Harris County Day”, where we discussed the forms and procedures for the event.  I will be one of the people collecting information from families who are missing loved ones.  The information gathered here will be compared to data from other sources, like the biological profiles that we have been creating, and with any luck we can help friends and families find closure.  While I am nervous for tomorrow’s event, I look forward to contributing my small part.

Justin