Category Archives: Snapshots

We arrived at the Indianapolis International Airport this morning at 6am for our 8:05am flight to the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.  It was a much anticipated flight as I had been so eager and excited to travel to Texas for the first time.  The first leg of our journey was as smooth as is humanly possible, as we had no issues checking all seven of our bags, and no issues boarding all seven of us.  And as Leann so precisely put it, our landing was “literally as smooth as butter.”  When we arrived at the DFW airport, we indulged in a delicious breakfast at Pappasito’s Cantina!  Everybody really enjoyed the jalapeño cheddar sausage!  After a short layover, at the DFW airport, we departed for the San Antonio International Airport, where we picked up our (brand spankin’ new) rental van.  It only had 15 miles on it!

From the rental car company, we traveled to The Alamo to do some site seeing, and then we visited the River Walk.  It was my first time visiting both sites.  It was so interesting to learn about The Alamo and to see it! It is truly a beautiful piece of history, aside from the sadness the event ensued on Texas in the form of many deaths.  I really enjoyed seeing cacti and palm trees at The Alamo site!  I have never seen either in real life and I was completely enthralled by their beauty!

After walking the River Walk, which was gorgeous, we travelled to our hotel to get settled

in for the night.  On our way to the hotel, we stopped at Buc-ee’s, the biggest gas station I have ever seen in my entire life!  The place was massive!  It had everything you could ever want in a gas station, from every type of candy imaginable to decorations for your home.  We each got two kolaches, which were absolutely delicious!  And after seeing the amazing world of Buc-ee’s, we had to get a picture with Buc-ee himself!

After we were through exploring Buc-ee’s, we checked into our hotel and got settled in before visiting HEB.  What a cool store that is!  I have only heard about HEB but I have never been.  It was a really cool store that lived up to all of my expectations.  It truly is a store that sells everything!  I could not get over the cheese selection they had!  After HEB, we went to Sonic to get a quick bite to eat for dinner before settling in for the night to plan for our day tomorrow.

Today was such a fun day of exploring and site seeing!  It was a day of many firsts for me, and I am very much looking forward to tomorrow and the rest of our time here in Texas.

Haley

My name is Katharine and I received my master’s degree in forensic anthropology from Texas State in 2007. I’ve done a variety of jobs in the forensic science field, including crime scene investigator, WWII Casualty Analyst for the Department of Defense’s POW/MIA office, and currently, medicolegal death investigator. As a death investigator, I act as the eyes and ears for the forensic pathologist. I investigate all deaths in the state and determine if it falls under the jurisdiction of the medical examiner’s office. I see homicides, suicides, accidents, drug overdoses, and many other scenes and situations. Skeletonized cases or cases where identification is questioned, I use my training in anthropology to help confirm the decedent’s age, sex, ancestry, stature, and anything pathological or traumatic important to the case.

I volunteered for the exhumations at Sacred Heart for two different reasons. Primarily, the mission itself is very important to me. The idea of dying in anonymity seems utterly desperate, like tangible Limbo. Your family never knows what happened to you. They can’t go visit your grave when they miss you. And they never see justice or closure. I believe that all people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, living or dead, no matter what. Is that crazy?! My second reason for volunteering is less altruistic. I have my own unidentified population at my home office (30 cases since 1965) and I wanted to see how TX State and UIndy handled intake, processing, and curation of their case load. I also need to keep up my archaeology and mapping skills.

Working with death on a daily basis hardened me – in order to get through the tasks required of the job, I numb myself to the emotions surrounding each case. When I arrived in South Texas, as a death investigator, I was still hard and numb. But I emerged from this experience as an anthropologist again, who considers the cultural and emotional story alongside of the human remains, the trauma, and the potential identification. The total picture of this mission is crushing, humbling, immense, and exhausting. I am so thankful to have participated in the process of helping resolve one tiny, but crucial portion of the problem. The families of these people deserve it.

My role down in South Texas is mapping expert.   This means that I am responsible for constructing to-scale maps of Area 3, Area 1, and tying in Areas 2 South and 2 West to the original 2014 map of Area 2.  Before coming to Texas, I met with the former mapping expert, Erica, to go over the best ways to collect data and construct the maps.  She gave me many great pointers that I have found very helpful while down in Texas. One of the most important tips she gave me was to make clear to all teams that measurements should originate from the baseline and not the gridlines.  I have found this piece of advice particularly helpful because it makes clear where the measurements originate from even when I am not familiar with the particular excavation area.

Before this trip, I was told that we would be excavating Area 3 and that I would be constructing the maps for this area. However, because this area was finished in three days, both UIndy and Texas State moved to new areas within the cemetery.  UIndy revisted Area 1 to re-check the quadrants now that it’s better understood that there are no patterns to how and where these burials were placed.  Texas State moved to two new areas, Area 2 West and Area 2 South, to investigate land marked with Unknown Remains burial markers.  These additional areas mean that I have gone from constructing maps of one area to constructing maps of three different areas.

There are a number of challenges that I have faced when constructing my maps.  Because so much dirt is being moved in Area 1, the pile is growing too large and is covering the baseline I am supposed to be taking measurements from.  Because of this, I have to use different points of reference and quadrant boundaries to map in the burials and trenches.  Despite taking measurements from different points of reference, in the final map, I need to convert these measurements to as if they are coming from the baseline itself in order to standardize my data.  Math is not my strong suit, so doing the calculations and converting the numbers is challenging for me.  Thankfully, the other members of my team are there for moral support and mathematical help.

Another challenge I have faced while mapping is that I am only present for the collection of measurements from the areas being excavated by UIndy.  Because I am familiar with the orientation of the burials, determine what points to take, and am present during the collection of all data, it is easy to recognize mistakes and construct accurate maps.  Because we are so busy and are working in different areas of the cemetery, I do not have the chance to see all of the areas that Texas State is excavating, the orientation of their burials, or the way in which they are collecting their data points.  This has proven very difficult for me, as I do not have a mental image to match the measurements to which makes it difficult to recognize mistakes.  Thankfully, I have started to catch on to the methods they are using and am better able to quickly check for and correct mistakes.

Despite these challenges, I am so glad that I am able to fill the role of mapping expert for this field season in South Texas.  I believe that I am emerging a stronger mapper, which will continue to help me during forensic cases when mapping a scene is necessary.  The problem solving and mistake-catching associated with mapping, although frustrating at times, is teaching me how to think critically about what I am doing and how to look at data and recognize discrepancies right off the bat.  I am so grateful for this opportunity and am excited to finish the final products!

Leann