Category Archives: Snapshots

Random things about us

The Usual Suspects Pt. 1

Snapshots

The Osteological Research and Processing Lab at Texas State has been bustling this week. Professors, students, and interns have been working on analyzing cases, processing backlog cases, cleaning personal effects, and ultimately working together to efficiently move the identification process forward. Several task forces have been formed, each with their own job. We thought we would spend a couple of posts featuring interviews with various members of this supergroup:

Texas State University graduate student Cassie
Cassie

Name: Cassie
Hometown: Lindale, TX
Current University: Working on her M.A. in Anthropology, Texas State University
Role This Week: Data collection/database management
What would you want for your last meal?: “Grilled chicken with mushrooms, onions, and cheese on top, a loaded sweet potato, green beans, mac and cheese from Kent Black’s BBQ, a roll with cinnamon butter from Texas Roadhouse, and unlimited sweet tea.”

Texas State University graduate student Courtney
Courtney Coffey Siegart

Name: Courtney Coffey Siegart
Hometown: Houston, TX
Current University: Working on her M.A. in Anthropology, Texas State University
Role This Week: Intake/processing of remains
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?: “The brains necessary to make anything I want so that I can do anything I want, so I can have any superpowers, like Iron Man.”

Binghamton University student undergraduate student Susan
Susan Sincurbox

Name: Susan Sincerbox
Hometown: Hammondsport, NY
Current University: Working on her B.S. in Anthropology, Binghamton University
Role This Week: Intake, processing, and photographing of personal effects found with remains
Who would you want to star as you in a movie about yourself?: “A young Elizabeth Taylor.”

Binghamton University Graduate student Amy
Amy Szen

Name: Amy Szen
Hometown: Buffalo, NY
Current University: Working on her M.A. in Anthropology, Binghamton University
Role This Week: Intake/processing of remains and personal effects found with remains
If you could be any animal, what would you be?: “A big dragon, like Drogon from Game of Thrones.”

Texas State University Graduate Student Chloe
Chloe McDaneld

Name: Chloe McDaneld
Hometown: Austin, TX
Current University: Working on her M.A. in Anthropolgoy, Texas State University
Role This Week: Graduate Assistant at ORPL
What song did you crank up in your car this morning?: “Anything on 93.3.”

Dr. Kate Spradley working on a laptop
Dr. Kate Spradley

Name: Dr. Kate Spradley
Hometown: Little Rock, Arkansas
Current University: FACTS faculty and Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Texas State University
Role This Week: Coordinating all task forces as well as analzying cases
If you could be in any band, what band would you be in?: “I’d be in Fugazi.”

Stay tuned for more interviews tomorrow!! 
Ryan

Day 9

Human Rights, Migrant Death, Snapshots
Group photo of Beyond Borders team members with nine fingers in the air on day 9
Day 9

Today we continued skeletal analyses on the unidentified migrants that are being curated at Texas State University.  It’s only Wednesday and the team of multiple organizations working at Texas State this week has accomplished a lot.  While the skeletal analyses don’t attract as much media attention as the exhumations, this is really the reason that the exhumations were conducted in the first place: to begin a forensic investigation into the identity of these unknown individuals.  The team has struggled this week to write blog posts because we are spending our days handling the skeletal remains and we don’t believe it’s appropriate to include photos of the bones in this blog.  But there is still a lot of progress being made that needs to be highlighted.

Students from across the country have come to participate in various aspects of the identification process. From processing the remains, to cleaning the personal items, to skeletal analysis, to database entry, to molecular and microscopic analyses.  This week demonstrates it truly takes a village to work towards each identification.

Group of students engaged in discussion at a round table in front of a white board

Most of the organizations involved are volunteering their time, so the processing and skeletal analyses usually proceed rather slowly.  There was a backlog of 15 individuals that have been cleaned but need skeletal analyses and case reports.  We are almost to that goal already.

Team member working on case file paperwork on a clipboardAmanda recording information about the individual in the case file.

Team member looking through a pathology textbookJustin referencing a pathology book.

Team member handling a swab with gloves on for DNA sample collectionRyan collecting samples for DNA analysis.

~KEL

Day 8: Rain, Rain, Go Away

Snapshots
Group image of Beyond Borders Team members holding up eight fingers for day 8
Day 8

Since we’ve gotten to San Marcos, all it’s done is rain. Today was no different. It was pouring buckets of rain this afternoon, thanks to Tropical Storm Bill.  There are flash flood warnings for this area in effect till the end of the week and tornado warnings in effect for today. This is unusual weather for this part of Texas and I’ve had many Texans tell me that this weather is nothing like the real Texas weather. San Marcos is supposed to be sunny.

Day 8 was spent doing skeletal analyses, while worrying about the laboratory flooding or the roads leading up to the laboratory flooding and trapping us there. Our emergency plan was to bring our work with us to another Texas State University building, so that we could keep working on identifications no matter what.  A little rain isn’t going to stop the UIndy Team. Thankfully, we did not have to use our emergency plan today and we hope that we won’t have to use it at all.

None of us have wanted to venture outside in the rain, so we opted to stay in for the night. We’ve been amusing ourselves by playing around with some of the videos we’ve made since we got to San Marcos. Here are two of our best ones. Enjoy!

Team member Justin swimming in the river
Justin jumps into the river!

Video  1

Texas State University emblem
Time lapse video of our daily journey to Texas State University.

Video 2

–Amanda