Crevice Interments Deconstructed

The discovery of two well preserved human crania in a crevice overlooking a spring fed creek near Austin, Texas, led to medico legal, archeological, and bioanthropological investigations aimed at understanding the context and biological affinity of the crania. Archeological excavations uncovered no evidence that the crania were interred in the crevice during prehistoric times. Skeletal analysis showed they were of Native American ancestry. Radiocarbon dating indicated they are contemporary to one another and probably date to the seventh or eighth century A.D. Measured stable isotopic rations of carbon ( 13 C/ 12 C) and nitrogen ( 15 N/ 14 N) derived from human bone collagen samples from the crania are not consistent with other burial populations from the region, having higher nitrogen values than all other comparative samples. The crania also showed polish from repeated handling and several of the molars in one cranium had been glued in place. Taken together, these lines of evidence suggest the crania were removed from an unknown locality outside the Central Texas region, kept in a private collection, and placed in the crevice recently

Relocation of the Salvador Camarena Burial: Historical and Bioarcheological Investigations of a Mexican Migrant Worker Grave (41MV372) in Maverick County, Texas

F rom 2011 through 2014, the Texas Department of Transportation collaborated with Prewitt and Associates, Inc., to investigate an isolated grave in a remote area alongside FM 481 in Maverick County, Texas. An initial archeological investigation confirmed that the location was a historic grave, and archival records revealed that it contained the remains of Salvador Camarena, a Mexican citizen who died in Texas in January 1950. Additional research identified Camarena’s son and other family members living in Mexico, California, and Texas. With the family’s permission, the burial remains were exhumed, examined, and reinterred at La Marque Cemetery in Galveston County, Texas, where Camarena’s mother and two sisters are buried. The bioarcheological analysis of the skeletal remains corroborates the historical information. Together, the bioarcheological and historical data provide a rare glimpse into the life and death of a migrant laborer. The burial of one immigrant worker may seem insignificant. However, the Camarena case represents a sad but common theme in the history of migrant labor. Like many before him and even more since, Camarena probably died in a foreign country seeking a means to support his family when traveling to seasonal agricultural work

Comparing Genetic Variation among Latin American Immigrants: Implications for Forensic Casework in the Arizona- and Texas-México Borderlands

The humanitarian crisis on the United States-México border is a long standing and evolving crisis in which nearly 8,000 deaths have been reported in the last two decades. These deaths are largely distributed across the Arizona-México and Texas-México border regions where demographic trends for immigrants attempting to cross into the U.S. have shifted dramatically. The demographic change and volume of immigrants seeking shelter in the U.S. presents new challenges for the forensic practitioners entrusted with the identification of individuals who lose their lives during the final segment of their journey. Within this Border context, the present study investigates how genetic variation inferred from forensically significant microsatellites can provide valuable information on regions of origin for unidentified remains on the group level. To explore how we can mobilize these genetic data to inform identification strategies, we conduct a comparative genetic analysis of identified and unidentified immigrant cases from the Arizona- and Texas-México contexts, as well as 27 other Latin American groups. Allele frequencies were utilized to calculate FST, and relationships were visually depicted in a multidimensional scaling plot. A Spearman correlation coefficient analysis assessed the strength and significance of population relationships and an agglomerative clustering analysis assessed population clusters. Results indicate that Arizona-México immigrants have the strongest relationship (\u3e80%) with groups from El Salvador, Guatemala, México, and an indigenous group from Southern México. Texas-México immigrants have the strongest relationships (\u3e80%) with groups from Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. These findings agree with, and are discussed in comparison to, previously reported demographic trends, population genetics research, and population history analyses. We emphasize the utility and necessity of coupling genetic variation research with a nuanced anthropological perspective for identification processes in the U.S-México border context

Craniometric variation of diverse populations in Florida: identification challenges within a border state

The state of Florida is commonly ignored as a border state when it comes to issues and challenges in migrant death investigations. In the 2010 U.S. Census, Florida held the third largest Hispanic population in the United States, with almost 19 million individuals self-identifying as Hispanic, following behind California and Texas (Ennis et al. 2011). Undocumented workers that arrive in the United States frequently migrate to Florida for labor, such as on produce farms, and many of these workers are children, traveling alone, or under circumstances that make them an at-risk group. Endangered, missing, and unidentified persons in Florida are growing problems, with significant numbers of affected persons from the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America. This research explores the variation among six diverse groups that are found in Florida and throughout the United States, especially along the border. These groups include four groups considered Hispanic (Mexico, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and Cuba), as well as American white and black. Based on canonical discriminant function and Mahalanobis distance (D2) analyses, the Mexican and Guatemalan samples are the two most similar groups when comparing only the four groups considered Hispanic (D2 = 2.581) and among all six groups (D2 = 2.645). Within the four groups considered Hispanic, the Puerto Rican and Cuban samples are the second most similar groups (D2 = 4.690). However, when comparing all six groups, the Cuban and American black samples are the second most similar groups (D2 = 3.289). These results reflect a shift in similarities in cranial morphology when including the American black and white samples. By improving our understanding of the historical and current biological relationships among diverse groups living in close proximity, forensic anthropologists can better utilize ancestry data into their biological profiles for human identification

Crevice Interments Deconstructed

The discovery of two well preserved human crania in a crevice overlooking a spring fed creek near Austin, Texas, led to medico legal, archeological, and bioanthropological investigations aimed at understanding the context and biological affinity of the crania. Archeological excavations uncovered no evidence that the crania were interred in the crevice during prehistoric times. Skeletal analysis showed they were of Native American ancestry. Radiocarbon dating indicated they are contemporary to one another and probably date to the seventh or eighth century A.D. Measured stable isotopic rations of carbon ( 13 C/ 12 C) and nitrogen ( 15 N/ 14 N) derived from human bone collagen samples from the crania are not consistent with other burial populations from the region, having higher nitrogen values than all other comparative samples. The crania also showed polish from repeated handling and several of the molars in one cranium had been glued in place. Taken together, these lines of evidence suggest the crania were removed from an unknown locality outside the Central Texas region, kept in a private collection, and placed in the crevice recently

Identifying migrant remains in South Texas: policy and practice

In 2012, Texas surpassed Arizona in migrant deaths. The majority of deaths occurred in the Rio Grande Valley, specifically in Brooks County, Texas. Brooks County is one of the poorest in the state and was overwhelmed with deaths, without appropriate resources to follow the state laws pertaining to the investigation of unidentified human remains. Until 2013, most remains that were not immediately identified were buried without collecting DNA samples and the location of burials was not recorded. Our paper outlines the difficulties searching for these burials, the struggles of the families of the missing, and the collaborative approaches to facilitating identifications in South Texas. Community outreach combined with geophysical surveys guide which cemeteries are in need of exhumations. Once cemeteries are surveyed, archaeological methods are employed to exhume remains and document burials. Remains are taken to the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State for processing, analysis, and identification efforts. Undergraduate and graduate students clean remains and wash clothing and personal effects. After skeletal analysis, all information regarding the remains, including photographs of personal effects, are uploaded to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) and a DNA sample is submitted to the University of North Texas for inclusion in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) DNA database. However, CODIS lacks DNA family reference samples from many families of the missing due to families living outside the US or because they do not feel comfortable providing a DNA sample in the presence of law enforcement. Therefore, it is necessary to work with non-governmental organizations who specialize in collecting missing persons reports and DNA samples from the families of the missing. Working collaboratively with multiple agencies, identification of migrant remains is possible