Photos: Pima Medical Examiner works to ID migrants
Arizona Daily Star photographer Dean Knuth documented the dedicated people of the Pima County Office of Medical Examiner in 2010 in their quest to identify every migrant body and help return it to loved ones.
Pima OME helps ID migrants
Investigator Tessa Lee puts a body of a unidentified border crosser, case no. 10-1227, into a rack in the body refrigerator at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on June 21, 2010. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Pima OME helps ID migrants
Forensic Medical Investigator David Valenzuela looks through the wallet of a unidentified border crosser, case no. 10-1227, at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on June 21, 2010. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Pima OME helps ID migrants
Pathologist Assistant Krystal Poulin, Forensic Anthropologist Dr. Bruce Anderson, center, and Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Bruce Parks, right, during the external exam of an autopsy on a unidentified border crosser, case no. 10-1227, at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on June 23, 2010. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Pima OME helps ID migrants
Pathology Assistant Krystal Poulin, left, looks at an identification card found near the body with Pathology Assistant Marcie Yates, right, in the external exam during an autopsy of an unidentified border crosser, case no. 10-1227, at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on June 23, 2010. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Pima OME helps ID migrants
Forensic Medical Investigator Gene Hernandez looks on a white board for the location in the morgue of a unidentified border crosser, case no. 10-1227, at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on June 23, 2010. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Pima OME helps ID migrants
Forensic Medical Investigator Gene Hernandez, left, and Lorenia Ton, right, of the Mexican Consulate, go over paperwork for a unidentified border crosser, case no. 10-1227, at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on June 23, 2010. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Pima OME helps ID migrants
Lorenia Ton, of the Mexican Consulate, looks at the belongings of a unidentified border crosser, case no. 10-1194 at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on June 23, 2010. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Pima OME helps ID migrants
Dr. Bruce Anderson looks over the remains of case no. 10-1157, a border crosser, while attempting to identify him at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on June 23, 2010. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Pima OME helps ID migrants
Pathology Assistant Krystal Poulin inspects the finger prints she just took off of an unidentified border crosser, case no. 10-1194, at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on June 24, 2010. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Pima OME helps ID migrants
Finger prints of an unidentified border crosser, case no. 10-1194, at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on June 24, 2010. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Pima OME helps ID migrants
Krystal Poulin fingerprints an unidentified border crosser, case no. 10-1239, at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on June 24, 2010. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Pima OME helps ID migrants
At 4:50 a.m. Field Agent Trevis Hairston with the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, left, helps a Pima County Sheriff's deputy transfer the body of a border crosser, case no. 10-1248, along State Route 86 on June 25, 2010 near Sasabe, Ariz. The Sheriffs Department met Hairston along the road to transfer the body, the woman died the night before in the desert near the area. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Pima OME helps ID migrants
Forensic Pathologist Dr. Gregory Hess looks at the arm of a border crosser, case no. 10-1248, during the external exam of an autopsy at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on June 25, 2010. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Pima OME helps ID migrants
Investigator Chuck Harding plugs in a phone found with the body of case no. 10-1264, harding tried to turn the phone on but it was not charged so he found a charger that worked but powered it on and found that the phone did not have a SIM card, at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on June 27, 2010. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Pima OME helps ID migrants
Robin Reineke, a doctoral student at the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona, left, who helps the Medical Examiner match unidentified border crossers, searches through unidentified border crosser documents with the Consul General of Guatemala Julia Guzmán while going over cases of missing Guatemalans at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on June 28, 2010. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Pima OME helps ID migrants
Field Agent Trevis Hairston of the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, loads a body found 24 miles west of Sells in the desert, case no. 10-1277, at the Tohono O'odham Nation Police Department station on June 28, 2010 in Sells, Ariz. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Pima OME helps ID migrants
Field Agent Ron Foster examines the belongings of an unidentified border crosser, case no. 10-1227, at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on June 22, 2010. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Pima OME helps ID migrants
Photos found in the backpack of case no. 10-1277 found 24 miles west of Sells in the desert on the Tohono O'odham Nation, at the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner on June 28, 2010. Photo by Dean Knuth/Arizona Daily Star
Rick Wiley
Photo editor
University of Arizona researchers describe a series of "funnel effects" that pushed migrants into more remote, dangerous areas of Southern Arizona.
The remains of 43 migrants were found in Southern Arizona last month
The new $45 million Office of the Medical Examiner facility, located at the southwest corner of East Milber Street and South Country Club Road, will be 34,000 square feet, doubling the size of the current facility.
Pima County's is one of only 75 accredited medical examiner's offices in the U.S.