Fourteen people were found dead in the desert areas of Santa Cruz County in 2008, according to Lt. Raoul Rodriguez of the Sheriff’s Office. All were assumed to be illegal migrants from Mexico.

Alejandro Martinez, vice consul for protection at the Mexican Consulate in Nogales.

Alejandro Martinez works as vice consul in the protection department of the Mexican Consulate in Nogales. Often there is little he can do to protect Mexicans who choose to journey to the U.S.

His seven staff members take calls from worried family members, Martinez said. Some are urgent:

“I crossed with my aunt. I left her on a hill. I was apprehended by the Border Patrol and we can’t locate her.”

When a person is ill or injured in the desert, often the caller can’t describe his or her location, Martinez said. “But the Border Patrol has the knowledge, maps and equipment to locate these people.”

A migrant might call his family in Mexico from a public or cell phone while approaching the border, Martinez said. When the calls stop, the family may light candles and call the consulate, he said.

The Secretary of Exterior Relations (SRE) in Mexico maintains five consulates in Southern Arizona �“ Yuma, Phoenix, Tucson, Douglas, and Nogales, Martinez said. The Nogales consulate has jurisdiction over Mexican nationals in Santa Cruz County and Green Valley. Many injured migrants found in that area are taken to hospitals in Tucson and the consulate tries to contact the family.

When the Border Patrol or sheriff finds the body of a Mexican national, deputies will collect evidence from the scene and send the body to the Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Dr. Bruce Parks, the Pima County medical examiner, describes the deceased persons as “people in transit,” who may die from any number of causes, he said.

If a dead person was carrying identification or traveling with a family member or friend, he or she can be identified, Martinez said. The medical examiner may be able to trace the identity if the face and fingerprints are intact.

“Some of the people �“ I don’t why �“ will cross without anything,” Martinez said. “Some get robbed, some conceal their identity and some ID is lost.”

While he was working in Douglas, Martinez recalled a migrant found dead in the desert with his hands clutching his birth certificate to his chest, he said.

A person who died a week ago (if it’s) during the summer may no longer be recognizable, Martinez said. But a friend or relative could go with deputies to identify the clothing.

“Some cases are just skeletons,” Martinez said. “If this person died in May and the body is recovered in September, the rains are going to take the pants away and the ID.”

“When we can establish a probable ID, we are going to require a DNA test,” Martinez said. The medical examiner will provide a tissue sample and the consulate will get cheek swabs from family members in Mexico.

The consulate uses a large Web database to plug in data about a missing person �“ name, age, hometown, height, weight, clothing worn and any scars or tattoos, and where the person tried to cross into the United States, Martinez said. The database also stores photos and DNA evidence.

Sometimes, migrants try to conceal their identity with fake a ID, Martinez said. “We have to be creative and smart to find the families.”

Martinez will contact the police department in the migrant’s hometown and the Oficina de Apoyo al Migrante (migrant support office), he said.

When a family of a deceased migrant is located, Martinez usually makes the call to Mexico. “It is very hard for us,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how much time you’ve done it.”

Sometimes a consular representative will come to the medical examiner’s office to take photos of the body and retrieve personal belongings, Parks said.

Although his staff performs an autopsy on each body, “we don’t see the suffering,” Parks said. “We’re a little more insulated.”

Often, the bodies have deteriorated from exposure to the elements, Parks said. He tries to establish the cause of death from clues such as trauma, a gunshot wound, heart attack or pneumonia.

Most of the time, the person died from heat, cold or dehydration, Parks said. “You look at everything else and you can’t find any other cause.”

Are more migrants dying than in years before?

In 2005, 193 bodies found in Pima, Santa Cruz and occasionally Pinal County were brought to his office, Parks said. In 2006, there were 174. The number went up to 218 in 2007 and dropped to 174 last year.

His staff is analyzing the remains of 80 to 100 people who died in Southern Arizona and have not been identified, Parks said.

The SRE, the consulate’s parent agency, will pay to transport a body from the morgue to the airport closest to the person’s home in Mexico, Martinez said. “Most (families) want to have a place to grieve their relatives.”