The remains of a 12-year-old boy found along the Texas border — almost certainly a migrant from Mexico — strike Baylor professor Dr. Lori Baker, BA ’93, MA ’94, hard. His clothes and belongings held no identification, and even a DNA test found no match.
It’s for individuals such as this that Baker, an associate professor of anthropology in Baylor’s College of Arts and Sciences, has established a database that she hopes can connect unidentified bodies with their loved ones — to provide families and friends with some closure, “a place to pray,” as she puts it.
KRGV Channel 5 in south Texas talked to Baker in depth about her efforts, highlighting her work in this lengthy video report. The work is not pleasant — as Baker says, “forensic scientists are never called in because something good happened” — but it is important. After all, everyone is someone’s friend, brother, sister or child.
Sic ’em, Dr. Baker!
