ABC, CBS news highlight Baylor prof’s work to give migrant families closure

Visitors to ABCNews.com this morning were greeted with the banner photo above, featuring students wearing shirts that read “Baylor Forensic Team.”

The story highlights the humanitarian work of Dr. Lori Baker, BA ’93, MA ’94, an associate professor of anthropology in Baylor’s College of Arts and Sciences, and her students in the city of Falfurrias, Texas,75 miles from the United States/Mexico border. There, Baker and her team have been recovering remains of unknown Mexican immigrants and bringing them back to a Baylor forensics lab for DNA analysis. The goal is to use this information to identify the remains and return them to families for a proper burial.

CBS Evening News ran a similar story in late June, which shared the Baylor team’s valiant work with more than 7 million viewers. The CBS news crew visited the team not only in Falfurrias, but also back in Waco, where they were able to see Baker and Baylor students doing the forensic work many southern Texas counties can’t afford.

[Watch the CBS News story on Baker and her Baylor team.]

Baker has been at the project for more than a decade, working to develop a database to connect unidentified bodies with their loved ones (we’ve covered Baker’s efforts before), so it’s nice to see others outside of the Baylor family getting to hear about the good work being done here.

Sic ’em, Dr. Baker!