Riviera Maya, Q.R. — Nearly 200 deceased missing persons have identified in one week after the state joined the national identification program. The State Attorney General (FGE) of Quintana Roo joined the program in late July.
In the first few days, 17 bodies were claimed by family members. However, a week later, FGE head Raciel López Salazar says 191 bodies in morgues across the state have been identified. Of those, 82 have been returned to their families.
López Salazar said progress in returning unclaimed bodies to families is the result of the use of new technology implemented in coordination with national and international organizations.
“These bodies were finally able to be returned to their families who for years lived with the uncertainty of not knowing the whereabouts of their loved ones,” said López Salazar.
In July 2024, the Prosecutor’s Office signed an agreement with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) within the framework of the search for missing persons, which allowed for the acquisition of five specialized scanners for fingerprint identification.
Thanks to this equipment, 456 fingerprint cards were sent to the National Electoral Institute (INE), which returned a positive match for 191 bodies. “We couldn’t have achieved this even with the best search operations,” said López Salazar.
The FGE Office has created a microsite on its website where families can review the deceased persons who have been identified through the fingerprint system.
He reported that while a majority of the deceased are from Mexico, one recently claimed person was of Italian nationality. They were also identified through the new identification program and returned to their family.
According to López Salazar, at its peak, the Quintana Roo morgues (Semefos) held up to 800 unidentified bodies, a figure that reflects the severity of the forensic backlog that has accumulated over the years.
At the start of the identification program there were 456 unclaimed bodies in morgues across the state. Quintana Roo is the eighth state to join the national identification program.
