How Mexican Forensic Experts Solve Crimes Jesus Alcazar - Agence France-Presse
go to original March 25, 2013

Members of the scientific team of Mexican dentist Alejandro Hernandez Cardenas prepare to immerse into a special chemical bath a mummified human corpse in an intent to rehydrate it, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. (AFP)

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico - Mexican forensic expert Alejandro Hernandez dips dry, yellowish cadavers in a see-through bath, hoping his technique to rehydrate mummified bodies will solve murders in crime-infested Ciudad Juarez.

The city bordering Texas has endured drug-related violence and a wave of murders of women in recent years, with bodies dumped anywhere and drying up quickly in the desert climate, complicating the task of identifying victims and their cause of death.

With his special solution, whose recipe he keeps secret, Hernandez can rehydrate bodies, making facial features as well as gunshot or stab wounds reappear.

“It is common with the climate in Ciudad Juarez...for bodies to mummify or stiffen, with the skin stretched like drums,” Hernandez, an expert at the Chihuahua state prosecutor's office, told AFP.

“It has always been a great satisfaction every time we were able to identify or determine the cause of death in the 150 cases that we participated in.”

The scientist has plenty of work on his hands.

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