Thread: FL - Help Sought To ID Remains Of Illegal Immigrants

Help Sought To ID Remains Of Illegal Immigrants

Tribune photo by JULIE BUSCH

Pete Bihorel has files with information about an unidentified corpse, skull, or skeletal remains found in Hillsborough County. Some files date to the 1970s.




By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 24, 2009

Related Links

Map Of Unidentified Remains
Medical Examiners Office Web Site
TAMPA - As a forensic investigator with the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Office, Pete Bihorel's job includes identifying remains.

To do that, he reaches out to the public for help.

But fears over deportation among a growing segment of the public may be hindering those efforts.

Some of the 10 to 12 people of Hispanic descent whose unidentified remains are on file with the medical examiner may have been illegal immigrants – and so may be the people who can identify them.

In September, Bihorel spoke with a nun at a Catholic mission in Ruskin who helps illegal immigrants, many of them working in agriculture. He provided sketches of some of those whose remains are unidentified in hopes the mission would encourage people to speak up if they know anything.

"I believe they'd feel much safer speaking to the nuns than coming to me," he said.

The trip hasn't yielded results so far, but Bihorel plans more visits, to missions in farming areas such as Plant City and Dover.

"I just feel like I have to do something," he said.

Bihorel has files with information about an unidentified corpse, skull, or skeletal remains found in Hillsborough County. Some files date to the 1970s.

In December, a skeleton was identified as slaying victim Tina Louise Johnson, a dozen years after her remains were found under a tree at Adamo Drive near 26th Street.

Police identified Johnson with the help of Bihorel and the medical examiner's Web site, which posted a rendering of what the woman might have looked like.

The Web site includes information on other unidentified remains, such as physical descriptions, scars, tattoos and what the person was wearing when found.

Johnson's daughter saw the description and image online, police said, and contacted the medical examiner's office in February 2008. She provided a DNA sample, which an FBI analysis matched with the remains.

You can click here to see the information from Bihorel's files, plotted on a map, or visit one of the sites below to learn more about unidentified remains nationwide.

- Hillsborough County remains

- Arizona Daily Star's "Death On The Border" database

- Florida remains

- National site for unidentified remains


Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at jpoltilove@tampatrib.com.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/feb/24 ... -breaking/

So an undocumented immigrants in America breaking and entering; and then we Americans are suppose to worry about them upon death. Please if only our government took as care of it's citizens this well. Take DNA and all is said and done unless immigrant's country wants to come and get the body.

But fears over deportation among a growing segment of the public may be hindering those efforts.

Who knows what ID they were using? Identifying them may be impossible because of that. He has unlimited resources and time to waste on this?