The bodies of migrants were discovered in a mass grave in a Falfurrias, Texas cemetery by volunteer researchers.
The immigrants were either simply dumped in the mass graves or tossed into a variety of bags - trash, shopping and body, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports, and some bags contained multiple corpses. Some of the bodies have been there for nearly a decade.
"To me it's just s shocking as the mass grave that you would picture in your head, and it's just as disrespectful," University of Indianapolis forensic anthropologist Krista Latham said. It is believed that the bodies are of immigrants who died while attempting to cross the border.
According to The Associated Press, officials in Brooks and Jim Hogg county say that the bodies are handed over to the funeral home Funeraria del Angel Howard-Williams, who they pay to dispose of the bodies. The funeral home in turned simply dumped them in Sacred Heart Burial Park.
Brooks County Chief Deputy Benny Martinez said that Howard-Williams charges $450 per body found and the counties have been paying the funeral home to deal with migrant bodies for more than two decades.
In 2013, 110 people were pulled from the cemetery, and this time researchers exhumed an additional 52, but it's likely they will find the remains of more than 52 from that dig. Researchers expect to return next summer to continue exhuming bodies.