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[Feature] After the vanishing

ScienceNOW - Fetched: December 15th, 2016, 2:00pm UTC

More than 28,000 people have disappeared in Mexico since the beginning of the drug war in 2006. Some are kidnapped by drug cartels and either killed or forced into labor or human trafficking. Human rights groups say that many others are abducted by the police and military, and that the government does little to investigate. Faced with official inaction, the families of the disappeared have started searching on their own. In the eastern state of Veracruz, family members discovered the largest mass grave yet in Mexico; they have uncovered more than 100 bodies since August. Now, a team of forensic anthropologists is helping these families figure out how to seek justice for these crimes and pressure the authorities into improving their investigations. Author: Lizzie Wade

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