Tijuana’s Medical Examiner Overwhelmed by Bodies
The smell is what hits you first within a block of Baja California’s medical examiner’s office in Tijuana.
It’s the unmistakable odor of rotting corpses, and a grim indication of a city overwhelmed by unprecedented levels of violence.
Officials in the medical examiner’s office, an agency known as SEMEFO, have asked the state government of Baja California for additional funding after operating for several months at nearly double its capacity for cadavers, on the heels of last year’s record violence.
Law enforcement officials on both sides of the border said the spike in violence is mostly because of lower-level drug dealers fighting over street corners.
Judge Salvador Juan Ortiz Morales said the issue was “urgent” and called on the state to fund an additional refrigerator to hold an extra 100 bodies.
“There are days where the smell is worse than others,” said Marcela Lopez, who works in a laundry facility downwind from Tijuana’s SEMEFO.
The agency’s capacity is between 130 to 150 bodies, but Dr. César Raúl Gonzáles Vaca, the state’s director of SEMEFO, told Spanish-language media last week that the office is receiving at least double that amount.
He said, at times, it is quadruple the capacity with up to 20 cadavers daily, or up to 600 bodies a month.
In 2018, the agency received more than 2,700 bodies, he said.
For families who have lost loved ones, it means long waits and confusion because of a lack of personnel to assist members of the public during one of the worst moments of their lives.
“There is order, but it does not happen fast,” said Beatrice Espinoza, who was at SEMEFO on Friday to reclaim the body of a family member who passed away more than a week ago.
Espinoza said she had been jumping through bureaucratic hoops since Tuesday with no one available at SEMEFO to explain the process to her as she tries to plan a funeral and retrieve her family member’s body. She declined to say how her loved one died.
“I know it’s not the fault of the people who are working here. They are trying very hard with the resources they have,” she said. “Still, for me, I’d rather just grieve and not have to come back here four times to sort out the paperwork because they don’t have the personnel.”
The facility’s 26-member staff, which includes 12 medical examiners, has struggled to examine the hundreds of bodies that have arrived since Jan. 1.
About half of the autopsies are conducted on homicide victims, but medical examiners also must certify the causes of death of involuntary manslaughter victims and accidental deaths that could be suspicious.
“Right now, I’m just sad, and I haven’t given much thought to anything else,” said Kimber Villa, who was waiting for her older brothers to come identify the body of her youngest brother.
She said he died accidentally in his home.
“It’s harder, though, because you wonder: ‘How is he being treated in there?’ ” said Villa, still in shock about her brother’s death.
Arturo Mendoza, who works at a funeral home nearby, said the facility has been struggling day and night with staffing issues, especially after increasing the hours they are open to the public.
“Sometimes, people have a hard time getting their loved one’s body back just because they have a lack of staffing,” he said.
By law, SEMEFO will wait 15 days for the body of a loved one to be recovered before the deceased is buried in Tijuana’s common grave.
With more than 2,500 homicides last year, the city of Tijuana, population of approximately 1.8 million, is one of Mexico’s most violent places, as drug cartels compete for control over northern trafficking routes.
Gonzáles said family members sometimes are afraid to come identify the bodies of their lost loved ones for fear of inserting themselves in police investigations.
wendy.fry@sduniontribune.com
https://enewspaper.sandiegouniontribune.com/d...b095a198ca
The smell is what hits you first within a block of Baja California’s medical examiner’s office in Tijuana.
It’s the unmistakable odor of rotting corpses, and a grim indication of a city overwhelmed by unprecedented levels of violence.
Officials in the medical examiner’s office, an agency known as SEMEFO, have asked the state government of Baja California for additional funding after operating for several months at nearly double its capacity for cadavers, on the heels of last year’s record violence.
Law enforcement officials on both sides of the border said the spike in violence is mostly because of lower-level drug dealers fighting over street corners.
Judge Salvador Juan Ortiz Morales said the issue was “urgent” and called on the state to fund an additional refrigerator to hold an extra 100 bodies.
“There are days where the smell is worse than others,” said Marcela Lopez, who works in a laundry facility downwind from Tijuana’s SEMEFO.
The agency’s capacity is between 130 to 150 bodies, but Dr. César Raúl Gonzáles Vaca, the state’s director of SEMEFO, told Spanish-language media last week that the office is receiving at least double that amount.
He said, at times, it is quadruple the capacity with up to 20 cadavers daily, or up to 600 bodies a month.
In 2018, the agency received more than 2,700 bodies, he said.
For families who have lost loved ones, it means long waits and confusion because of a lack of personnel to assist members of the public during one of the worst moments of their lives.
“There is order, but it does not happen fast,” said Beatrice Espinoza, who was at SEMEFO on Friday to reclaim the body of a family member who passed away more than a week ago.
Espinoza said she had been jumping through bureaucratic hoops since Tuesday with no one available at SEMEFO to explain the process to her as she tries to plan a funeral and retrieve her family member’s body. She declined to say how her loved one died.
“I know it’s not the fault of the people who are working here. They are trying very hard with the resources they have,” she said. “Still, for me, I’d rather just grieve and not have to come back here four times to sort out the paperwork because they don’t have the personnel.”
The facility’s 26-member staff, which includes 12 medical examiners, has struggled to examine the hundreds of bodies that have arrived since Jan. 1.
About half of the autopsies are conducted on homicide victims, but medical examiners also must certify the causes of death of involuntary manslaughter victims and accidental deaths that could be suspicious.
“Right now, I’m just sad, and I haven’t given much thought to anything else,” said Kimber Villa, who was waiting for her older brothers to come identify the body of her youngest brother.
She said he died accidentally in his home.
“It’s harder, though, because you wonder: ‘How is he being treated in there?’ ” said Villa, still in shock about her brother’s death.
Arturo Mendoza, who works at a funeral home nearby, said the facility has been struggling day and night with staffing issues, especially after increasing the hours they are open to the public.
“Sometimes, people have a hard time getting their loved one’s body back just because they have a lack of staffing,” he said.
By law, SEMEFO will wait 15 days for the body of a loved one to be recovered before the deceased is buried in Tijuana’s common grave.
With more than 2,500 homicides last year, the city of Tijuana, population of approximately 1.8 million, is one of Mexico’s most violent places, as drug cartels compete for control over northern trafficking routes.
Gonzáles said family members sometimes are afraid to come identify the bodies of their lost loved ones for fear of inserting themselves in police investigations.
wendy.fry@sduniontribune.com
https://enewspaper.sandiegouniontribune.com/d...b095a198ca
