Arizona starts building forensics headquarters amid rising migrant deaths

Pima County in Arizona has begun construction on a new facility for the Medical Examiner’s Office due to a 90% increase in body count received between 2011 and 2021. they are mostly migrants seeking to enter the United States through the border with Mexico.

The $45 million facility, located on the southwest corner of Milber Street and Country Club Road, south of East Ajo Way, will have 34,000 square feet., doubling the size of the current installation. In addition to Pima County, the new facility will also handle cases from Cochise, La Paz, and Santa Cruz counties.

“These new facilities will have more space and we’ll have more resources to meet the needs,” said Gregory Hess, director of the Tucson Medical Examiner’s Office, also in Arizona.

In addition, the number of reported deaths, the number of autopsies, and the number of deaths the office has to confirm have increased over time, Hess said.

Pima County also became a repository for the remains of migrants who died in the desert crossing into the United States.due to the district’s proximity to the border.

“We knew they were going to increase and we really needed the equipment that would allow us to handle that volume,” Hess said.

The new facility will have two zones. One zone will support administrative functions with offices and meeting rooms, while the autopsy zone will include six stations with an observation gallery, aseptic room, anthropology, imaging, and storage of unidentified remains.

The building will also have a new cold store for 300 bodies. Right now, the office can handle 200 bodies when using trucks with an external warehouse.

Post-mortem examination rooms will also be expanded from two to five at the new facility.

“These new facilities will be very useful for us, we will be able to store bodies for longer and, in the case of migrants, store their belongings in the hope that this will help us identify them,” Hess said.