By André Salkin, Margaret O'Hara on Dec 7, 2025 This republished Searchlight New Mexico investigation looks at the challenges of locating, identifying and recovering the remains of migrants who die in New Mexico’s borderlands. (Courtesy image / Searchlight New Mexico) This investigation examines how the remains of migrants who die crossing the border often go unrecovered — and what that means for families, communities and accountability.André Salkin and Margaret O’Hara, Searchlight New Mexico Editor’s note: This story was originally published by Searchlight New Mexico and is republished here with permission. A weathered human skull lies partially buried in desert sand as a person walks nearby in New Mexico’s borderlands. (Michael G. Seamans / The New Mexican)SANTA TERESA — The rosary hung from a branch of mesquite, its light blue beads swaying in the breeze.The site was a few miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. It wasn’t far from paved roads, a truck stop, the city of El Paso.But amid the sand and shrubs — all of them too short, too scrawny or too dense to offer any shelter — the populated world seemed to melt away.The blue rosary marked a spot in the desert where searchers found an identification card. It spelled out a woman’s name in thick black letters: Ada Guadalupe López Montoya, 33, born in El Salvador.A team of volunteers from Arizona-based Battalion Search and Rescue, which combs the borderlands of Arizona and New Mexico for lost and missing migrants as well as human remains, found bones nearby.Nearly two months later, many of the bones were still there.It’s a troublingly common occurrence, said James Holeman, 59, a Silver City resident and one of the leaders of Battalion Search and Rescue, which organizes monthly searches. In just over a year, the organization found more than two dozen such sites in the Southern New Mexico desert — enough to make Holeman call the area “an open graveyard” — and reported them to the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office.The remains, believed to be those of migrants, would be among hundreds of migrant deaths logged in the El Paso region since 2008, including more than 300 in Doña Ana County. It’s an area that has seen at least a hundred migrant deaths annually in recent years, according to humanitarian aid groups and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.Bryce Peterson, a volunteer with the nonprofit No More Deaths who helps gather data used to map migrant deaths in the region — a total of 599 since 2008 and 176 in fiscal year 2024 alone — calls it the deadliest stretch of the southern U.S. border.His group’s El Paso Sector Migrant Death Database logged more than 80 sets of skeletal remains between 2008 and 2024, including dozens in Doña Ana, Luna and Hidalgo counties.Battalion Search and Rescue doesn’t directly report its findings to No More Deaths’ database, Holeman said, though its reports to OMI could be included in the source data.Holeman believes “there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds more out there yet undiscovered.”He and other searchers say the local sheriff’s office and the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator haven’t done enough to collect, catalog and — to the extent possible — identify the remains they have discovered so far. They are deeply troubled by what they see as inaction by authorities to properly address the scattered human remains and raise concerns about whether the lives lost — those of migrants — are considered a low priority by state and local officials.“Is there a distinction here between these bones and … Santa Fe bones?” Holeman wondered.Chris Ramirez, an OMI spokesperson, wrote in an email that field investigators and transport teams “do their very best” to properly collect and convey remains to Albuquerque for postmortem medical examinations. But, he noted, the rugged, remote landscape and abundant wildlife pose challenges for the agency.Meanwhile, Doña Ana County Sheriff Kim Stewart, in an email to The New Mexican, acknowledged tension between her office and Battalion searchers.She takes issue with the group’s methods, saying it “has not been cooperative or very forthcoming with information” and has contributed to the “contamination of these sites.”“Battalion SAR is not a highly trained, reputable group,” Stewart wrote.Abbey Carpenter stands in the knee-high desert shrubs under the noon sun in December as she searches for human remains in an area along the Mexico border in Santa Teresa. (Michael G. Seamans / The New Mexican)She also accused Battalion Search and Rescue of planting human remains in the Doña Ana County desert.“Frankly, we don’t know if a bone or bones have been brought from other locations and photographed after being deposited randomly,” she wrote.A journey ends in tragedyFor Holeman, López Montoya’s identification card was the latest in a string of grim discoveries.But it ultimately prompted OMI to collect some of the remains at the site, which the searchers believe may have been hers.After López Montoya went missing, her loved ones reached out to Armadillos Ni Un Migrante Menos, a California-based humanitarian organization that amplifies families’ searches for missing loved ones online and searches for migrants’ remains.Missing persons posters are a regular sight on the Armadillos’ Facebook page, as are photos and videos depicting human remains. Spectators cheer on the group from the comments section and express support for families, offering written condolences and prayer emojis.Armadillos posted a missing person flyer on Facebook featuring López Montoya in July 2023.Battalion Search and Rescue — which had found the site containing her identification, a cellphone and other personal items, along with a set of human remains in August 2024 — had learned of Armadillos’ effort and saw the post about the missing Salvadoran woman.“I heard about this missing persons thing,” Holeman said. He reached out to Cesar Ortigoza, the Armadillos’ leader, and provided information about the Santa Teresa discovery. “I said, ‘This is your woman,’ you know. … We found this two months ago. September, October, November. They didn’t pick it up. It’s still out there.”Ortigoza, 51, of San Diego was determined to ensure authorities properly responded to the report of human remains that could be López Montoya’s; he booked a Nov. 15 flight to El Paso.He arrived at the Southern New Mexico site outside El Paso on Nov. 16 and notified OMI again about the remains, and waited for investigators to arrive.“We were gonna stay there until [OMI] came over and picked them up. So that’s what we did,” Ortigoza said, adding they showed up a few hours later.It took most of the day, he said, for the team to recover most of the site’s remains.Ortigoza livestreamed a video of the operation on the Armadillos’ Facebook page, something the group commonly does.He left the blue rosary in López Montoya’s memory.Rosary beads hang in December at the spot where Ada Guadalupe López Montoya’s identification card was found alongside a cellphone and remains by Battalion Search and Rescue, which made the discovery in August. (Michael G. Seamans / The New Mexican)Her family tuned in to the live video and reacted with disbelief at López Montoya’s personal effects, such as a pair of pants draped over a mesquite shrub.“What did you do to get those — those belongings and put them there to make a video?” they asked Ortigoza on the live video.“[They] said that we had planted this — the evidence,” he said.The New Mexican had hoped to contact López Montoya’s family members, but Ortigoza said they objected to the release of their information.López Montoya initially had no intention of crossing the border through New Mexico’s desert corridor, Ortigoza said. The family’s Facebook post, written in Spanish, noted she had planned to cross the border at Ciudad Juárez and go to El Paso.This was at least her second attempt to enter the U.S. — though her reasons for embarking on the journeys remain unclear.Documents from the First Court of Judgment in Santa Ana, El Salvador, allege she was the victim of human trafficking in 2012, when she and a person suspected of being a “coyote” were stopped while trying to cross into Guatemala, with a final destination of the U.S.Her family had paid the alleged coyote, or border guide, to help her make the journey. Still, he initially faced a criminal charge of trafficking.The case ultimately was dismissed due to lack of evidence; López Montoya might have refused to testify, fearing she would become the target of criminal gangs in El Salvador for identifying the man.A teddy bear is found on the desert floor under a shrub where volunteers with Battalion Search and Rescue searched for human remains in the desert near Santa Teresa in January. (Michael G. Seamans / The New Mexican)Her trek from El Salvador likely wasn’t an easy one. Evidence suggests she was a victim of extortion along the way: Her family received a call saying she would be killed if they didn’t transfer money, Ortigoza said.Migrants — particularly women — are often targeted for extortion, sexual violence and other crimes, said Gabriela Romero, an attorney with Derechos Humanos Integrales en Acción, a Ciudad Juárez-based organization that provides migrants with free legal representation.Romero said criminal groups have found profit potential in the extortion of migrants’ families — especially relatives in the U.S. — making threats of torture, sexual violence and death of their loved one.As many as 6 in 10 migrant women face extortion in Mexico, said Miriam González Sánchez, a spokesperson for El Instituto para las Mujeres en la Migración, a Mexico-based organization that advocates for migrant women.Sexual violence, too, is on the rise against migrants, Romero said.Doctors Without Borders, a nonprofit that provides international crisis medical care, documented such a rise in a February 2024 report. Its teams in the border cities of Matamoros and Reynosa found a 70% increase in sexual assault consultations in the last three months of 2023 compared to the three months prior. January 2024’s caseload was higher than in any month in 2023, the report said.But so few crimes against women end in a conviction, González Sánchez said. “If you add the layer of being a migrant, it becomes a complete lack of access to justice for migrant women” in Mexico.Slow to collect ‘field of remains’Battalion Search and Rescue maintains a binder of paperwork documenting each of its finds, noting the discovery date, GPS coordinates and descriptions of the remains. Volunteers mark each of the deaths they encounter with ribbons, affixing the pink strips to nearby foliage.Most searches lead the group to the same sight: an open expanse of desert floor with what the volunteers believe are human bones and personal items strewn about by scavenging and predatory wildlife.It’s not unusual to find a “field of remains,” said Abbey Carpenter, a Battalion Search and Rescue leader and Holeman’s partner.“You don’t always find the whole body. It depends on the birds, the animals, the time,” she said.One particular field of remains was discovered in late August within a network of dirt roads, about 10 minutes by car from a Santa Teresa truck stop and a few miles as the bird flies from where López Montoya’s belongings were found.Here, a hip bone. There, a scapula and clavicle. A dozen feet away, shards of vertebrae. And at the center of it all, a skull, missing its front teeth.The searchers affixed pink ribbons to shrubs near many of the bones before reporting the remains — and their GPS coordinates — to the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office.The remains were still there in February.James Holeman, co-founder of Battalion Search and Rescue, points to a femur and tibia bone in the desert near Santa Teresa along the Mexico border in December. (Michael G. Seamans / The New Mexican)Searches on Sept. 21 and 22 yielded several finds: “about 10-12 rib bones in the area, jaw bone, other assorted bone fragments” in just one of the discoveries, according to the organization’s reports, as well as hygiene items, women’s clothing and a pair of small Nike tennis shoes.While most members of Battalion Search and Rescue aren’t trained forensic experts, the search team does have a forensic anthropologist on staff to better help identify the age and gender of a set of remains.The expert also helps determine if remains belong to a person rather than an animal — though some skulls and desiccated anatomy are unmistakably human.The group kept a list of the eight cases it reported to the sheriff’s office between late August and late October, but they don’t believe the agency responded to most, if not all, of them.In February, Battalion filed a complaint against the sheriff’s office with the New Mexico Department of Justice, citing the agency’s lack of action.Abbey Carpenter of Battalion Search and Rescue becomes emotional in December as she revisits a location near Santa Teresa where human remains were found and reported to authorities, but had yet to be retrieved. (Michael G. Seamans / The New Mexican)“By not responding to our calls for service, DASO has created a dangerous public safety situation,” the group wrote in the complaint.Lauren Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, wrote in an email to The New Mexican the agency has been in contact with the sheriff’s office about the complaint and has determined it has “a process in place” to handle requests in a way that balances “the integrity of potential crime scenes and the consideration of possible archaeological remains.”She added, “We remain aware of the situation and encourage continued communication among all parties to facilitate the identification of these remains.”The searchers contend, however, the agency isn’t following a state law that details processes for people — including civilians — to report human remains and outlines how investigators must respond to the reports, with speedy action required from all parties.In the case of a death with an unknown cause, the law requires “anyone who becomes aware of the death” to report it immediately.Once notified of a death, state medical investigators are required, “without delay,” to “view and take legal custody of the body.”“This is a crime scene, and this is their job — and they’re trained for it,” Carpenter said. “When we can go back and find a femur, that’s not a little bone. And so, just to sort of brush it off with, ‘Oh, it’s just part of the desert.’ That’s not good enough. They’re professionals. This is their job. They’re trained. They’re paid for this.”Human remains in the desert near Santa Teresa in January. Battalion Search and Rescue has discovered more than 200 sites with human remains in New Mexico and Arizona in the six years members have been searching. (Michael G. Seamans / The New Mexican)‘Treated as potential homicides’Stewart, the Doña Ana County sheriff, initially declined a request for an interview about Battalion Search and