The Baja California Sur Attorney General’s Office (PGJE) completed a 50-hour specialized course training forensic staff in advanced techniques for extracting DNA from degraded skeletal remains. The program, delivered through the Interdisciplinary Institute of Criminal Sciences (IICP), took place in La Paz and targeted medical examiners, geneticists, and dissectors working on the state’s backlog of unidentified human remains.
Spanish forensic specialist Diana Bustos Ríos, from the Instituto Hispalense in Spain, led the training. Bustos Ríos specializes in physical anthropology and forensic genetics. The course covered protocols for sample selection, bone decontamination, DNA extraction, and genetic analysis of partial or heavily degraded bone fragments.
A Growing Need in BCS
The training comes at a critical time. In March 2026, an anonymous tip led authorities to five clandestine graves in the municipality of Comondú, near the La Paz to San Juan de la Costa highway. Six sets of human remains were recovered there. Only two of the victims were identified through forensic genetics testing: 43-year-old Rigoberto Álvarez Amador and Raúl Zamarrón García.
The local search collective Búsqueda x La Paz reported that 96 sets of remains have been found in clandestine graves in and around La Paz in recent years. The group has urged all families of missing persons to submit DNA samples to state forensic services to speed future identifications.
Part of a Broader Push
BCS Attorney General Antonio López Rodríguez called the training part of a broader commitment to forensic professionalization. He said upgraded scientific tools strengthen criminal investigations and can deliver closure to families who have waited years for answers.
The state’s investment in DNA extraction skills also aligns with a national effort. Mexico’s federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) has been rolling out the FBI-developed Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS, connecting 15 state prosecutor’s offices and forensic labs to a shared national database. That system, announced in May 2026, is designed to cross-reference DNA profiles and speed identifications across state lines.
Mariano Guardado, head of the forensic genetics lab at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), told El Sol de México that “instruments like CODIS are what Mexico needs.” The BCS training in bone-specific DNA extraction directly complements that national database by ensuring local labs can produce usable genetic profiles from even the most damaged samples.
For families of the disappeared in Baja California Sur, the 50-hour course represents a concrete step toward answers that have been delayed by technical limitations. The PGJE has not disclosed how many unidentified remains are currently held in the state’s forensic facilities.
This story was first reported by Colectivo Pericú.