By Angela Kocherga / 11 News

Mexico—There’s new hope for families searching for missing loved ones around Juarez, Mexico.

The Juarez Crime Lab has a new method of identifying bodies abandoned in the harsh desert climate there: rehydration.

Using a technique developed by Dr. Alejandro Hernandez, lab workers are able to restore mummified, cardboard-like skin back to a recognizable texture.

The lab is able to recover fingerprints, and sometimes restore other identifying marks on the body, like moles, scars, tattoos and – in one case – a woman’s entire face. 

The border town is a magnet for immigrants looking for work and a battleground for drug traffickers fighting over smuggling routes to the U.S.

TNC Investigative Journalist Clarence Walker who writes extensively about murders committed by Organized Crime groups and Drug Cartels in the state of Mexico will follow up on this new scientific discovery.

Walker previously wrote the latest story published on TNC website about Mexico-based drug cartels and thousands of murders they committed as result of drug-related violence.