Volunteers, clergy memorialize human remains found in New Mexico desert
SANTA TERESA, New Mexico (KTSM) — Over a month has passed since Abbey Carpenter and James Holman from Battalion Search and Rescue (BSAR) guided KTSM and Border Report crews to two sites with skeletal remains deep into the desert west of Santa Teresa, and one of those sites remains largely unchanged.
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On Saturday afternoon, Oct. 26, they took that same KTSM crew and a group of over a dozen other people to one of the sites for a memorial service.
“There are no witnesses out here. But today you are another witness. And we need more eyes, Clearly, we need more witnesses,” said Holman as he addressed the group before guiding them about a mile to the site.
The same remains our crews observed a month ago were still there, seemingly untouched. This after BSAR said they continuously re-submitted detailed reports of their findings to the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office and the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator.
"It has taken a while. Today is October 26 and they're (local authorities) not here, and we reported it another time. But I don't want to give up on this site. This was a human life right here. And I made a promise to her (human remains)," Carpenter said.
To this date, they have located over 20 sites with skeletal remains west of Santa Teresa -- eight of them since late August, with the most recent on Oct. 20.
The group that congregated at the site with the human remains was a mix of clergy, volunteers, and journalists.
The service and prayer were led by an assistant priest from the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Silver City, New Mexico, Sarah Guck, who said she felt relief at the thought of being able to honor the people who were lost to the desert at the site.
"There's something about reclaiming this space of agony and dying,” Guck said. “I mean dying in the desert would be agonizing. And so to reclaim this space in the name of love, sisterhood, and brotherhood, it feels really good to me."
Julia Ganson lives in both the state of New York and New Mexico. She said she is in El Paso for two weeks to volunteer at a local church at their refugee center, and shared her experience after observing and praying for the remains that were found in the Southern New Mexico desert.
"The first word I think of in terms of how I feel is somber, and shame. I feel ashamed that this is how we treat and ignore people," Ganson said. “I felt the importance of memorializing and celebrating the lives of all of us.”
BSAR believes most of the human remains they have discovered are of women based on possessions they have located by the remains such as identification cards.
Holman and Carpenter said they remain hopeful that the remains in the desert will be properly assessed and claimed by local authorities so that eventually light can be shed on who these people were.