Valley medical examiners hope event reduces unidentified bodies

PHOENIX — The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office will host an event next month in an effort to reduce its backlog of unidentified bodies.

Missing in Arizona Day will be held Oct. 24 at Arizona State University’s West Campus, located at Thunderbird Road and 51st Avenue.

“This day provides an opportunity for families that have missing persons to come down and generate a missing persons report, check on a missing persons report and provide photographs, dental information, and any other information that they want so that we can get that into the database,” Christen Eggers, community liaison for the medical examiner’s office, said. “We need this information for our missing persons (database) so we can compare it to our unidentified individuals.

“We do have over 2,000 missing persons in Arizona and over 1,300 unidentified (bodies).”

Forensic anthropologist Dr. Laura Fulginiti showed media an example of unidentified remains Tuesday. She laid out the bones of a man who had been shot and died in the Superstition Mountains. His remains were found in 1992.

She said the man was between 38 and 50 years old and had some medical issues at the time of his death.

“He has some arthritis in his back, and some arthritis in one leg that we think might have made him limp a little bit,” she said.

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