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Six years ago, a mother named Guadalupe Ayala was overwhelmed with grief after her son aged 25, Alfredo Campos, was abducted from his residence in the town of Tlajomulco. His disappearance added another name to the registry of over fifteen thousand individuals officially listed as disappeared in the western Mexican state of Jalisco. In the capital city, Guadalajara city, a major traffic junction plastered with posters of the disappeared has been dubbed the “roundabout of the disappeared”.

There are over one hundred thousand individuals unaccounted for in the country – a devastating outcome of the country's violent narcotics war, with the majority of those missing thought to have been taken by organised crime groups and narco-trafficking rings. The actual number is probably greater as numerous individuals are not reported missing due to fear of retribution.

One of the things that made me cry most was reading that he had been exposed to the elements, particularly to cold conditions

Learning the outcome of missing loved ones can be filled with risk, with relatives threatened or murdered for attempting to locate their loved ones. They can also become dependent on interactions with criminal syndicates for leads about locations where opposing factions have interred remains.

In an effort to speed up the investigations and minimize the dangers for mothers such as Ayala, community volunteer organizations and government agencies have launched a novel program to help locate grave locations, including employing swine to simulate how vegetation grows on interment spots.

Scores of pig carcasses are being buried across 16 plots on the grounds of the University of Guadalajara – every one replicating a distinct scenario in which a human remains might have been interred, such as wrapped in a blanket, cut into pieces, cremated or covered with rocks. Two plots have been kept vacant for reference purposes.

Swine are employed due to their biological resemblance to people in terms of bodily structure, genetic makeup and physiology. Researchers have already noticed variations in development of plants across the burial plots, with plant life emerging quickly above the swine covered in cloth.

“Even though the ground might be dry, the fabric holds moisture,” says a researcher named Tunarui Chávez Gonzalez, from the Jalisco Search Commission, a government body that coordinates search efforts with family members and is running the Found project with collectives of mothers and local and international universities.

At additional research locations, the scientists have discovered depressed soil functions as a barrier, trapping additional moisture and leading to more growth, with the researcher noting they had identified fifteen distinct plant species that are associated with the presence of bodies.

In addition to the swine graves, the commission is experimenting with geophysical technology such as electrical resistance mapping, which can create images of the underground earth by detecting electrical differences, and multispectral cameras on drones, which can identify compounds in the earth that often indicate the presence of decomposing remains, such as nitrogen and potassium.

The previous year, during a inspection of a vacant property in the Zapopan municipality, where criminal elements had been reported to deal narcotics, a mothers’ collective had found approximately four sacks with remains. The use of an electrical resistance device allowed the search agency to locate twenty-nine additional sacks and three complete corpses within a few hours.

Some mothers’ search groups have learned that the criminal groups frequently excavate burial sites near certain types of trees: huisaches and mesquite trees. These trees are favored because they offer cover while digging graves but their taproots grow primarily downward, avoiding thick roots that might obstruct the excavation.

By employing AI technology and drone flights, scientists currently think they can use such insights to help prioritise search areas and accelerate the likely finding of secret burial sites.

For the mother, the quest to find her disappeared child was brought to a quick but tragic conclusion, aided by the Fundej collective, a group of local mothers and volunteers looking for disappeared youth.

They discovered four arms, with scientific analysis confirming one was from her child, followed by more body parts over the subsequent period.

“Upon locating the individual and find them segmented like that, that’s the worst nightmare. You imagine numerous scenarios,” says Ayala. “You question how he suffered, what his final moments were like?”

The following autopsy document was a distressing perusal. “I never stopped crying when going through it,” she said.

“Among the details that brought the most tears was when it said that he had been exposed to the elements, particularly to low temperatures, because it showed on the internal organs. Before he died, he was very cold.”

While welcoming the new innovations speeding up the search for the missing, Víctor Hugo Ávila Barrientos, acknowledges this doesn't resolve Mexico’s drug crisis.

“Even if I had a thousand searchers, it’s continuing to increase if we fail to stop the violence. But in the meantime,” he says, “we aim to build the expertise to find those who do disappear as soon as possible.”