How forensic anthropologists are helping the families of Mexico's disappeared seek justice

On 18 July 2011, Celia García Velázquez’s son Alfredo disappeared. The 33-year-old lived in a town called Chiconquiaco in the Mexican state of Veracruz, and at the time of his disappearance he was running for president of his municipality against a candidate supported by the country’s most powerful political party. “Everybody knew him,” says García Velázquez, a stout woman with hair the color of a lion’s mane and a blast of bright pink lipstick. One day Alfredo went to Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz state, to sort out the paperwork for a car he’d bought. Like so many young men in Veracruz these day s-more than 700 since 2006- he never made it home.