KRGV.com

WEBB COUNTY - The journeys of hundreds of border crossers ends when they die in the brush, along the river or in the ranches in South Texas. Somebody has to find them and identify them.

Dr. Corinne Stern is the chief medical examiner of Webb County. She is the last person to have her hands on a dead border crosser. She says she'll do whatever it takes to find out who they are and where they came from.

"These are the patients I've elected to take care of," said Stern.

Dr. Stern calls the bodies she finds crossers. She tells us a about certain crosser. Dr. Stern and her assistant told us they found a wallet, Mexican voter's card and some other form of identification card in the crosser's clothes. Stern called the Mexican Consulate to help her find the crosser's family.

Dr. Stern told us she has a book of the missing and she receives calls every week. Stern explained the process her and her staff do to identity the crosser. They send a piece of the crosser's knee cap to the state forensic lab at the University of North Texas in Dallas for DNA.

Dr. Stern is in charge of seven counties. She educates justices of the peace in those counties. She tells them the importance of identifying the crossers.

"You're in a foreign country and something happens to you. Would you want to just be put in a hole in the ground? You would hope somebody would go that extra mile to try to get you back to your family," Stern said.

Stern says she knows she can't convince everybody. She understands the toll it takes to identify these crossers.

"This is a huge financial burden on our county. And we get no help from the Mexican government in terms of supplies or staffing or anything like that. You see how much time we spend taking care of these individuals," Stern said.

Stern says the Mexican government has told her they won't help her. She says the Mexican government will pay for the casket and the ride back home for the crossers who die here. The consulate helps Dr. Stern find their families.

"This is our responsibility as a fellow human being to another human being," said Stern.

Stern told us she knows they won't stop coming. She added she won't stop caring.

The personal belongings of every border crosser are logged into evidence. They are handed over to the Mexican Consulate. Medical examiners are not just seeing remains of border crossers from Mexico. Hidalgo County Medical Examiner Dr. Norma Jean Farley is now reaching out to consulates around the world, including the Indian embassy to help her identify her border crossers.