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Half a dozen years back, Guadalupe Ayala was left distraught after her 25-year-old son, Alfredo Ezequiel Campos, was taken from his home in Tlajomulco. His disappearance added another name to the registry of more than 15,000 people officially listed as disappeared in the western Mexican state of Jalisco state. In the capital city, Guadalajara city, a major traffic junction plastered with posters of the disappeared has been renamed the “roundabout of the disappeared”.

Estimates indicate over one hundred thousand individuals unaccounted for in Mexico – a devastating outcome of the nation’s deadly drug crisis, with most of the “disappeared” believed to be abducted by organised crime groups and narco-trafficking rings. The total is likely greater as numerous individuals are never officially reported due to concerns about retaliation.

Among the aspects that made me cry most was when it said he had been left out in the open, particularly to cold conditions

Learning the outcome of missing loved ones can be fraught with danger, with relatives threatened or killed for attempting to locate their loved ones. They can also become dependent on contact with organised crime groups for leads about locations where rival groups have interred remains.

In an initiative to accelerate the investigations and reduce the risks for parents like Ayala, local volunteer groups and government agencies have launched a novel program to assist in finding grave locations, including employing swine to simulate how vegetation grows on interment spots.

Dozens of swine bodies are being buried across sixteen separate areas on the campus of Guadalajara University – each simulating a different condition in which a human remains might have been buried, such as wrapped in a blanket, dismembered, cremated or covered with rocks. A couple of areas have been kept vacant for reference purposes.

Pigs are used due to their similarity to humans in terms of anatomy, genetic makeup and bodily functions. Scientists have observed differences in the growth of vegetation across the burial plots, with vegetation appearing straight away above the swine covered in cloth.

“Despite the soil being arid, the fabric holds moisture,” says a researcher named Tunarui Chávez Gonzalez, from the Jalisco Search Commission, a state agency that coordinates search efforts with relatives and is managing the Discovery initiative with collectives of mothers and local and international universities.

At additional research locations, the researchers have found depressed soil functions as a barrier, trapping additional moisture and leading to more growth, with Gonzalez saying they had identified fifteen distinct plant species that correspond to the presence of bodies.

In addition to the swine graves, the commission is experimenting with geophysical technology such as electrical resistivity tomography, which can produce pictures of the soil below the surface by detecting electrical differences, and advanced aerial cameras, which can detect substances in the earth that frequently signal the presence of decomposing remains, such as specific chemical elements.

The previous year, during a search of an abandoned house in the Zapopan municipality, where criminal elements had been known to sell drugs, a mothers’ collective had found approximately four sacks with remains. The use of an electrical resistance device enabled the Jalisco Search Commission to locate twenty-nine additional sacks and three complete corpses within a short period.

Some mothers’ search groups have learned that the criminal groups frequently excavate burial sites near certain types of trees: huisaches and mesquites. These trees are favored because they offer cover while excavating pits but their main roots grow straight down, avoiding thick roots that might hinder the digging.

By employing artificial intelligence and drone flights, scientists currently think they can apply these findings to assist in ranking investigation zones and speed up the likely finding of clandestine graves.

For Ayala, the quest to find her disappeared child was brought to a quick but heartbreaking end, assisted by the Fundej collective, a group of local mothers and volunteers searching 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.

“When you finally find the person and discover them dismembered in that manner, that’s the worst nightmare. You imagine numerous scenarios,” says Ayala. “You wonder how he was tortured, what his final moments were like?”

The subsequent coroner’s report was a distressing perusal. “I never stopped crying when going through it,” she said.

“One of the things that made me cry most was when it stated he was left unprotected to the environment, particularly to low temperatures, because it was evident in his organs. Before he died, he was very cold.”

While welcoming the new innovations speeding up the search for the missing, Víctor Hugo Ávila Barrientos, accepts that it does not solve Mexico’s drug crisis.

“Despite having numerous investigators, it’s continuing to increase if we don’t prevent [deaths from happening]. But in the meantime,” he says, “we aim to build the knowledge to find those who do disappear as quickly as we can.”