Khthon documents mass graves, atrocity crimes, and forensic evidence from conflict zones worldwide. Our work is strictly humanitarian and apolitical.
This site may contain imagery and descriptions of deceased individuals, violent injuries, and human remains gathered in the course of active investigations. Content is presented for accountability and documentation purposes only.
Khthon documents mass graves, atrocity crimes, and forensic evidence from conflict zones worldwide. Our work is strictly humanitarian and apolitical.
This site may contain imagery and descriptions of deceased individuals, violent injuries, and human remains gathered in the course of active investigations.
Country / Region Overview
The United States' mass-grave context is concentrated along the borderlands and in institutional settings rather than on conventional battlefields.
Along the Texas and Arizona deserts, thousands of migrants have died of exposure or drowned during crossings; many were buried as "unidentified" in county cemeteries or left in remote terrain for years before recovery. Texas State University's Operation Identification (OpID) has led multi-year exhumations in South Texas cemeteries — including Brooks County/Falfurrias, where investigators uncovered large numbers of unidentified burials in 2013–2014. The University of North Texas Center for Human Identification performs DNA analysis for missing and unidentified persons and supports NamUs. The Pima County Medical Examiner in Arizona, in partnership with NGOs, maps and investigates desert deaths in open country far from witnesses or infrastructure.
"Burial practices, including historical grouped interments, are best understood as emergent outcomes of a constrained and fragmented system rather than coordinated policy decisions."
— Khthon Preliminary Field Assessment, Texas Border Region, 2025
Khthon's preliminary field assessment of the Texas border region — covering Brooks, Hidalgo, Webb, and Maverick counties — documents a system shaped by decentralized authority and severe resource constraints. County-level officials, including Justices of the Peace functioning as coroners, make burial decisions under capacity pressure. Grouped or proximate burials have occurred historically during periods of elevated fatality counts, with variable marking and inconsistent documentation. These outcomes are circumstantial rather than policy-driven.
For Khthon, the U.S. presents two investigative fronts: desert burials — locating and documenting graves and surface recoveries in scrub, arroyos, and ranchland, then tracking chain-of-custody into county systems and university labs — and closed institutions, where we monitor body handling, death reporting, and the historical burial record of detention settings, boarding schools, and state reform institutions. Current institutional casework includes New York City's public cemetery on Hart Island. Burial and recovery data remain fragmented across county records, cemetery systems, and academic datasets, with centralized grave registries and standardized GPS mapping still largely absent.
1994
NAFTA and the militarisation of the border
The North American Free Trade Agreement, combined with U.S. border enforcement operations (Operation Gatekeeper, Hold the Line), shifts migration routes from urban crossing points into remote, lethal desert terrain. Deaths from exposure and dehydration begin accumulating in the Sonoran Desert and South Texas.
1998–Present
Systematic border deaths recorded
The International Organization for Migration begins tracking border deaths. Over 10,000 are documented along the U.S.–Mexico border from 1998 onward, with the true number believed significantly higher. Texas and Arizona account for the majority of fatalities. Many bodies are recovered months or years after death, severely decomposed.
2013
Falfurrias, Texas — mass unidentified burials uncovered
Investigators and journalists reveal that Brooks County has been burying unidentified migrants in potter's fields and shared graves, with inadequate documentation and no systematic DNA collection. The findings trigger public outcry and prompt formal exhumation and identification efforts led by Texas State University's Operation Identification.
2013–Present
Operation Identification (OpID) — Texas State University
Led by Dr. Kate Spradley, OpID conducts systematic exhumations of migrant remains from South Texas cemeteries. The program integrates forensic anthropology, DNA analysis, and family outreach to identify individuals buried without names. It sets a national standard for humanitarian forensic practice in non-conflict mass-fatality settings.
Ongoing
University of North Texas Center for Human Identification (UNTCHI)
Under Dr. Michael Coble, UNTCHI provides DNA analysis for unidentified remains in law enforcement casework, integrating with NamUs and CODIS/NDIS. It maintains a strong operational relationship with Texas state and local law enforcement agencies and serves as a primary DNA hub for border-related unidentified persons cases.
Ongoing
Pima County Medical Examiner — Arizona desert mapping
The Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, in partnership with the Colibri Center for Human Rights and other NGOs, conducts systematic collection and identification of remains recovered in the Sonoran Desert. The program represents one of the most comprehensive open-country migrant death mapping efforts in the U.S.
2024
Hart Island, New York — larger mass-burial trenches
After burials on Hart Island rise to 1,979 in 2023, New York City increases the number of caskets placed in each trench to as many as 200, up from a standard of 150. Advocates argue the change runs counter to efforts to end mass burial on the island.
2025
Khthon preliminary field assessment — Texas border region
Khthon conducts a preliminary assessment of migrant death burial practices in Brooks, Hidalgo, Webb, and Maverick counties. The assessment documents decentralized authority structures, resource constraints driving burial decisions, and significant data fragmentation. Formal data requests to county and cemetery authorities are initiated. Coordination with OpID, UNTCHI, and Baylor's diminished Reuniting Families Project is assessed.
Ongoing
Khthon monitoring — institutional settings
In parallel with border work, Khthon monitors body handling and death reporting in closed institutional settings — including immigration detention facilities and the historical record of BIPOC graves at boarding schools and state reform institutions. These strands form Khthon's two-front U.S. workflow.
Browse Khthon's full catalogue of country and case reports across seven global regions, or get involved with our ongoing investigations.
