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Help Sought To ID Remains Of Illegal Immigrants

Tribune photo by JULIE BUSCH

Pete Bihorel has files with information about an unidentified corpse, skull, or skeletal remains found in Hillsborough County. Some files date to the 1970s.

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 24, 2009

Updated: 02/24/2009 02:37 pm

TAMPA - As a forensic investigator with the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Office, Pete Bihorel's job includes identifying remains.

To do that, he reaches out to the public for help.

But fears over deportation among a growing segment of the public may be hindering those efforts.
Some of the 10 to 12 people of Hispanic descent whose unidentified remains are on file with the medical examiner may have been illegal immigrants – and so may be the people who can identify them.

"I just feel like I have to do something," he said.

Today, Bihorel traveled to a center in Plant City that offers services to Hispanic people. An employee at the center agreed to make copies of the information Bihorel provided and pass it on to case workers.

In September, Bihorel said, he spoke with an employee at a mission in Ruskin that helps illegal immigrants. He provided sketches of some of those whose remains are unidentified in hopes the mission would encourage people to speak up if they know anything.

He said he thinks illegal immigrants would feel safer talking to mission employees than coming directly to him.

The trip hasn't yielded results so far, but Bihorel plans a visit to Dover, a farming area. "I just feel like I have to do something," he said.

Bihorel has files with information about unidentified corpses, skulls, or skeletal remains found in Hillsborough County. Some files date to the 1970s.

In December, a skeleton was identified as slaying victim Tina Louise Johnson, a dozen years after her remains were found under a tree at Adamo Drive near 26th Street.

Police identified Johnson with the help of Bihorel and the medical examiner's Web site, which posted a rendering of what the woman might have looked like.

The Web site includes information on other unidentified remains, such as physical descriptions, scars, tattoos and what the person was wearing when found.

Johnson's daughter saw the description and image online, police said, and contacted the medical examiner's office in February 2008. She provided a DNA sample, which an FBI analysis matched with the remains.

You can click here to see the information from Bihorel's files, plotted on a map, or visit one of the sites below to learn more about unidentified remains nationwide.

• Hillsborough County remains

• Arizona Daily Star's "Death On The Border" database

• Florida remains

• National site for unidentified remains

Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691 or jpoltilove@tampatrib.com.

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