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Half a dozen years back, a mother named Guadalupe Ayala was overwhelmed with grief after her 25-year-old son, Alfredo Ezequiel Campos, was taken from his home in the town of Tlajomulco. His disappearance contributed one more entry to the registry of over fifteen thousand individuals recorded as missing in the western Mexican state of Jalisco. In the capital city, Guadalajara, a key intersection covered in flyers of the disappeared has been renamed the “roundabout of the disappeared”.

Estimates indicate more than 100,000 missing people in the country – a devastating outcome of the nation’s deadly drug crisis, with most of the “disappeared” believed to be abducted by criminal organizations and drug cartels. The total is likely even higher as many people are not reported missing due to fear of retribution.

One of the things that caused me the most tears was reading that he had been exposed to the elements, especially to the cold

Learning the outcome of disappeared family members can be fraught with danger, with family members intimidated or murdered for attempting to locate their loved ones. They can also become dependent on interactions with criminal syndicates for leads about locations where rival groups have interred remains.

In an initiative to accelerate the searches and reduce the risks for mothers such as Ayala, local volunteer groups and government agencies have launched a novel program to help locate grave locations, including using pigs to replicate how plant life develops on interment spots.

Dozens of swine bodies are being buried across sixteen separate areas on the campus of Guadalajara University – each simulating a distinct scenario in which a real body might have been buried, such as wrapped in a blanket, dismembered, burned or buried with stones above them. Two plots have been kept vacant for reference purposes.

Swine are employed due to their similarity to humans in terms of anatomy, genetic makeup and physiology. Scientists have observed variations in development of plants across the burial plots, with vegetation appearing straight away above the pigs wrapped in blankets.

“Even though the ground might be dry, the fabric holds moisture,” says a researcher named Tunarui Chávez Gonzalez, from the Jalisco Search Commission, a government body that organises local searches with family members and is running the Found project with collectives of mothers and academic institutions worldwide.

At other project sites, the researchers have found sunken earth acts like a dam, capturing more water and leading to more growth, with Gonzalez saying they had identified fifteen distinct plant species that correspond to the presence of bodies.

As well as the pig burial sites, the agency is testing with subsurface imaging tools such as electrical resistance mapping, which can create images of the underground earth by detecting electrical differences, and multispectral cameras on drones, which can detect substances in the soil 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 reported to deal narcotics, a mothers’ collective had found approximately four sacks with remains. The employment of an electrical detection tool allowed the search agency to discover 29 more bags and three full bodies within a short period.

Certain parental search teams have discovered that the criminal groups frequently excavate burial sites near two specific trees: sweet acacia trees and mesquite trees. These trees are favored because they offer cover while excavating pits but their taproots grow primarily downward, preventing large root systems that might obstruct the excavation.

Through the use of artificial intelligence and aerial surveys, researchers now believe they can use such insights to help prioritise search areas and accelerate the potential discovery of secret burial sites.

For Ayala, the quest to find her disappeared child was concluded rapidly but heartbreaking end, aided by the Fundej collective, a group of local mothers and volunteers looking for missing children.

They discovered four arms, with forensic tests showing that one belonged to her son, accompanied by additional remains over the subsequent period.

“Upon locating the individual and discover them dismembered in that manner, that’s the worst nightmare. You imagine numerous scenarios,” says the mother. “You question how he suffered, what his final moments were like?”

The subsequent coroner’s report was a traumatic read. “I couldn't stop weeping when reading it,” she said.

“One of the things that made me cry most was when it said that he had been exposed to the environment, particularly to low temperatures, because it showed on the internal organs. Before he died, he was very cold.”

While applauding the recent advances speeding up the search for the missing, Víctor Hugo Ávila Barrientos, acknowledges this doesn't resolve the nation's narcotics problem.

“Even if I had a thousand searchers, it’s going to keep growing if we fail to stop the violence. But for now,” he says, “we aim to build the expertise to find those who do disappear as quickly as we can.”