Thousands of people have died trying to cross from Mexico into the United States. The unidentified remains of those who are found often end up in small, border town cemeteries, buried in unmarked graves.

Dr. Lori Baker, a forensic scientist at Baylor University in Texas, is trying to identify these remains and match them with families who are looking for lost relatives.

Lori sat down for StoryCorps with her husband, Erich Baker, to talk about how she got started.

You can learn more about Lori’s work at the Reuniting Families Project website.

Originally aired September 19, 2014, on NPR’s Morning Edition.