npr:

Editor’s note: This story includes graphic descriptions of the search for human remains.

Manky Lugo has developed a gruesome expertise. Like a human bloodhound, she sniffs out traces of death.

Her gray hair wrapped in a bright-green bandanna, the 64-year-old applies her skill during an annual search for remains of fellow citizens who have vanished without a trace — victims of Mexico’s drug wars and armed groups. A loved one of her own is among the missing.

“I’m looking for my son Juan Francisco, who disappeared on June 19, 2015,” she says. “Three days after he went missing, I started searching for him and haven’t stopped since.”

Lugo is one of hundreds of Mexican citizens from across the country who spent two weeks in February in and around the eastern city of Poza Rica, Veracruz, searching for clandestine graves. All are hoping to find their missing loved ones.

The Mexican Mothers Who Make A Grim Yearly Search For Missing Loved Ones

Image Credit: Victoria Razo for NPR