This eerie but extremely important innovative method is used to solve crimes in the state of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, which is famous for its high murder rate.
Of course, Dr. Alejandro Hernandez Cardenas is not able to bring people back from the realm of the dead - but he can make the bodies of the dead look fresh thanks to an unusual method of transforming shrunken human remains into nicer ones. Why is this, you ask?
The fact is that this process has proven to be very useful, as it helps to reveal details such as fingerprints, scars, wounds and tattoos that can be used to identify the victims and help solve many crimes, says dailymail.co.uk. Heads, shriveled in the desert heat, are rebuilding so much that you can see broken lips and bruises that hint at the last moments of a person.
Forensic scientists from the University of Southern Mississippi have received a patent for a rehydration technique that prints even dehydrated fingers. This method uses sodium hydroxide - but the timing of rehydration is critical because too much chemical concentration or a longer residence time for the sample can dissolve it completely.
Unlike other experts who only work with body fragments, Dr. Cardenas submerges whole bodies - some wrinkled and completely dehydrated or disfigured by accidents - in a tank he calls a "jacuzzi" for five days. The tank contains about 270 liters of a solution of components with a secret chemical formula that magically turns back time.
Cardenas has already rehydrated hundreds of body parts and recovered about a dozen whole corpses. When the body is taken out of the bath, its limbs and joints become flexible - but it smells indescribable. Nonetheless, Dr. Cardenas continues to do his grim work to give grieving families the opportunity to bury their loved ones humanly. He even finances the costs of the procedures himself.
For a more complete description of Dr. Cardenas, it is worth adding that during the procedures he talks to his "patients" and even plays music for them.
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