Ohio State University researchers are helping Colombian authorities identify and return the remains of some of the country’s 137,000 missing people.

The Mershon Search Lab, officially launched in March, is collaborating with Colombia’s Unidad de Búsqueda de Personas dadas por Desaparecidas (UBPD), the state agency charged with finding those who were forcibly disappeared during the nation’s long internal conflict. Lab co-directors Derek Congram and Teri Murphy bring decades of experience working on missing-persons cases in armed conflicts around the world.

“When we bring these things to light, these disappearances to light, it’s no longer a question of what happened,” Congram said. “No, we find out this person was maybe kidnapped and then killed. And it makes it more difficult to dispute.”

For more than 60 years, guerrilla groups, paramilitaries, crime gangs, and state forces battled for control in Colombia. Armed groups frequently disappeared people. A 2016 peace agreement with the largest guerrilla group, FARC, created space for the UBPD to begin systematic recovery work. The agency has recovered more than 5,400 remains and returned 808 to families since 2017.

The Ohio State lab supplies academic expertise in identifying and sorting remains and in broader research projects, while the UBPD contributes on-the-ground knowledge. Murphy described the partnership as non-hierarchical, bringing different forms of knowledge into conversation.

The work is difficult. Colombia’s vast and varied terrain—Andes Mountains, rainforests, and tropical lowlands—complicates searches. Many remains date back decades and have been altered by humidity and movement. Researchers and Colombian officials must also coordinate with armed groups that still control some areas to ensure safe access. The Red Cross recorded 308 new disappearances in Colombia in 2025.

In February, Congram and Murphy traveled to Bogotá for the dignified return of the remains of Father Camilo Torres, a well-known Catholic priest and guerrilla figure killed in 1966. After nearly 60 years, the UBPD identified his remains, and they were laid to rest.

Murphy emphasized that each disappeared person leaves behind family members seeking answers. She has seen the same determination among relatives in other conflict zones, including Syria, and said the lab’s goal is to help deliver that closure while sharing methods that can support similar efforts elsewhere.