In 2010, the director of the award-winning documentary, Who Is Dayani Cristal?,
was retracing the footsteps of a man who had died while trying to cross the
US-Mexico border and following the body through the process of identification and
repatriation. Marc Silver, the director, had accompanied the sheriff’s office to the
scene on the day the man’s body had been found in the desert, just 20 min from
Tucson. He then spent weeks in the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner,
following every step of the identification process. When the remains of the Honduran
man, Dilcy, were positively identified at the medical examiner’s office, Marc accompanied
the body to the funeral home, and then onto the same flight itinerary from
Tucson to Atlanta, and then to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Upon arrival in
Tegucigalpa, Marc greeted Dilcy’s family, who had driven 8 h from the countryside
in order to pick up Dilcy’s body from the airport. After waiting for the passengers
and cargo to exit the plane, an airline representative told the family that the casket
containing Dilcy’s remains had not made it onto the flight from Atlanta to
Tegucigalpa. Apparently, luggage took priority over caskets, and with a full flight,
Dilcy’s body had stayed on the tarmac overnight in Atlanta.