Identifying the unidentified: Scientific advances and institutional challenges in Mexico's forensic identification...

The issue of missing persons is multifaceted and complex and has intensified globally in recent decades. Mexico is not an exception; between 2000 and 2024, approximately 101,638 individuals were reported missing or unaccounted for, contributing to the saturation of forensic services. This study presents a scoping review that maps advances in the integration of Ante-mortem and Post-mortem (AM/PM) data and examines their relevance for the Mexican context. In addition, the study identifies and prioritizes key challenges faced by genetic database experts working within prosecutors' offices in the State of Mexico, Mexico City, and Oaxaca. A scoping-oriented literature review was combined with expert-based prioritization using the TKJ technique and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The TKJ process identified consensus-based problem domains across the AM/PM workflow, which were subsequently prioritized through AHP. The findings indicate that several national forensic identification systems-such as NamUs (United States), the National DNA Program for Missing and Unidentified Persons (Australia), the DNA identification portal in New Delhi (India), and Brazil's Integrated Network of DNA Databases-demonstrate the feasibility of large-scale AM/PM integration. However, expert prioritization in Mexico highlights persistent structural barriers, including limitations in infrastructure, human resources, accreditation, and interoperability affecting access to AM/PM information across institutions. These results suggest that the primary obstacles to AM/PM integration in Mexico are institutional rather than technological, underscoring the need for legal frameworks, quality assurance mechanisms, and sustained inter-institutional coordination.