(Photo by Lauren Gilger - KJZZ)

The Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office is currently reinvestigating the case of a 14-16 year-old boy who was found dead in the Arizona desert in 1982.

(Photo by Lauren Gilger - KJZZ)

Christen Eggers is the community liaison and unidentified decedent coordinator for the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office.

(Photo by Lauren Gilger - KJZZ)

In Eggers' office at the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office, there is a cabinet full of the Missing Persons cases for the entire county.

There are about 1,400 cases of unidentified remains in Arizona. More than 200 of those are here in Maricopa County.

On Nov. 5, investigators will gather at Arizona State University’s West Campus to solve them at the second-annual “Missing in Arizona” event.

Christen Eggers with the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office is joining investigators from the Phoenix Police Department and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office at the event. She said they’re trying to bridge the gap between the 2,000 Missing Persons reports in Arizona and unidentified cases.

“We want families to have the opportunity to make sure that Missing Persons report is filed, is reviewed, and investigated,” she said.

Eggers said they’re asking for families of missing people to bring pictures, dental records, fingerprints and other information about their loved ones. They’re also asking for DNA samples from family members so they can try to match them with unidentified remains.

Investigators were able to resolve 9 cases after last year’s event, Eggers said. Four missing persons were found alive, she said, and five were deceased.

Often times, unidentified remains in Arizona are those of migrants who are found in the desert, Eggers said. But, they also find unidentified remains in places like canals, drainage ditches or sewers.

When she gets a new case, an anthropologist gets demographic information, a forensic dentist gathers information from teeth, then, they take that information to a forensic sketch artist to create an image of the person.

“Then I will share that with the Missing Persons Detective,” she said, “and we’ll look through Missing Persons and do a comparison.”

But Eggers said the job is an emotional one. “You’re thinking about these cases all the time, and they become personal to you,” she said. “Giving back somebody their name is an awesome responsibility and one that I take wholeheartedly.”