Initial forensic work was to begin Monday to try to exhume the bodies of 128 victims of late dictator Francisco Franco’s forces who are among tens of thousands of people buried anonymously in wooden boxes underground in a mausoleum.
The team of some 15 forensic experts, archeologists, scientific police and odontologists will work on extracting samples of the remains at the Valle de Cuelgamuros mausoleum, formerly known as the Valle de los Caídos, or Valley of the Fallen, and try to match them with DNA of surviving relatives. A special laboratory has been set up within the mausoleum.
