Donovan seen in the rear-view mirror of his car, late at night, after giving his business cards to the city’s detective units in Mexico City on May 25, 2015. During his late-night drives, he likes to smoke, listen to AM radio songs, and watch the empty streets around him. It is a kind of ritual for him.
Donovan Tavera, 43, is the director of “Limpieza Forense México”, the country’s first and so far the only government-accredited forensic cleaning company. Since 2000, Tavera, a self-taught forensic technician, and his family have offered services to clean up homicides, unattended death, suicides, the homes of compulsive hoarders and houses destroyed by fire or flooding. Despite rising violence that has left 70,000 people dead and 23,000 disappeared since 2006, Mexico has only one certified forensic cleaner. As a consequence, the biological hazards associated with crime scenes are going unchecked all around the country. Photo by Bénédicte Desrus