Protocol dictates that the Mexican government invite the FBI to investigate. But the invitation was never extended in this case. The FBI can still act as a liaison, helping the family and any American witnesses provide statements and evidence that might convince the Mexican police to conduct their own investigation. That's what Norfolk, Va., agent Michael Freeman was charged with.

Artis was embalmed at the Funeraria del Carmen.

The first hurdle, said Freeman, who was assigned to the bureau's antiterrorism branch, was the lack of a body. Martin-Smith had cremated Artis' body to cut down on the spiraling costs of sending it back across the border. Without a body, a sophisticated medical examination, which could determine whether Artis' injuries were caused by the butt of a gun or by the bumper of a car, could not be performed.

"That's the most important piece of evidence," noted Freeman. "If there's one thing that could have convinced folks on both sides of the border that there was foul play, it was that body."

What remained, then, was a crude autopsy report, and the suspicion engendered by the observations of Steve Thomas and Michael Justin. Neither were enough for the Tijuana police, not until the Mexican airing of an "Unsolved Mysteries" segment detailing Artis' death. After the broadcast, the department's assistant internal affairs chief Marco Quintero compiled a binder of 205 photographs of Tijuana municipal police officers and delivered it to the American consulate. The binder, says Freeman, "was pivotal."

On July 26, 1999, Thomas visited the agent in his Norfolk office to view the photos. Thomas immediately selected a photo of a female officer with the same ponytail, uniform and facial features of the woman Artis tangled with in the crowd that night. "I am about half and half sure that this is the same woman my brother bumped into," he told Freeman.

He also tentatively pointed to a male officer as the one who apprehended Artis for urinating in public.

"He wasn't very confident of his IDs," recalled Freeman, "In fact, I wouldn't go so far as to call them identifications."

And Michael Justin, who was sent the binder in California, was unable to identify any of the officers.

Calls by Courttv.com to the Tijuana police department and Tijuana's spokesperson for public safety were not returned, but Freeman speculates the evidence just wasn't convincing enough. An investigation was never opened. "I think in their minds, there wasn't enough there," Freeman said.

Adding to Thomas' tenuous identifications was the disappearance of Quintero, the internal affairs officer who seemed willing to help. "You had someone with a heart, and I don't know if he had the permission of his department," said Freeman. "I can only surmise he overstepped his bounds."

Artis' mother says that the ACS consul at the time, Lisa Gamble-Barker, stopped returning her calls after Thomas identified the officers. And Freeman was forced to close his own work on the case in 2000, the final note in a decrescendo of effort.

Today, the official cause of death for Jayson Artis remains the same as it was on Aug. 2, 1998: "Politraumatismo," or multiple traumas. "The official report was that he was hit by a vehicle," says Anzaldua, reading from a one-page document on his desk.

"Bad cops get away with it sometime," he says. "It happens in the U.S., and it happens here."

Neither the FBI nor ACS have ruled out further investigation. "If anything came up, I'd reopen it in a heartbeat," said Freeman. But what might it take to spur further inquiry? New evidence? A confession?

Today, Arrington's only hope is that someone with knowledge of her son's death might come forward with vital information. She has made hundreds of calls and sent as many letters to the consulate, senators and representatives. She had to overcome a language barrier and a massive diplomatic bureaucracy, all at a remove of thousands of miles. Eventually she just stopped calling.

"I don't want it to take my life like that," she says. The shrine she keeps in her home — an urn with her son's ashes and some pictures of him in life — reminds her daily of her son's demise. "Jayson loved to drink and party, but he was a good kid. He didn't deserve to die like that."