New Perspectives in Mass Disaster Victim Identification Assisted by DNA Typing and Forensic Genomics

Abstract

Mass disasters represent a challenging forensic task when victims need to be identified. A wide variety of multiple scenarios force a systematic classification of disasters. The retrieval of human remains, leading to the identification of victims, requires conventional identification criteria, depending upon the degree of the corpse fragmentation. A key aspect for the identification process resides in the preservation of human remains. Besides the conventional identification approaches employed, such as external traits, dental records, tattoos, and piercings, DNA profiling represents the gold standard of objective and reliable identification. DNA polymorphisms are used for tracing the kinship between fragmentary human remains and the relatives claiming them. DNA degradation and contamination characterize disaster areas and demand efficient strategies for reducing their analytical effects. Since the early 1990s, DNA-based victim identification technical approaches have evolved vertiginously. In this chapter two terrorist attacks and a mass murder case conducted by state terrorism during the last military dictatorship in Buenos Aires, Argentina, are described. Other disasters are also described, including open road accidents involving buses crashing and burning, an open road airplane disaster, and a closed accident in an in-flight airplane explosion. The evolution of the technical approaches are analyzed, showing how forensic genetics and genomics promote a paradigm change driven by technology that highly improves the victim identification process based in DNA typing in mass fatalities.