An Evaluation of the Thai Tsunami Victim Identification DNA Operation

Autor: Denis I. Crane, Janet Chaseling, Christopher Maguire, Kirsty Wright, Amy Z. Mundorff
Rok vydání: 2015
Předmět:
Zdroj: Forensic Science Policy & Management: An International Journal. 6:69-78
ISSN: 1940-9036
1940-9044
Popis: The Thai Tsunami Victim Identification operation was the largest disaster victim identification operation in history, involving 3,679 unidentified victims from 41 countries, and police and forensic scientists from over 30 countries. This paper evaluates the DNA response to the 26 December 2004 South-East Asia Tsunami, measuring its impact at different stages of the operation. Only 15 identifications were established using DNA during the first 5 months, compared to 307 by fingerprints, 1,266 by dental, and 11 by physical analysis. Critical obstacles, such as available ante-mortem and post-mortem DNA profiles, data management challenges, and automated DNA matching issues were impeding the DNA response. Recognizing and resolving the key issues hindering DNA identification resulted in increased DNA identifications during the middle and late stages of the operation.Consideration of victim demographics was crucial to understanding the impact of different identification methods during the operation. DNA ...
Databáze: OpenAIRE