DNA Identification in Mass Fatality Incidents
How difficult will it be to identify everyone?
The laboratory must make a preliminary decision regarding the DNA technologies that will be used. For example, can all identifications be made with standard forensic Short Tandem Repeat (STR) markers? Will mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) play a role and, if so, to what degree will the ME rely on mtDNA results to make an identification? Longer recovery efforts usually result in more DNA degradation, and this, in turn, affects marker choices. Also, the decision to expand marker sets beyond those typically used by the forensic laboratory will be driven by environmental conditions at the incident site and the resulting DNA degradation, and by the scope and duration of the DNA effort.
Whether an incident is “closed” or “open” has a significant impact on the statistical options for making DNA identifications (see chapter 12, Statistical and Other Issues). In a “closed” incident, the laboratory director should determine whether a list of victims is available—for example, in an airline disaster, the passenger manifest. Although it is important to keep in mind that the manifest might be incomplete or incorrect, the majority of the victims would still be known.
An “open” incident is one in which the number of victims—or their identities—is largely unknown. After the WTC attacks, for example, the final list of victims was not determined until months later, and even then, officials believed that there were up to 20 additional, unknown victims. It should also be kept in mind that open incidents are prime candidates for insurance fraud. There are people who may try to file fraudulent life insurance claims. In the WTC attacks, for example, a police investigation was performed with respect to every reported victim, and cases of fraud were still being uncovered more than 6 months after September 11, 2001.
It is possible for a closed incident to become open. If a plane crashes into a neighborhood, for example, the victims on the ground would change a typical “closed” event to “open,” because it would not be known who was on the ground.
