DNA Identification in Mass Fatality Incidents
Robert Shaler
In the World Trade Center identification effort, both the fire and the police departments frequently asked the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) to reprioritize testing of victims’ remains. Although it was important to keep the testing queue intact to disrupt the work flow as little as possible, the OCME honored a number of these requests. When this happened, the testing process, including the assignment of personnel, was affected.
Although requests for special sample handling may disrupt efficient sample processing, such interruptions are inevitable in the aftermath of a mass fatality event. The laboratory director should plan for these contingencies and construct a separate process to handle expedited requests. The first 72 hours after a major incident will be emotionally charged, with the possibility of many urgent requests that the laboratory perform immediate DNA analyses. Requests for expedited analyses may also occur later in the identification effort, if new remains are recovered or more useful personal items or kinship references become available. In the WTC DNA identification project, the laboratory frequently received instructions to collect and analyze reference samples and search the DNA profiles against the accumulated profiles of tested victim remains within 24 hours or less. Without a process in place for handling such expedited requests, interruptions will affect efficient and orderly sample throughput.
