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The key to Finding and Identifying Remains

Relatives and friends of disappeared persons are often involved in years of search for their beloved ones. Sometimes it becomes clear during their search that the disappeared is most likely to be dead. The uncertainty brought with the absence of the body and the lack of the possibility of a funeral with the primary funeral rite of burial or cremation have considerable emotional and social effects both on the direct relatives as well as on the community at large.

Finding and identifying the mortal remains is often a very long and arduous process. The success for this process depends on the contributions of many different persons with different expertises; relatives, social workers, forensic anthropologists, sociologists, different government officials, etc. They all have – sometimes conflicting –interests and objectives.

Fining and Identifying: The Process

The process can be divided in different phases:

  1. Documenting and analysing the information of the cases of disappearances. Information can come from many different sources; the relatives, government documents, testimonies, etc. The analysis of the information would enable the localisation of gravesites.
  2. Recuperation and exhumation of the remains. After identifying the places where the human remains are located these are managed like crime scenes under the responsibility of forensic experts. This is something that can be a cause for conflicting interests. Relatives find the remains of their loved ones but are held back by the rules and regulations of a crime scene. The different experts should work in a coordinated manner and include the relatives in the process. There are efforts to create standards for the psychosocial accompaniment of relatives of disappeared during exhumations.
  3. Analysis and identification of the remains. Identification of the bodies is the work of a team of forensic physicians. They establish a biological profile for the victim, which includes bio-demographic characteristics such as sex, age, height, traumas in addition to determining the causes and circumstances of death. The identification process is important for penal, civil and administrative follow up activities next to the emotional and religious interests of the relatives. DNA matching can be used to positively identify the diseased.