BY SAMMY JULIAN
FORENSICS have started collecting materials that will help positively identify the remains of the passengers killed in the July 17 downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in Eastern Ukraine.
The remains were left outdoors for two days, in sweltering heat and rain, but expert investigators should “pretty reliably” be able to collect DNA samples to identify the remains.
The key to DNA identification is selecting tissue that has the least amount of DNA degradation, such as deep muscle tissue in the torso. If that is not available, investigators will typically seek skeletal tissue or dental records.
DNA collected from the remains must be measured against known reference samples, such as toothbrushes in people’s homes or hair, which MH17 forensic investigators have been collecting. If reference samples are not available, investigators can collect DNA samples from relatives, ideally parents or children who share half of each other’s DNA. Although entire families were killed in the crash, DNA can also be collected from relatives.
Body parts can be identified by a similar DNA process and also by characteristics such as scars, tattoos and wedding rings.
Once investigators establish that a body part belongs to a certain person, investigators will then have a record of that person’s DNA and be able to connect it with other remains.
It ends up being a kind of giant jigsaw puzzle of trying to place every body part based on its DNA or some other identifying characteristics.
The experts generally work to a five-stage process: at the scene, in the mortuary, collection of ante-mortem data, reconciliation of the findings and, finally, a debrief.
All this is handled by the pathologist – apart from ante-mortem data, which is gathered by the police. Relatives are asked for information on past medical history such as operations, and also samples for DNA identification.
For the Filipino victims, DNA samples from the Netherlands-based relatives have already been provided.
We presented this just to allow you, our readers, to see how grim the work is in identifying the victims of such a disaster – just to add to the anger brewing inside all of us against those responsible for this incident. Curse them all./PN
