ABSTRACT
The Reuniting Families project attempts to aid federal, state and local agencies currently working towards the identification of deceased undocumented immigrants. This initiative has created a distributed on-line database, accessible by public officials and private citizens interested in searching for missing individuals based on both phenotypic and genotypic characteristics. This broad effort includes the exhumation of individuals from geographically disparate pauper graves, the classification of their physical characteristics, and the cataloging of observed metric traits in a local relational database, to include associated articles of possession and related metadata. Concurrent with the documentation of physical forensic evidence is the analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences. Computational techniques and scoring parameters are applied to automate the process of discovery and identification as well at to preserve information on the missing. The result is a prototype knowledge base that may serve as a model for future efforts in international forensic science collaborations.
Subject(s)
Databases, Factual , Emigrants and Immigrants , Forensic Anthropology , DNA Fingerprinting , DNA, Mitochondrial/genetics , Emigration and Immigration/legislation & jurisprudence , Family , Humans , Internet , Sequence Analysis, DNAABSTRACT
Human remains processed by forensic anthropologists may potentially be used for genetic analysis. Therefore, the condition of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in processed remains may become an issue for future analysis. Processing techniques employed by anthropologists are highly variable and scanning electron microscopy reveals significant alterations to the bone surface depending upon the technique used. Such damage to the bone indicates differences may exist in quality and quantity of DNA extracted. This study assessed how five processing procedures used by major forensic anthropology laboratories around the country affects the amounts of DNA extracted from human rib bones and the subsequent DNA analysis. The DNA was analyzed using the short tandem repeat (STR) locus CSF1PO and amelogenin. The findings indicate processing procedures used by forensic anthropologists do not adversely affect DNA analysis but prolonged exposure to heat during processing may decrease the yield of information from the DNA.