- Hurricane Katrina identifications
DNA·VIEW is the worldwide standard for mass identification. In 2006 it was the principal analysis tool
for the Katrina identifications, especially those involving kinship (identification with reference to relatives)
of course. I was among the analysts who helped with the casework in Baton Rouge (largest surviving city near New Orleans),
and also served on the scientific advisory panel convened to help sort out technical issues.
Plenty of new ideas arose, supporting the maxim that every disaster is different.
For example, is the prior probability of identity for an anonymous body based on the number of bodies,
or the likely very inflated number of reported missing? More like the latter, but what if, as surely was the case, some bodies were never reported missing?
- Pro-Búsqueda reuniting families
A related application is a relatively new for me project involving reuniting adopted children with their
biological families from whom they were separated (with varying degrees of violence or coercion) during the
El Salvador civil war of the 1980's. The project is called Pro-Búsqueda.
A remarkable case is that of "Juan." Raised in a military household, Juan learned when he was eight
that he was adopted. As an adult he submitted a DNA sample to Pro-Búqueda. A computer search revealed a
cold hit to a family who was hoping for contact with two lost daughters but not a boy. However,
in a follow-up interview the family explained that the mother, who was killed in a military operation,
did have a baby boy but since she was carrying the boy when she died they assumed he was dead as well.
That explanation, consistent dates, and kinship matching odds of 395,000,000 are sufficient to be confident of the connection.
- Growing family
As a follow-on to the tsunami identification project of 2005, I've enjoyed the coincidence and
gratifying experience of meeting people in several different countries who learned how to use DNA·VIEW
although neither directly (as is usual) nor indirectly from me. So there is developing a diaspora of DNA·VIEW users!