Following the December 2004 tsunami in Thailand experts from many countries, including Denmark, went to Thailand to help with identification work. The Interpol system for Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) was employed for the identification of the many casualties. This paper describes the work of the Danish teams in Thailand from the 30th December 2004 until the 6th June 2005. The investigation covers all Danes reported missing directly after the tsunami in Thailand on the 26th December 2004 and who were later found deceased, or, in one case, never recovered. The AM and PM forms were reviewed retrospectively and the relevant information compared. Forensic odontology alone was responsible for 70.3% of identifications, and in two more cases (5.4%) the identification was established using a combination of odontology and fingerprint information. Fingerprints were used to establish identity in 8 cases (21.6%). DNA-typing was only used in one identification, in combination with fingerprinting data. Only one Danish victim was not identified. This review of the 37 Danish cases confirms that odontological examination yielded the most identifications, fingerprint data much fewer, and DNA was only used to a small extent, due to organisational problems with the examination and because the initial samples were of inferior quality.

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A case is described of a three year old girl who had been treated for urinary tract infections during a longer period. At one incident erythrocytes and spermatozoa were found in the girl's urine. The mother explained that she had intercourse with her husband early in the morning, and that she used a menstrual cup. As she was emptying the cup during toilet visit with the girl, she had blood on her fingers. When the girl urinated, the urine also touched the mother's fingers thus washing some of the blood including spermatozoa from the intercourse down into the urine sample. The forensic examination, including DNA-profiling of blood and semen, did not contradict this explanation. No other possible cause was found for this contamination with erythrocytes and semen in the girl's urine. Child abuse was highly unlikely.